5/8"W & B near wedge shave report

This blade was 95% great yesterday but not 100% smooth. So I put it on the Uchigumori stone on water  for close to 100 laps. Then 20 on linen and 40 on leather and let it rest overnight.

This morning another 20 and 30 and it was PERFECT! Completely sharp AND smooth. Coudn't ask for more. Again, a basic one pass shave. Did a second but it was almost besides the point.

Geo Westenholm Pipe Razor

This was a very troubled razor that  I finally gave up on and sent out to Sham at Razor and Stone to have honed. Sham is a wizard with a razor and stone and he took off A LOT of metal,( as shown in the photo) to get the edge( this is a true wedge) but it is a magic edge. Haven't shaved with it in a few months and didn't want to put it on the Zulu as I know it didn't need it.

Sham finished it on a JNat I believe and after 20 laps on linen and 30 on Buffalo leather I got an easy one pass shave! Beside a quick touch up on some little spots there was nothing left to shave after ONE with the grain pass.

And, as with most wedges it was perfectly quiet. Very nice shave. This blade is at least 150 years old! Crazy.

Ramapo Wedge

ANOTHER perfect shave after 60 laps on the Zulu on water. I think these curved edges work even better on the big square of stone! The tail of the blade is a little too short for me, throwing off the shaving balance but other than that I love this blade!

Tomorrows blade

My newly re scaled mid 1800 Wade and Butcher near wedge. On the Zulu of course. 60 laps on water, 35 linen 40 leather

SHAVE REPORT:

ANOTHER WINNER. THESE WEDGES SEEM TO REALLY LIKE THE ZULU. THIRD WEDGE THIRD HOME RUN. ALMOST A ONE PASS SHAVE AGAIN. SILKY SHARP, JUST HOW I LIKE IT.
TOMORROW THE RAMAPO WEDGE

Supreme Custom Wedge and Zulu edge

Wanted to give my Wade and Butcher 7/8 Wedge a day off so I pulled this baby out of the roll and didn't even test it. Just ran it through 60 laps on water on the zulu then 30 laps on linen and 40 on buffalo leather and let it sleep.

this morning another 20 on linen and 30 on leather and the shave was damn near a perfect ONE PASS BBS! This thing has NEVER been this smooth and sharp. As with most full wedges ( even petite ones) it was a silent shave and there was almost nothing to clean up after the first pass!

The Zulu on plain water is for me, without a doubt, my favorite finisher by far! If I had to choose now, I would pick my Cretan, a coticule and the Zulu as my three favorite stones I could live with the rest of my shaving life.

The only thing missing is if I needed a REAL bevel setter and then I would pick the Chosera 800 but the Cretan does a great job on almost all but the most jacked up bevels. Now, which coticule is the question? My Deep Rock one would have to be at the top of the list but the Les Latenuese would be a very close.

My new Cretan is here!

I ordered this from a gentlemen in Greece last month suspecting it was a Cretan hone, although it was advertised as a Turkish Oil stone. I simply love my Cretan that I got from Emmanuel and use it as often as possible.

It's perhaps my favorite stone and I truly believe I would part with my Escher before my Cretan. I know how rare and hard to find these stones are so I jumped t the chance to get another.

And this one is a beauty, too. Darker than my original and it makes slurry virtually with no effort. My original one I have rub the slurry stone on the dry hone to create a powder if I want slurry without using the DMT.

This one is a different story. Here's the top of the new Cretan:

here's the original

the stone on slurry

The bottom of the stone

Used it in a progression on a Henckels and a Dovo tonight and it was,like it's brother, a joy.

We'll see tomorrow but I already am very happy with this purchase.

Revised Revisor Redux

So, not satisfied with the Oozuku edge on the 5/8' Revisor I put it back on the Zulu stone, this time ONLY on water, for 50 laps of X strokes. Stropped it 20 on linen and 40 on leather this morning before the shave and it was perfect!

Crazy.

It seems that my Zulu does much better as a finisher on just water and that the slurry tends to dull it a bit. That's what I first did when I got the stone and it worked great. I even felt the same "feel" to the stone that I first did when I got it, that kind of suction of the blade to the stone and a smooth, glassy slide across the hone.

Hey, whatever works.

Second pass was with my 6/8 Ralf Aust square point which I haven't touched in months.  20 and 30 and it was awesome, Nice to see it holds the edge.

Got this blade to shave arm hair today, a first for me with any knife. I've seen Murray Carter do it regularly on his videos on YouTube but never came close with mine. Until today. I decided to re set the bevel here on the Chosera 800 grit. I didn't use slurry and just got to it. I didn't pre dull the blade but it was dull after a few passes of half strokes!

