One stone hone, JNat style

While I haven't been posting much I've been honing my ass off. Shaving and honing, going too fast to document everything, I've just been going by feel. Switching  back between using mainly coticules and then today, switching back my Jnat one stone hone technique. This style uses a hard base stone and progressively finer grit naguras finishing on water on the base stone.

I also have been setting bevels ( and re setting them) all over the place with my new  Chosera 800 grit. It works SO much faster and better than my King 1000 it's not even funny. It comes with a 600 grit slurry stone and works REALLY fast on slurry. It leaves a polish that really does resemble the sandblasted look I get from my JNats on slurry too.
I've really been 'into' sharpening lately, rather than just polishing, as my most disappointing shaves are almost always the result of the blade not being sharp enough, not that it's not smooth enough

                                                                                       

Once the bevel is really set and the sharpening takes place,finishing is the easy part. SO today I reset the bevel on my newest tonsorial gem with the yellow bone handle as it was shaving ok but not stellar and I want stellar,lol. I went from the chosera 800 to the King 1K to the Norton 4 k( where the edge developed chips) I dulled the edge and went to the nakayama honyama with soft uchi slurry, the hard uchi slurry and then to just X strokes on water. NICE looks and popping hairs

40 laps on linen and 60 on leather and tomorrow will tell the rest of the story.

But I wanted more practice so I dulled a 63 5/8" Russian and did an Oozuku   progression with just the slurry stones

SOft uchi for half strokes. refreshed slurry  3 times. lots of swarf and obviously cutting steel

hard uchi for circles refreshed slurry 2-3 times edge progressiing

water on oozuko for 40- 50 x strokes. tests are great

40 on linen

50 on leather

amazing test.will see tomorrow, the REAL test; the shave.But I haven't used the oozuku like this before and it performed marvelously.

Have the Cretan hone in the air as well as a Welsh Thurnigian. If the Thuringian is real it could be my final finishing hone. The Uchigumori is good but this could be better. Can't wait.

SHAVE REPORT:


well the tonsorial gem restore went well. It was sharp enough, just not smooth enough. started with it and pretty much got everything with the first pass but it was noisy and a bit 'crispier' than I like.
But the '63 Russian touch up was PERFECT and as smooth as silk! Even got the chin effortlessly.
Great to finally have a solid use for the oozuku. Never used it like this before, just as a final finisher on water and it was never that good. Nice.


THIS is what I want from an edge! Feel like I am wiping the lather off the face, not shaving. I will re do the Gem on the Oozuku today and see if that makes a difference. Great to see I have not forgotten how to get that edge. My Russian blades are awesome. Not pretty but hone easy and stay sharp and, most important, are great shavers.