New York 6/8 touchup, Revisor thumb notch 3 coticule progression

Decided to play a little tonight. First I touched up my pretty sharp tonsorial gem New York 6/8 ( not 5/8 as  I have been writing) spike point. I am getting very comfortable with all the blade sizes and shapes now and the spike point or the square point doesn't scare me anymore.

One, I'm honing so much that my fine motor skills with the blades is getting much better, two I have  over 200 plus shaves in now. that helps.three, I am learning my beard and my face.

SO first  the touch up:
taped the blade and did 30 X strokes on the Les latenuese bout  on water. Rocking and popping arm hair. leg hair suicide. Just what I like. I am amazed at this blade I got for $15 on ebay. it's a great shaver.

I am also happy I got over my unicot prejudice.  the edge is AWESOME! IN the shave kit for tomorrow. Just a few strokes will show me.

30 laps on linen
40 laps on leather.

Next Revisor 6/8  with the Thumb Notch. This blade is almost too nice to use! I hold it in too high esteem and forget it is just a tool and is made to be used. not looked at. So I dulled the ( mediocre) edge ( I know it's my edge but it's an old one; and I"ve grown as a honer :))

Start
Deep Rock Belgian Coticule with thick slurry with the same coloration bout ( pink lines/ yellow coti)
2 sets of 30  circles and it's already getting metal shavings. This is a REALLY fast cutter. Same color as my Nouvelle Vein bout.
Refresh slurry  and do two more sets of 30  circles. Left side was shaving arm hair well but right edge wasn't so I refreshed the slurry again and ended up with 6 total sets varying between X strokes and push strokes, trying to make better contact with the hone on that side.

That seemed to work, cutting right side arm hair fine

Les Latenuese coticule and raised milky slurry with tononagura bout ( les lat)
(THIS IS A DIFFERENT ORDER THAN THE ORDER I USED BEFORE THAT WORKED SO WELL. BEFORE I USED THE LA VERTE FIRST AND THEN THE LES LAT, AS A FINISHER. THAT WILL TURN OUT TO BE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN RESULT)


30 reps in sets of 5  very light pressure, seems keener on the arm but with the sweet coticule smoothness, I know it's not true but it seems I can't cut myself with a coti edge( somewhat the same with the Jnat but not as much.I have MUCH more latitude that with the synthetics.

La Verte with DMT slurry
10 sets of 3 X strokes, diluting every 3 reps, then 10 sets of X strokes on plain water. One side is still not right.
30 push strokes on water on the la Verte. Still not enough.


Onto the Les Lat on water


3 push strokes on water and it's keen. So the Les Lat IS a finer stone than the La Verte. This proves it for me. ( at least my stones).
30 laps linen
40 laps leather


poppin' :))




So what did I learn?


The pink yellow coti's I have are great cutters, starters, next up is the La Verte with DMT 600 slurry THEN the Les Lat. Just like with the JNats, the slurry fineness order makes a difference. And  1200 DMT slurry just makes a grey mess and doesn't bring out the harder stone particles and I don't know why.


The 600 works fine for tomonagura. weird.We'll see tomorrow but I think this progression gives the same sharpness/ smoothness as the unicot. One stone or three? does it make a difference? How do I want to play today? One stone and three bouts or threes stones? Only the final edge matters,really :))


Shave Report:


pretty much all three very good. The Brown russian 5/8 that I honed on Nakayama weeks ago has held up. very sharp smooth AND QUIET.  The 6/8 New York that I touched up on the Les Lat was PERFECT! The tape really worked. Perhaps I need tape on the thicker spined Revisor as it was sharp enough but very NOISY. and not as smooth as I wanted so:


20 push strokes on the Oozuku on water then 15 slow X strokes on same. THERE'S the quiet smoothness I wanted. Crazy.What a difference! Definitely a finer stone


so the order could be:
vintage coti thick slurry
la verte milky slurry
les lat light slurry to dilute
jnat on water as finisher.


will re dull and try that today.
 BUT overall very pleased with all blades and edges.

New York 6/8"blade second shave report

Want to see how the edge retained with the unicot so just 40 laps on leather before the shave. Have to say it sounded worse than it shaved. I mean it sounded like it wasn't going to be a smooth pass but I could have gotten away with just the one pass.no problem. still very smooth and sharp.

I know that shouldn't be a surprise but I seem to be able to dull my edges in just one shave. Perhaps my shave teshnik is getting better. going to do a few ( taped ) laps on water on this on the La Verte this afternoon just for fun.