I thought I totally screwed this great edge up! Instead of using an angle on the half strokes I just lay the blade flat on its side, like a straight edge, like I have seen Carter do. But it wasn't shaving arm hair after that!

Oops.

But then I put it on a BBW side of my Jade coti and used slurry here. Mainly circles into half strokes and it wasn't that sharp after this either. I was still keeping the blade pretty flat on it's side during this as well.

Then I went to the cretan hone with slurry and lifted the edge like I usually do. It got pretty sharp pertty quickly. I actually let the hone dry out a bit with the slurry on it and finished like that. Didn't expect much but the paper test was insane. the three finger test too and then I tried to shave arm hair and NO PROBLEM!!!

I guess laying it flat really did re set the geometry of the bevel and then picking up the back end allowed me to finish on the edge itself. VERY COOL>

Revisor 5/8 re- do

Decided to get serious with this blade and find out if it is the blade itself or my honing.

Dulled it on glass, three downstrokes

1) Chosera 800 grit, no slurry
Re set bevel here with half strokes for 5-6 passes. Looked good under scope. then
 some push strokes into X strokes. Shaving arm hair already good sign

2) Jade marble coticule BBW side with slurry
 Circles into X strokes, shaving hair better

3) Jade marble coti side
medium slurry X strokes only here into dilute. Finger drop for 8-10 X passes then blade rinse then stone rise. Very keen now.

4) Oozuku asagi with tomo slurry
circles then X strokes into dilute.
finish on plain water, 30 laps.

Felt VERY good and hairs were reacting perfectly

30 laps linen 50 laps leather, 30 palm

SHAVE REPORT:
Definitely better than yesterday but not perfect. Much smoother but I think something's up with the blade itself. 50 laps on the Zulu today with water and shave with it tomorrow.

6/8 Revisor touch up
50 laps on water on the Zulu and it was GREAT! I am starting to think my Zulu works better on water than on slurry. Just one pass today ( I hardly had any beard from yesterday's shave,lol)

Revising the Revisor

As planned, I deconstructed the Revisor tonight. After checking the bevel ,( perhaps for the first time, really understanding what I was looking for) I realized that this was a factory bevel and definitely needed re doing. I started with the Cretan hone and slurry with half strokes for a lot of laps.

turning grey and definitely cutting metal( but as usual with that great Cretan mirror polish, even at 3 k!) I kept refreshing as I went to push strokes and circles. adding water when needed to keep slurry from getting too thick. then onto X strokes and a dilucot to plain water and 50 laps on rinsed stone and plain water.

cutting leg hair now no problem.

onto my Deep rock coticule and fairly thick slurry. Start with circles for 6-8 laps then onto some push strokes and then X strokes. Probably 70 total laps. Then onto dilucot and finish with 50 laps of X strokes on plain water ( rinsed coti).

Onto Zulu  with 1200 DMT slurry. Circles to start for 5-6 laps then x strokes with no dilute for 20- 30 laps. Then start a dilute by dipping blade in cup every 10 laps. Then fully onto pure water and 50 laps here dipping into water every 10

30 on linen 50 on leather and the tests look great. we'll see tomorrow.

SHAVE REPORT;

No go. Still 'sticky' for lack of a better term. Did 40 laps on the escher on water for the second pass ( after using the boker) and that didn't help that much( although it did a little). Going to put it on the JNat later today. Otherwise I will chalk it up to the blade itself.

On the other hand the Boker was stellar with the strop and still silky smooth.

5/8" Revisor vs Boker Edelweiss Zulu: water vs slurry finish

Today's experiment: hone a pair of new ( not vintage) 5/8" soligen blades, one a Revisor and one a Boker Edeweiss on the Zulu but with different techniques

The Revisor was done starting on light slurry for 30 X strokes. Then diluting every 10 X strokes by dipping the blade in a cup of water until I got to 60 laps. Then rinse blade and stone and finish on plain water for  another 40 laps.

The stone never developed that kind of suction action it did the first day where the blade started to stick to the stone. It actually hasn't had that great of feedback the last two days either, although the edges were the same.

With the Boker I built the same thickness of slurry and then did 50 laps with no dilute. Then  dilute every 10 laps finishing on very light slurry. But no water finish. We'll see how if there is a discernible difference tomorrow's shave and if so whether going back to water will  change it on the Boker.

I also played with the Zulu and my Japanese Santoku kitchen knife. This is a very easy blade to sharpen and I've been using my Cretan hone with slurry here to great effect. Today I built a pretty thick slurry and did circles  to hone it. Man it sharpened up FAST! Sliced through the paper like it wasn't there. Nice. I love this knife. I just remembered that I ALREADY put the Santoku on the Zulu last week. Of course I used it a bit but it STILL got sharper with today's honing. Crazy blade, crazy stone.

