SynNat honing

My Revisor just didn't cut it( pun intended) this morning so I decided to start it over from scratch, resetting the bevel with the  Chosera 800. I have had a change in honing philosophy of late, switching over from the idea that I should use the natural stones for the entire process to the concept of using the synthetic stones to do the dirty work of steel removing when setting the bevel and achieving basic sharpening and then go to the natural stones to smooth out and polish the edge that the easier to use and cheaper synthetics stones  created.

I think the final stones are the ones your face feels, not the early ones, whether they be coti or chosera.

Plus use the right tool for the job. The coticule just doesn't seem to be a very good sharpener as if you don't play it just right you end up dulling the edge as you sharpen it. That hasn't seen to happen with the CHosera or the King 1000. Sometimes it seems they work so fast and get it so sharp that I could shave off that edge with just a stropping.

Have to try that sometime :))

But today the Syn Nat honing progression:
dull on glass
 Half strokes on the Chosera 800 until it shaves arm hair. Pretty quickly. Light slurry then rise and go to
Circles on the 800 with no slurry
X strokes on 800 no slurry_ getting sharp now.

then:
King 1000 no slurry
X strokes: 25 laps
this almost seems not necessary but I wanted to try it. Not much swarf.

Norton 4000
25 X strokes until very little swarf is coming off
test = sharp good  crispy sound

Deep Rock Coticule with light slurry ( estimate 6-8 k grit)
30 rep circles on slurry for 4 laps then rinse blade for 10 x strokes
rinse coti
30 X strokes on water

Chinese 12 K on light Tam o Shanter slurry, then water
15 X strokes on very light slurry
20 X strokes on water
I do love this hone. it always makes edges better on water

Oozuku on water
20 X strokes

Uchigumori on water
20 X strokes

40 laps linen
50 laps leather

tomorrow we see.

I can't wait to get my Cretan hone from Greece soon. Emmanuel said it's on it's way. It should take the place of my Norton in this progression ,although the BBW works well in this range too.

It could be:

Chosera 800
Cretan hone or Norton 4K
Coticule on light slurry
C12K on water
Jnat on water

Cretan hones!

SHAVE REPORT:


Most excellent! Not a perfect BBS shave but two passes got it done much better. Sharper is better and the sharper the blade the better a shaver I am. Still not perfect and I'm wondering if I should do a unicot on it? we'll see later but I even used my least favorite proraso soap with which I tend to get so so shaves and it was fine.


Update:


Decided to tape the Revisor and put it on the La Verte. See if I can get the edge one more level keen. :) I am now a fan of the tape :))


La Verte on water
3 laps of 30 circles
25 very very slow X strokes


40 laps on leather


Shave update:


Definitely keener  with the tape on the La Verte. Still pretty " noisy" on the shave but that's pretty much just the 1/4 hollow grind, I think. Could have called it a one pass shave but followed up with a second pass with my 5/8 New England Wedge. Love this blade.

Revising the Revisor

Pulled my favorite 6/8 Revisor out of the kit at the last minute this morning and had no idea where the edge would be as I haven't shaved with it in months. But it is perhaps my favorite of the Revisors as it has jimps on both the top and the bottom of the tang and I love that.

Otherwise it's just a perfect revisor with such great feel and balance in the hand. and the blade is always excellent. This is a vintage blade as well which always seems to be better for me.
I stropped it on leather 50 times before the shave but it was disappointing. Not really sharp enough so I knew that just polishing it wouldn't be of much use.

Back to either the 1 k or BBW, I choose BBW
so:

BBW Nouvelle vein on slurry
circles for 5 laps then
push strokes and X strokes
test= not as sharp as I wanted so back to
bbw slurry
only circles for 3 laps
test= sharp.

Nakayama 2 with slurry for
circles in sets of 30 or so, 5 laps
3 dilutions to water then
50 laps of x strokes on water
test= decent

40 laps linen
50 laps leather

polish edged looks great but we'll see in the AM I got this idea in my head of just two stones: a cutter and a polisher. We'll see> Also my turkish oilstone, also know as a Cretan hone from the Isle of Crete in Greece is on it's way! these are very hard to get stones and my friend Emmanuel from
ArtisanShaving.org  gave sent it to me and other members of the forum as a gift! He is making the facade of his home in Crete from this rock! Crazy. he is living encased in a shaving hone!
It is mid grit stone( cutter) but does not leave a sawtooth pattern on the edge, like the coticule and is one smooth cutter.