Ralf Aust and Tonsorial Gem Unicot

I decided to sacrifice the Ralf Aust edge for the experiment as it is closest and  size shape and grind to the new blade.The Aust edge was good but not perfect so no worries.

Oozuku Asagi
Ralf Aust dulled on glass

soft uchi slurry
3 sets of 30 circles shaving arm good start.

switch to hard uchi slurry and push strokes
30 reps in sets of 5
cutting sharper so move on

Tomonagura slurry made with DMT 600
15 X strokes diluting every 5
10 more push strokes diluting ever 5 again

Tests are good


Water only
30 push strokes in sets of 5 slow

30 laps linen
40 laps leather.

we'll see :))

La Verte Unicot

continuing on with the 6/8 New york blade I decided to give the unicot a try. this might be the only way I can really get the sharpest edge out of a coticule. For now at least

tomnagura slurry on La Verte with dmt 600
One piece tape
3 sets of 30 half strokes( not circles)


rinse all
50 X strokes in sets of 5 slow as well some pigtails and some regular X strokes

test is excellent!
30 laps linen
40 laps leather.
seems very sharp.we'll see

SHAVE REPORT

Perfect! Started with the Red Russian which I did a 3 step progressions with the Uchigumori stone and it worked UNBELIEVABLY WELL. Silent and sharp and smooth.Standard 3 nagura , soft for circles, the hard for push strokes then instead of the Karasu I used a DMT nagura slurry of the Uchi stone itself,
I figure what is hard than that? tomonagura into a dilute and X strokes and WOW it went well.
Did the first sideburn and put it up, it was so obviously perfect. nice

 Clausberg 6/8 also was PERFECT on the La Verte Unicot and perhaps this IS the way to use the coticule. I can't seem to get this edge with the straight dilucot but man this was sharp and buttery. Nice


Ralf Aust on the Oozuku went perfect as well . 3 blades three home runs. Very happy.

One stone hone, the coticule version

I think I figured it out. 

Got my $15 'Tonsorial Gem" 6/8 Ebay razor today ( Clausberg, New York probably 1930's or so) and the blade looked great but wouldn't shave arm hair.

I've had two successes with my Jnat three slurry stone progression and I wanting to try it on a coticule but wasn't sure this was the razor to start with.

The bevel under the scope was uneven with lots of misdirected scratches so I thought about the 1k king and the4 kg norton but wanted to try it with my one stone hone project

worked great! very happy with the results. now that I understand which level of slurry produces approximately what grit level I can plan accordingly, as to what effect I am trying to achieve.

I decided to swith slurry stones here as well going from the softer one to the harder les lat but used  dilution for the last progression

Belgian Deep rock vintage stone

heavy slurry

3 laps of 30 slow circles, shaving arm hair already

slurry got dark quickly

refresh with totally new slurry

2 laps of 30 slow circles

shaving better( refreshing the slurry at the bevel setting level seems to be important in this technique.Don't want the slurry to get too thick or will dull faster it seems.

5 total laps of 30: 150 reps

Les lat light slurry ( 3-4 swipes)

30 push strokes in sets of 5

testing sharper already

Water

15 X strokes

30 push strokes in sets of 5

Testing very well but want to finish it more on the hybrid side of the les lat bout with water

 Hybrid Les lat

30 push strokes in sets of 5

Ok so I broke from the one stone hone but it's still a coti.

KEEN

35 laps linen

45 laps leather.

Nice:)) We'll see tomorrow but I am VERY pleased that this method seems to transfer from the jnats to the cotis! 

SHAVE REPORT

Good but not great. certainly shave ready and got the sides and neck verywell on the first pass but the  goatee/chin area proved tough. I touched up with 40 laps on water with the La Vert and the second pass was better but not perfect.
Even cleaning up with the safety razor on that area proved tough so maybe it's just a hard stubble day :))

going to go back to light slurry on the la vert and dilute and see if I can get it sharper.

redo report
3 push strokes on La Verte misty slurry made with DMT 1200 so it's la vert slurry. much cripsier
then,5 dilutes with one finger drop every 3 laps, 15 reps.
then 30 push strokes on water. seems much sharper but will see tomorrow. no strop

Revisor 5/8" and Naka 2

Since I had such great success with the original protocol and the original Nakayama Honyama stone I had to see if I could reproduce it with my second Nakayama stone, bought because I love the first one so much, I wanted a back up. last effort sucked but I think I know where I went wrong.