Between my cretan, a coticule and this stone I might never need another stone :)) The Escher is great as is the Oozuku but this is something else. Of course I'm not getting rid of anything either:))

SHAVE REPORT:

Well that was interesting,and unexpected. I forgot which blade I finished on water and which on slurry, which was good for the experiment. I started with the Revisor which was not as keen as I expected, so I thought I had finished it on slurry. Then I went to the Boker and it was very "zulu" like  so I thought that was the water finish.
Exactly the opposite!
The Revisor was good but not that silky smooth like the Boker. Have to put the Revisor back on water to see if that fixes it. It could be the blade too.

Zulu vs Wacker 1/4 Hollow, Flaschner 5/8

Got an awesome Herbert Wacker 1/4 hollow from a friend to test on the zulu.

This is one beefy blade and I had honed it a few weeks ago to about 90% of perfect. Here's the opportunity to finish the job.

Built slurry with dmt 1200.
35 x strokes on slurry, no dilute
finger drop dilute for next two 5 laps
dip blade every 5 laps after that to 70
rinse blade and stone  30 more laps
40 on linen
50 on english bride 30 on palm

this will be the first shave test tomorrow. hair tests look excellent,quiet. I always like it when the hairs fall silently off the limb :))

Next up my vintage 5/8 Flaschner

Now this will be an interesting test. the edge was already excellent and popping hairs very well very quiet. I started the same way as before but I could tell from the start there was something different. The blade didn't seem to slide and glide as the others have. I did a shorter dilute, about 40 total X strokes and got to pure water pretty fast.
20 laps on water and stopped. It just wasn't feeling right. Hair test was good but we shall see tomorrow. the russian might have to wait.

Now I'm curious about this edge.
I"ve heard  that Flaschners blades are Fridour ( swedish steel ) blanks which are VERY hard, and probably stainless. I've had this blade for two years and there is NO corrosion at all. It doesn't say stainless but acts it.We'll see tomorrow.


SHAVE REPORT
wow wow wow wow wow. and wow!

All three blades were amazing! Silky smooth and effotless shaves. I come closer to just needing one pass with this edge more than anything I have ever used!
The Wacker was perfect and so was the Flaschner. And the russian too, which is no surprise as these blades take edges better than almost any blade I have. The AK-47 of razors for sure.

The interesting thing about this Zulu hone is that  the edges it gives is like a coticule in it's forgiveness in cutting you, BUT it's way sharper. Could be the perfect edge. Really.

South African Zulu Grey Hone

This hone, carved out of a guy's backyard in South Africa is all the rage in straight razor shaving circles right now, with people saying it's as good as the fame Escher Thuringian stone as a finisher. Since Escher's can run $400- $1000 and this is just $100 I got one.



It took 2 weeks longer than expected to get here while all the while I had to read of all the great edges it was producing for others. I have had 4 blades honed on this stone of late by Stefan of SRP and they are as keen and smooth as any edge I've shaved with.Even as I get my act together with my Escher as well.


It came so well packaged I almost didn't want to open it. :)) But of course there was no choice


It is a seriously dense, heavy stone that was lapped perfectly flat and smooth. It felt glassy to the touch. Michael, the owner really took his time with this.

He also realizes this is perhaps a new classic finishing stone and took the time to provide extra labels to adhere to the bottom of the stone. Just like they did in the old days.

I put my 5/8 tonsorial gem that I've been playing progressive honing with the last 3 days going from  a coticule water edge to a ch12 k to the Welsh Thuringian to see which stone did what. The order I  honed them in was the correct order of keeness. The C12k was sharper ( but not smoother) than the coticule and the WT was sharper still.

Then I got this baby and made some slurry and did 20 X strokes then started to dilute with single finger drops every 5 laps until I hit 40. Then dipped the blade in a cup of water every 5 for another 20 X strokes.

Then rinsed all and did another 30 laps. The stone gives great and immediate feedback; you can feel the stone the entire stroke and it seems like the blade likes the stone. That's the one consistent thing I've heard about this stone from all the honers, this stone seems to not discriminate against different types of steels and is easy to use.

It sure feels that way and it's a pleasure to use. Slide and glide on all the differing types of slurry consistency, even pure water.
After 20 reps or so the blade started to get sucked into the stone, a sign it had had enough and was ready.
SHAVE REPORT:
This  stone definitely increased the sharpness AND smoothness of the WT stone and this was the best shave I've had off this vintage blade yet. Very keen. I only did one pass this morning and that was plenty :)) A rarity indeed for me.