Next up just a polish up for the Wacker on the Oozuku


Shave Report:


So so, not bad but definitely not sharp enough. Got most on the first pass but wouldn't really finish the job on the second. Had to use the DE to finish.Didn't get to the Wacker. Will reset the bevel on the Revisor this afternoon. Seemed to have lost my honing mojo a bit lately :((

My first Flaschner re hone

The first blades of my collection were bought in a tiny shop in downtown Budapest, run by Kalman Flaschner, son and grandson of two of the best razor makers in Europe. The shop has been there since 1865 and I had no idea what I was looking at or I would have bought 3 x times the number of blades I did.

When I bought them I asked if they needed honing and he said( through translation) no, all they needed was the strop and that's all any of them ( four) have had since August last year. The edges shaved great and the bevels, while narrow ,were straight as an arrow.

But when I shaved with the 5/8" one withe the Soligen handle this morning it was not up to par and I knew I had to get it back on the hone. The questions was, just a touch up or re set the bevel?

Resetting Flaschners bevel almost felt like touching up a Picasso when it got a bit dusty but that's too big a leap. This is a tool, not a painting and it wasn't working well so I had to fix it. That's what it was made for, to shave. Not to be admired for it's beauty and craftmanship.

Plus I love this new Chosera 800 and wanted to use it again:)) It works so well and so fast, so:

Chosera 800 with slurry for
half strokes 5 or 6 laps
circles with less slurry 3 laps
x strokes on water no slurry

shaving arm hair like a champ and the bevel has been widened; still straight and clean and almost a mirror sheen! crazy for a low grit stone like this but there it is.

BBW on Nouvelle Vein coti( it's been working so far, why stop now?)
slurry , 5 laps of circles
5 laps of X strokes
keener
 Vintage Coticule with light slurry

haven't used this in a while so here goes
25 laps of X strokes dilute after 15 one drop every 5 reps.
20 laps on water

Les Latenuese on water
30 laps of X strokes

haven't used this in awhile either .

Uchigumori on water
30 laps of X strokes

35 linen
50 leather.

really used the microscope on this blade,which I haven't for quite awhile. I wanted to really make sure the edge was getting polished more on each stone and the scratches from the previous stone were erased.


Also re done my 4/8" Clauberg

just wasn't there this morning so it got a makeover as well

chosera 800 on slurry( polished new bevel very fast!)

BBW on vintage coti slurry ( above)
 I don't like this as much as the nouvelle vein, first time trying it. slurry seemed lighter and it didn't seem to cut as well
 Light slurry on Vintage coti side, with dilute after 10 laps
25 laps


not impressive but ok


onto Nakayama 2 Jnat on slurry
 5 laps of 30 circles


back to keener


finish on ughigumori on water.


35 linen
50 leather


we'll see

1953 Russian Bevel Re set

Wanted to to see if I could JUST use the BBW coti to take an edge from dull to shave so I dulled my 53 5/8 Russian and went to work
To my great surprise not only didn't it shave arm hair at all off the BBW but it didn't seem like it was going to sharpen at all!

SO since I've gotten my new Chosera 800 I thought it was a good time to reset the bevel on this blad and see how that affects the whole deal


So: dull on glass, two downstrokes

Chosera 800 with chosera 600 nagura slurry
lots of circles and half strokes: this is not happening fast hereeither. the bevel really needed some work, lots of swarf coming off.
rinse slurry and continue on water. for more circles and half strokes then X strokes: shaving arm hair easily. Next step.

Nakayama #1 on slurry
more circles in sets of 30 reps no dilute. at least 5 sets: keener for sure

Oozuku with VERY light slurry ( two passes with tomonagura)
lots of X strokes  into dilute much Keener!

Uchigumori on water
30 laps of X strokes

hair tests are perfect!

35 laps linen
50 laps leather.

Shave report: PERFECT!! Shaved like a champ! Smooth and sharp. Seems this guy like the Jnats more than the coticule. Just have to remember it. AND resetting the bevel on the Chosera was the right choice. Love that stone.

Wade and Butcher 6/8 Wedge pre 1900

What a score this blade was. I got it for 105  and was the only bidder. This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for, a pre 1900 W/B chopper( close enough size wise) with jimps( very rare I hear) on both sides of the tang and a smile. Nice!
Plus a nice barber notch as well. It's been rescaled with some very nice wood and the scales and pins work perfectly.