I am really liking this one stone from start to finish idea; figuring out how to 'figure it out"

Nakayama Honyama 2 Revisor 5/8 ( new)
dull blade

heavy slurry with Soft Uchi
3 laps on VERY SLOW circles( get a really nice, sandy, smooth grit feeling from this stone)
shaves arm hair no problem :))

Hard uchi slurry ( really take my time to build up some, it's slow)
30 push strokes in sets of 5
sharp ! arm hairs above skin

Karasu slurry ( so light)
15 x strokes diluting one finger ever 5 X strokes
wash stone
15 push strokes on water

feels and sounds sharp on leg and arm hair

30 laps linen
40 laps leather

One blade tomorrow. we'll see. I do love my Revisors,time to play with the good blades.:))


SHAVE REPORT
PERFECT!ONE STONE HONE.PRETTY CLOSE TO A ONE PASS EFFORT. SHAVED EFFORTLESSLY AND EASILY.ALMOST SILENT, WHICH TELLS ME A GREAT DEAL. SHARP AND SMOOTH IS THE GOAL.


NEXT UP : SAME PROGRESSION ON THE OOZUKU WITH ANOTHER REVISOR AND THEN ONTO THE COTICULES AND FIGURING THE ONE STONE HONE WITH THOSE STONES.

65 Russian Re Re Do with tried and true 3 step progression

This was driving me nuts all day and I couldn't wait to get home to fix it. It was an OK shave but considering this was from Sham and came to me with the best edge I had ever felt before ( his escher no doubt) I had to get it better than this.

So I decided to do the one routine I KNOW always works; at least it has so far: my Nakayana Honyama #1 and three uchigumori slurry progression.

Although I haven't shaved with it yet it seemed to work like a charm

dull blade on glass
soft uchi slurry, thick
4 sets of 30 circles and test. shaves hair and already has crispy sound on skin!
2 more sets of  30 then 20. test. better.
( just like usual! with this stone)

Hard Uchi slurrymedium
45 reps of push strokes in sets of 5 reps no refresh
test better still. nice!

Karasu slurry
15 X strokes and test. sharper!
 Dilute every 3 X strokes
another 21 reps.
test leg hair. very keen

30 laps linen
40 laps leather.

SHAVE REPORT:


PERFECT! ABOUT TIME. THE NAKAYAMA #1 AND THE PROTOCOL WORKED LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO. SHARP AND SMOOTH. ONLY BROUGHT ONE RAZOR TO THE SHAVE AND THAT'S UNUSUAL THESE DAY BUT I'M GETTING BACK TO IT. ONE HONE AND ONE RAZOR, THAT'S WHAT I WANT.
I DON'T WANT A 15 DIFFERENT HONE PROTOCOL, I WANT TO GO FROM DULL TO SHAVE READY WITH ONE STONE AND HAVE THE EDGE LAST .


NOW TO BE ABLE TO DO THE SAME THING WITH A DIFFERENT JNAT HONE. TONIGHTS PROJECT
WHEN THE BLADE IS RIGHT MY TECHNIQUE GETS BETTER,LOL

Sham Russian Re Do and Unicot on smiley russian

was itching to get back to my hones today and fix those edges from this morning.

first up the Sham '65 Russian  

Uchigumori Stone and 3 nagura progression
dulled on glass
Soft uchi slurry
3 laps of circles. shave hair! nice
2 more laps not better but not worse (?)

hard uchi slurry
30 reps push strokes switching every 5 reps 
test hair,popping


DMT nagura slurry ( first time for this) 
lots of uchigumori slurry
15 X strokes diluting every 5 then test
sharper
dilute even more than
15 more X strokes on water
very keen leg hair suicide. nice


30 laps linen
40 laps leather


should be good tomorrow.


smiley russian with spine wear on la dressante coticle
started off with dilucot
milky slurry x 30 half strokes 2 laps then start dilute
diluting one finger drop every lap( 30 strokes)
slurry depleting too fast dressante is a FAST cutter.
7 laps or so


cutting arm hair ok


tape blade
rinse blade but not coticule, add one drop water
15 X strokes on slurry
rinse coticule
50 laps on water
sharp


30 laps linen
40 laps leather


test is ok but not perfect


30 push strokes on la verte on water.


crispy hair cutting


we'll see soon.


SHAVE REPORT:


SURPRISE SURPRISE. THE 65 RUSSIAN SHAVED POORLY AND THE RECAALCITRANT RUSSIAN UNICOT SHAVED GREAT! HAD TO FINISH WITH THE UNICOT BLADE AS THE 65 RUSSIAN WAS JUST TOO CRISPY. NOT BAD BUT NO WHERE NEAR AS SMOOTH AS IT SHOULD BE. THE UNICOT BLADE WAS SILKY. COTICULES :))