Today:
Put the 6/8 Gotta and Revisor on the stone with the same protocol. Both these edges were shave ready, I want to see if this advances the edge and, if so,, by how much:

All the hair tests were awesome and I did 20 on linen and 30 on leather, 20 on my palm. Will re strop tomorrow for the shave.

But I still wanted to play with it some more so I put my White Steel Santoku Japanese kitchen knife on it. It too was already sharp off my Cretan hone and BBW. A few sets of half strokes on slurry and it was obvious this thing was WAY sharper! I need a razor as easy to hone as my Santoku! Perhaps a real Kamisori will do the trick. But it was SUPER SHARP.

 So I dulled a 1958 5/8" russian blade to see how fast it would bring back the edge whether it was more than just a finisher.

I built a medium thick slurry and did 5 sets of 15 circles. Again, the contact, feel and feedback from this hone is awesome,you just WANT to hone on it. It pulls you in and it's easy to feel what your are doing. Shaving leg hair no problem.
Wow.

Then push strokes in sets of five for a total of thirty with slight dilute. Edge was keener still. Then X strokes with a finger drop dilute every 5 then 3 laps for another 20 or so. Then dipping the edge every five strokes for another 15 laps. Then 25 on pure water.
Again, the stone started to create suction on the blade so I stopped. Test are great on this as well. This I'll find out Tuesday.

All in all very happy with this stone already and certainly worth the small amount I paid for it!

SHAVE REPORT

Started with the Gotta, 20 laps on linen, 35 laps on leather. Perfect shave! JUST the edge I like, SILKY smooth and sharp without being aggressive at all. Closer to a great coticule than the Escher I think, So light in the shaving, just the barest of touch takes the hair off! Love it.

Did the second pass with the Revisor but really didn't need it, Barely took any hair off at all!! SO  cool. Can't wait to try the Russian tomorrow and play with this stone on other blades as well

Figuring out the Escher

Months after getting this very expensive, and highly sought after finishing stone, I am figuring out how to use it! Every time I have tried in the past it not only hasn't advanced my edges but many times made them worse!

I tried it with medium thick slurry, with thin slurry and with no slurry, just on water but nothing seemed to really work on my blades.
Way easier time getting a solid finished edge from my Oozuku or Nakayama stones but I was determined to figure this out.

One big help was this video from Sham, Master Honer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0kLxgkOtM4&feature=g-user-c


Sham's edges are consistently the best I've ever shaved with and it is my gold standard for my own edges. I'm getting closer.

The one thing that this video made very clear to me is that I was using too much pressure on the strokes. I already used the  balance technique as I hone with the stone in my hand but I was just using too much pressure; the finish is to polish the edge, not cut metal. So I backed off and that helped.

But what really helped( and Sham doesn't use this technique) was to apply the dilution method that the Coticule masters use. I start off now with a very light slurry made with either a Blue Green Escher slurry stone or a DMT and make a very light slurry.

Then it's about 20 laps on that slurry and I start the dilution process. Five laps and a finger drop, then four, then three then two, all adding one finger drop of water. Then , I rinse the blade and do another 3-4 laps. Then rinse it all and do between 10 and 20 laps on water only.

This has worked perfectly! Another thing I try to do while honing on this is to do my laps with the same lack of pressure I want to shave with. My ideal edge  shaves me almost effortlessly and I never have to push or put pressure on the beard to get it to shave( when the edge is right). I try to hone with this same pressure too. This has made a big difference.

Got back to my favorite Revisors today, shaved one half of my face with the thumb notch 6/8 and the second with the  regular 6/8. Barely needed a second pass but did it for fun and to touch up a few spots but man it was smooth!

  It's so much fun when you figure things out! Even the Gotta razor got a wicked great edge off this Escher technique yesterday and I had pretty much given up on that blade!

Next up is the Zulu Grey hone that's coming in from South Africa supposedly a finer hone than the Escher. We'll see!

Gotta

Just snagged this awesome 5/8' Gotta from $30! Crazy. They're going for 150 right now and this should be an awesome blade. Sheffield + Soligen

Japanese unicot

Been awhile but i've been honing and shaving religiously, just not posting. Become enamored of the unicot technique for getting that perfect edge every time, just by putting a layer of electrical tape on the spine for creating a micro bevel. the great thing about it is that it works SO consistently.

It's a coticule technique but today I decided to try it with my Jnat stones. this '65 russian has been a pain in the ass and today I realized why, the bevel is REALLY uneven and it probably has a warp to it as well so I took out the cretan hone to do some bevel correction

 dry rubbed the cretan with it's own slurry stone making a powder first, THEN adding a few drops of water to make the slurry. works really well this way.I love this stone, it is SO versatile. It can reset a bevel or take a blade to shave ready. Crazy.
SO lots of half strokes and pinpointed honing to correct the uneven bevel.
 Finished on water just cause it was fun.