It was advertised as shave ready and it would shave arm hair when I got it but it had tons of microchips on the edge too telling me it had been honed on synthetics

One downstroke on the side of the King 1 K and they were gone

I double taped the spine and went to work on the bevel. I knew my Chosera 800 was coming in today but couldn't wait. The King worked perfectly

King 1 k with slurry.
half strokes and circles, perhaps 4 laps and tested:
shaving arm hair already!!1 crazy. Did 3 or more halfstroke laps and circles and went right to the

BBW Nouvelle Vein( just like I did on the Masonic) and it responded the same way.Built a strong slurry and circles and half strokes and it got very keen very fast! I love Sheffield steel!

4 sets of circles and it was onto the coti

 Deep rock Vintage coticule on light slurry to dilute
4 sets of push strokes with no dilute then one drop every 3 X strokes. 10 laps

Seriously shave ready! Instead of overdoing it I stopped there just to see what would it would be like to shave off this.


30laps linen
50 laps leather

Shave report:


Good but not great. Definitely shaveable but not the silky smooth keenness I want so today:


Nakayama #1 with slurry
30 push strokes in sets of 5
dilute every 3 x strokes to water
30 on water


Uchigumori on water


30 X strokes on water

30 linen
40 leather


we shall see tomorrow!

SHAVE REPORT:


Perfect! the Jnats did their normally awesome job of polishing and finishing and it looks like I picked the right ones. The Uchigumori has yet to fail to be my best finishing stone. I did a second pass with my Family tree flaschner but really didn't need it.  Most excellent.!

Wacker and New england 5/8 wedge stone test

Put the Wacker on the C12 k for30+ laps on water and the New England Wedge on the Les Lateneuse coticule for the same to see whether it would improve the edge or take it down. Also wanted to see if the Cnat was finer than the La Verte I finished the wacker on.

Not the perfect test as I changed my beard prep a little and didn't use the proraso pre shave cream but it didn't seem to make a difference,

The Wacker was just that much less keen than before. I think the la verte is higher grit and it had the typical cnat crispiness that I don't particularly like. I'll put it back on the la verte tonight and test again

That was the first pass, second was the NE wedge and it was awesome with the les lat edge. very smooth and sharp. granted it only had to deal with a second pass but still could tell.

interesting stuff

6/8" Wacker near wedge

I honed this bad boy before and got so so results. My friend has just about given up on this blade as he can't get it to where he wants it as far as the edge. I told him I would take another stab at it.It is one beautiful razor, though and feels great in the hand, with jimps on the bottom of the tang, which I love and a heft to it that makes it feel secure in the hand.

When I got it it seems to cut arm hair well and I am waiting on a new Chosera 800 so I didn't reset the bevel and start from scratch but decided to strop it and see if it was as dull as my friend says.

50 laps on leather and it was killing arm hairs silently ( it IS a wedge after all, or near wedge). This morning's shave started out great but after the first half of the face the stropping 'wore' off and it started pulling. I suspect the bevel needs resetting but I decided to play with a bit  today before.

I have to wait for the Chosera anyway.

I learned my lesson from the Ramapo and the Super Gnome and went to two layers of tape from the get. Smart move.I"m over any issues with taping. It seems to work WAY better for some blade and I have to remember, the shave edge is the key, not how I get there.

So: dull on glass, two downstrokes, two layers electrical tape

BBW Nouvelle vein bout /Tam O Shanter slurry ( playing around)

5 laps of 30 circles.
shaving arm hair effortlessly. good start
20 X strokes on new slurry. sharper

Nouvelle Vein Coticule with tomo slurry ( watery)
3 sets of 30 circles: test better
5 sets of 3 X strokes and dilute every 3: test keener still

last time I honed this on Jnats and NO tape. I think it likes this way better.

Nouvelle Vein on water
30 X strokes

La Verte on water
30 X strokes

30 laps linen
50 laps leather

hair tests are perfect. we'll see tomorrow.

SHAVE REPORT:


Perfect. I had another wedge out just in case this was a flop but it shaved almost one pass on the first and then finished up with it as well. No problems at all and performed just as it should, even around the mustache which is always the tell for me; if it pulls and tugs there it isn't ready. Guess it needed two layers of tape and some Belgian coticule love. Had the coti feel too, super smooth.


I'm over my taping issues,love the Tape!