Then onto my Nakayama 2

started with soft uchi slurry and circles. then onto chu nagura slurry and X strokes then Oozuku slurry and more X strokes. Things were picking up well and it was getting keener with each slurry change( oozuku slurry stone below)

finished on clean water and X strokes to polish up the bevel as much as possible before moving onto the micro bevel.

Next up the Oozuku stone and tomonagura slurry made with a DMT. I've taken to this method more and more lately as the DMT lets me use the exact stone's slurry instead of guessing which stone- bout or base stone, make the slurry.
30 X strokes here to finish the polish then add one layer electrical tape and re build slurry:
30 X strokes here as well then rinse all and finish with 50 X strokes on pure water.

40 laps on linen 50 on Buffalo strop and 20 on palm:

Shave report;
Freaking PERFECT!  Didn't know if I had over done it but it was a perfect just about one pass shave. Had brought out my Wade and Butcher pure wedge and did use it for the second pass but it didn't hardly pick any hair up!

NICE! Also taped the W&B and did 30 x strokes on the Escher followed by 30 on water and it was as keen and QUIET as could be. Great fun!

New blade

Just got this beauty on ebay for $26!! Crazy. A 1966  Soligen 6/8 blade that's shoulder less with some work done on the heels Underside jumps and a half hollow. Pretty much all my favorites; plus the scales say Pax as well as the pins are solid. We'll see how it shave tomorrow but I'm betting on good!

Been honing ALOT, just not posting a lot. did a lot of one stone no slurry honing and found it worked pretty well with coticules but not J Nats. Still haven't Mastered the Escher by a long shot but I'm coming up with some pretty keen edges pretty consistently.

THe Jnats seems the most consistent and easy to use and the uchigumori is almost always a winner finisher. Morgans' Asagi the same way.
Can't wait to shave tomorrow!


SHAVE REPORT: AWESOME! NOT ONLY IS IT A GREAT SHAVER BUT THE EDGE WAS EXCELLENT. NOT PERFECT BUT DAMN NEAR. SELLER SAID HE FINISHED ON A THURINGIAN  AND IT FEELS THAT WAY. I WILL PUT A FEW STROKES IN ON MY ESCHER AND SEE HOW IT GOES TOMORROW. LOVE THIS BLADE THOUGH!

Dueling Russians

Decided to do a side by side honing progression comparison with just ONE difference, the finishing stone.
Plus I decided also to shave off the stone, no stropping, to see if I could tell the difference in the finishers.

Both russian 5/8's with hollow ground about the same age 1960's

start:
cretan hone with DMT slurry ( I am really digging this as a low grit stone one day I will try to shave off of it)
 Welsh Thuringian with DMT slurry  also digging this stone with tomo slurry.brings up keeness very quickly

Russian 1 finisher= La Veinette coticule on water
Russian 2 finisher = Escher on water

first off neither was great with no strop. so 20 laps on buffalo then

La veinette russian. strop make a  HUGE difference. typical coticule smoothness.
Escher on Buffalo strop . Also very nice after shaving a bit with no stropping. Couldn't really tell the difference !

will strop them properly today and test again tomorrow.

Kinfolk re do

I think I used the Arkie, which is turning out to be quite the finishing stone, too early in the progression yesterday and the edge didn't hold.

SO: re dull and
 Norton 4  k lots of circles, half strokes and X strokes. Not so keen, weird and after I got it pretty sharp did a few more laps of it dulled? on a 4k? strange. SO

Cretan hone on BBW slurry circles and push strokes surprisingly keener

Norton 8 k X strokes. definitely advanced the edge

Arkansas with dmt slurry x strokes and sharper still

WT with DMT slurry , edge went BACKWARDS  so this is less fine than Arkie.

Back to Arkie, edge back :))

Escher on slurry , 20 laps then finish on water 20 laps

buffalo 50 laps
palm 20 laps

then I re did another russian like this



Cretan on dmt slurry = 3-4 k


BBW on BBW slurry= 4-5 k


Les Lat Coti with slurry and then water = 6-8 k


Translucent Arkansas= 8-10 k


Escher on Water = 10+ k


we'll see tomorrow.
I like using the natural stones as much as possible. the synthetics just feel icky and get so nasty as you completely opposite the natural stones. The exception is the Chosera 800k. I love that stone, It feels like its a natural one

SHAVE REPORT:

THIS WENT PERFECTLY! ONE HALF PASS AND I KNEW IT WAS KEEN! VERY NICE!

Kinfolk bevel reset and translucsent Arkansas

One of Morgan's blades he's never sharpened, a 5/8" Kinfolk.Decided to play around a bit here too:

Chosera 800 with 600 grit slurry  LOTS of circles, half strokes, push strokes, X strokes, etc. This took far longer to even nudge arm hair than I expected.
Used the thumb nail test instead and then it grabbed all along the edge I went on

Cretan hone on DMT slurry( another experiment)
circles 5 laps, then 30 push strokes then 20 X strokes
got much sharper much faster!

Translucent Arkansas hone with slight dmt slurry
this got sharp FAST! wow,I've never really used this before in a progression and have read that it's a low grit stone but it sharpened the blade fast! lots of X strokes

BBW on slurry: 3 sets of circles. edge went BACKWARDS!?!  The arkansas is a finer edge for sure. back to the arkie for 20 laps of  x strokes on water. back to KEEN as well.

Vintage La Petite Blanche coticule with les lat slurry X strokes  for 20 laps, rinse blade 10 or so more laps then on water 20 laps
very keen

feel like I shouldn't go on but want to use a finishing stone so
Uchigumori on water
20 X strokes doesnt test well, this could be a first for this stone

oozuku 20 X strokes on water. edge back up

30 linen
40 buffalo
20 palm

see tomorrow.

SHAVE REPORT:


ALMOST THERE. GOOD BUT NOT GREAT.STARTED REALLY WELL BUT COULDN'T DEAL TOO WELLWITH THE CHIN STUBBLE. THINK IT NEEDS TO BE SHARPER SO BACK TO THE 8 K THEN THE SS 12 K SYNTHETIC AND THEN ONTO THE ESCHER. 


VERY HAPPY THOUGH CONSIDERING THIS THING HAS NEVER BEEN SHARPENED! I THINK JUMPING TO THE TRANSLUCENT ARKIE TOO SOON THROUGH OFF THE PROGRESSION


PS
TOUCHED UP THE '55 RUSSIAN ( BRIDGE MODEL) WITH OOZUKU WITH TOMO SLURRY FOR 20 REPS THEN 30 REPS ON WATER AND MAN IT WAS PERFECT THS MORNING! SHARP AND SMOOTH.

Supreme Custom Wedge Bevel reset

This is a great vintage 4/8- 5/8 american brand wedge that Morgan gave me this year that has given me fits honing it from the start. Wedges are notoriously hard to  hone and this one proved no different. I tried various coticules, slates and j nats but I had never taken it down to the bevel as it seemed to have a decent one but it never seemed sharp enough and the finishers didn't quite do the job.

After I put it on the Escher the other day and STILL got tugging and pulling I decided to start from the ground up. I have NEVER been disappointed  when I re do blades this way. It seems the only way to really make sure they are sharp enough to benefit from a finish stone anyway.

SO:

Chosera 800 first with no slurry and then with 600 grit nagura: this took awhile to get to shaving arm hair. lots of circles, push strokes and X strokes. the slurry is a must though it seems

Cretan hone with BBW slurry: just on a whim, never tried this before and it worked GREAT! The cretan supposedly hones according to the grit of the slurry and this seems to be the case here.  more circles then push strokes then X strokes.
I was going to use the Norton 4 k but decided to test this out instead. I great medium grit natural alternative.especially with the BBW slurry.

BBW coticule on BBW slurry : same very nice
Coti side of BBW on water 40 X strokes : very keen Now! Feels like I could shave off this.
La Vienette bout on water: just 'cause it was close 20 X strokes . keener

Norton 8 k on water : just as a  grit check . 30 X strokes. definitely advanced the edge. Nice

Nakayama Asagi on slurry; back to circles then dilute to 40 laps on water

SUPER KEEN!

30 on linen
40 on Buffalo
20 on Palm

SHAVE REPORT: PERFECT!
best this blade had ever shaved me. Almost a one pass shave. no tugging, no pulling no effort and silent like a wedge should be. very happy! Just goes to show the Escher is nice but not everything :))

Revisor #2 on Escher /water

touched up the identical twin of the 6/8 Revisor pictured below ( only difference is jimps on top of tang) with the Escher with just water.
A solid edge to begin with, this should be the good test for the pure finishing quality of the Escher.
50 laps on water
30 on linen
50 on Buffalo
30 on Palm

Shave Report:


Could be the best edge on this EVER! Like butter, even on the tough chin stubble.I played with the new Barhmann edge for the second pass but stopped half way through to finish with the Revisor. The Barhmann was ok but a little tuggy even though I finished that on the Escher on water as well. Just wasn't sharp enough to begin with I think.

Revisor 6/8" on Slates

This is perhaps my favorite blade. If I had to chose only one to leave the house with in an emergency this would be in the top 3.It just 'fee's right in the hand and shaves like a champ. Hones easily and holds the edge for a long time. But it was a bit touchy today and I wanted to re do it and finish on the Escher to see if it likes that stone.

I mean it should, the blade is German and so is the stone :))
Dull on glass

Chinese 12 k with WT slurry Circles. three rounds and test. shaving arm hair already :))
C12k :20 push strokes
C 12 k 20 X strokes  no dilute


WT base with BG Escher slurry ( light- man I love to make slurry:)) I usually overdo it )
20 X strokes and test: good. dilute one drop
10 strokes and dilute
5 strokes and dilute
4 and dilute
test - great


15 x strokes on plain water test = better


YG Escher on BG slurry
15 X strokes and dilute one drop
8 and dilute one drop
5 and dilute
4 and dilute
3 and dilute
20 on water and test : Awesome!
20 more on water


30 on linen
40 on buffalo( this thing is finally breaking in!)
30 on palm

tests are fantastic. we shall see :))

SHAVE TEST


VERY GOOD. STILL MAKES A LOT OF NOISE AS I SHAVE BUT IT IS SMOOTH AND SHARP. WILL TRY IT'S BROTHER AND SEE IF THAT ALSO MAKES SO MUCH NOISE.COULD JUST BE THE GRIND BUT NOT SURE. ANYWAY THE FINISH WAS AWESOME.

'69 Puma 5/8 on synthetics and Escher

Decided to stop messing about with this damn Puma and get the freakin thing sharp before I decide to finish it. I did this the easiest way I know how; with synthetic hones. My trusty Norton 4/8k got to come off the bench and play for a change.

Soaked it appropriately and then went to work on the 4k side with 25 rep push stroke laps. Not sure how many I did but at least 8. It was grudgingly cutting hairs so I did a few more and then went to the 8 k

Lapped it first so I had a bit of a slurry going and that worked well. X strokes here for20 laps then test: keener! so 20 laps more. Nice edge already. Could shave off this with a good stropping.

Then onto Morgans Shapton 12 k SuperStone, lapped first and then 20 reps of X strokes and test. Very Keen and Sharp! How easy :))
20 more X stroke laps and then onto the Welsh Thuringian and BG Escher slurry( light)
15 X strokes then a drop of water dilution. 10 more X's and then another drop. 5 more then a blade rinse, 5 more then a full rinse of blade and stone
Keener still , on the right track and this tells me this combo is DEFINITELY higher grit than 12 k as the Shapton is a known quantity.

20 laps on water on the WT finished it.

Then onto the Escher
Light( very) slurry with the BG escher slurry stone and X strokes. 15 then a dilute, 10, dilute, 5 rinse blade, 5 rinse all. test= Nice! hairs falling pretty quietly!
20 laps on water test = better
20 more laps

30 linen
40 buffalo
30 palm

datsit/

SHAVE TEST;


PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT!!!  can hardly believe it.This thing has never shaved this well for me! sharp and smooth. nothing else to say. 

My Escher is here!

My piece of honing history arrived today and I got right to playing with it. It's a yellow/green( more green than yellow) Escher ,one of THE most celebrated finishing stones. They aren't making any more of these as the mine is closed and there will be no more to be had.This is as rare as it gets.

I've never used one but I've shaved with edges that have been honed on them and they have been spectacular. These edges are supposed to be the smoothest and sharpest that can be had. We'll see but I am seriously stoked to have one and get to experiment as them.

I've a blue green Escher  slurry stone, not as fine as the yellow green one and its' already made a huge difference in the finished edge of  the few blades I've used it on.

Here's tomorrow's test blades:

Ebenholz: finished on Escher on water
Revisor 6/8" finished on Escher on water
Puma 5/8" dulled and honed on C12K with WT slurry, then Welsh Thuringian with BG escher slurry , finish on Escher on water
Russian 5/8" same as above. C12k into escher on water finish




SHAVE REPORT:


EBENHOLZ; ABOUT THE SAME STILL JUST ABOUT PERFECT :))
REVISOR: GOOD BUT NOT PERFECT. NOT SURE IF JUST THIS TOUCH UP WAS ENOUGH. MIGHT HAVE TO RE DO
5/8 PUMA NOT VERY GOOD. I REMEMBER THIS WAS A PROBLEM BLADE FOR ME BEFORE HAVE TO CHECK WHAT I DID.(http://choosestrength.blogspot.com/2012/01/58-puma-1969.html)
5/8 RUSSIAN: EXCELLENT. AS GOOD AS THIS BLADE GETS.


CONCLUSION: I STILL HAVE LOTS OF WORK TO DO TO REALLY GROK THIS STONE AND EXTRACT IT'S POTENTIAL. IT WILL BE FUN THOUGH:))

Thumb notch Revisor on Oozuko and Ebenholz C12k/escher

Decided to play around a bit today ( it is, after all EXPERIMENTS in honing) and put the Thumb Notch Revisor extra back on a Jnat
I dulled the blade on glass and then went to my Oozuku stone ( love this one!) with slurry from Morgans Nakayama slurry stone. Made a great slurry fast and cut fast as well. Started with push strokes for 40 reps then tested.
Excellent, sharp keen and smooth already. Nice.
Rinsed the blade and did 10 more laps then onto tomonagura slurry for another 20 X strokes, another blade rinse, then 10 more on very light slurry.
Then 20 strokes on the tomonagura stone on water
30 on linen
40 on buffalo
20 on palm

then I really got adventurous with the ebenholz
Chinese 12 k with Welsh thuringian slurry
push strokes for 40 reps tested
good.
dilute and again 20 reps on light slurry
20 X strokes on water.
test = good


onto WT with Escher slurry
circles until slurry thickens then rinse blade and repeat
test= good.
dilute again onto water then
20 X strokes on water
20 X strokes on escher slurry stone
30 linen
40 buffalo
20 palm


we'll see tomorrow


SHAVE REPORT
EBENHOLZ WAS PERFECT!!! CRAZY TOO, AS I COULDN'T REMEMBER WHICH STONES I USED TO HONE IT AND THOUGHT IT WAS ON A JNAT! SURPRISE SURPRISE IT WAS MY C12K, WELSH THURINGIAN AND ESCHER COMBO. 


BASICALLY A ONE PASS SHAVE! NO REPORT ON THE REVISOR BECAUSE I NEVER USED IT. I WAS ENJOYING THE PERFECT KEENNESS OF THE DOVO AND HOW SHARP AND SMOOTH IT WAS. DEFINITELY HAVE TO REMEMBER THIS COMBO

Revisor thumb notch and Ebenholz Dovo on coti on oil

Todays honing and tomorrow's line up:

Revisor thumb notch. This was fair keenness and a good candidate for a touch up. Used the WT with Escher slurry and it worked again! Great sharpness and seeming smoothness. Did X strokes of 30, then rinse blade 10 more x strokes, then rinse blade and stone then 40 laps on water
30 on linen
20 on bridle
40 on buffalo
20 on palm

Next up:

My dovo ebenholz 5/8 on my vintage coti with camillia oil on top. Never used oil for sharpening and I've read that coticules were meant to be used with water, lather or oil. Didnt have mineral oil or honing oil so I used the camillia oil that I used to keep the blades from rusting while they rest.No strop on purpose as I want to see what his edge by itself is.

Test are good, we'll see tomorrow. Great fun! Love to hone:))

Also up, day two on the Super Gnome, we'll see if the edge holds. stropped it on  linen and buffalo.

SHAVE REPORT


DOVO EBENHOLZ; NOT BAD BUT NOT SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT THAN A COTI ON WATER.DEFINITELY NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE OF USING OIL. WILL RE DO THIS TODAY WITH JUST COTI AND WATER AND SEE IF THAT ADVANCES THE EDGE.SAME COTICULE.


THUMB NOTCH REVISOR.: EXCELLENT! SHARP AND SMOOTH. DANG NEAR PERFECT. COULD BE A TOUCH SMOOTHER SO I WILL PUT THIS ON A COTI AS WELL TO SEE IF IT ADVANCES


SUPERGNOME; HOLDING UP PERFECTLY FROM JUST THE STROP. STARTING TO REALLY LIKE THIS BLADE.


DATSIT


TOUCH UP 2
PUT THE REVISOR ON THE UCHIGUMORI FOR 40 PLUS LAPS ON WATER WITH NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN TODAYS' SHAVE,IF ANYTHING A LITTLE LESS KEEN. 
GOING TO RE DO THE EDGE FROM THE START ON A JNAT AND SEE WHAT THAT BRINGS


EBENHOLZ PUT THIS ON THE LES LAT COTI AND BOUT AND WASN'T VERY GOOD AT ALL. TOO MUCH PULLING. DID A TOUCH UP ON THE SWATZ HONE WITH LATHER AND THAT HELPED A LITTLE BUT NOT MUCH, THIS TOO WILL GO ON A JNAT LATER.


THE PINS ARE LOOSE ON THIS BLADE AND IT'S HARDER TO HONE AND STROP. HAVE TO GET THAT FIXED.