Trick420's Big Thread 'O Straight Razor Scale Related Stuff

[rickboone1]

You shave yet?

no....

[rickboone1]

Okay. I shaved.

Mother freaking Mother of all Mothers of anything considerably holy. This is THE edge. Seriously. Freaking crap, I love this. Not so sharp that it's harsh, yet so sharp it glides through the hair with such effortless smoothness.

How did you hone it? What do you do?

[tomjr]

i like your latest. still working with the shellac with mixed results. do u thin the shellac before use? tom

[trick420]

Okay. I shaved.

Mother freaking Mother of all Mothers of anything considerably holy. This is THE edge. Seriously. Freaking crap, I love this. Not so sharp that it's harsh, yet so sharp it glides through the hair with such effortless smoothness.

How did you hone it? What do you do?

Like I told you, I wasn't all that happy about letting this one go once I shaved with it...

I have no secrets, and honestly, most of my honing success is just dumb luck. Right now there's a thread about oil on a coti. That's part of the trick. Here's what I did:

Cut the bevel on 800 King (I had to breadknife it to fix the width and make it even from toe to heel)
refined it on a King 1200. Used that cool-ass little lighted magnifier to make sure the bevel was even head to toe...

Then I do a traditional dilucot on a vintage Coticule. I think I dilute 7-8 times, and I do 30 1/2-strokes per side on the early dilutions, then 15 per side on the later (I just go by feel here)
Then at least 60 full x-strokes on plain water - I do FAST strokes to make sure I minimize the pressure on the edge. I also rinse the stone every 10 strokes. My coti doesn't auto slurry though, this is just a precaution.
After that, on this razor, I went to my Llyn Melynllyn on slurry for 20 x strokes, then 20 on water.
Then to the Welsh Thuri (where the magic happens). Again, 20 on slurry, then 20 on water.

THEN, I dried the Welsh Thrui, put just a dab of olive oil on the stone, spread it around to evenly coat the stone, and did about 30 strokes on that.

Finally, I used that badass marble sill plate hone you made for me and do 20 on CrOx, and 20 on the CBN. I am still experimenting, but I think I can probably go from oil to CBN and get the same result. Then about 100 strokes on my Latigo and off to shave.

Oh, and I have decided that Gold Dollar #66's do best without tape on the spine. The spines are thick enough, and the bevel angle matters I believe, so this razor, and now my other two GD's are honed without tape.

It's a lot of steps, I know, but the result speaks for itself. It really isn't a big deal to do it, you just need a lot of different hones handy!

Jeff

[rickboone1]

You're liking the marble slab, eh? :)

Y'know, I have yet to use my Welsh Thurry since I got it. Been stopping at the LM.

I rarely use tape anymore. I like the feedback I get without it.

[trick420]

i like your latest. still working with the shellac with mixed results. do u thin the shellac before use? tom

Tom, I have thinned in the past, but I now prefer to use the shellac at the 4lb cut that it comes.

Some tips:
Get an old t-shirt and cut yourself a 4" x 4" piece from it. Cut another one just like it. Wad the first one into a ball and wrap the other one around it. Take a small zip tie and tie it around. Now you have a shellac "rubber".

Here's what you need:
The rubber you just made
Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO)
Shellac
ziploc bag

Put some BLO in a small cup or lid - just a teaspoon is all you need.
Soak the ball end pretty good in your shellac. You want the innards to soak up lots of shellac.

Start "rubbing" the shellac into the wood. Just make sure you rub it good so that it isn't blotchy on the surface or pooling. Unlike varnishes, shellac dries so fast that it won't self level, so rub it in smooth. Let this first coat dry (maybe 15 minutes) and lightly sand it with 220 or higher if there are any "tits" or shellac ridges. We're just sealing everything and getting a base coat on a this point.

Now, while your shellac is drying, put the rubber into the ziploc to keep it fresh. This way, I can reuse it over many days if I want.

Ok, dip the rubber again and start rubbing the finish on. The finish will build as the solvent evaporates and you will start seeing a shell develop. Redip as needed and reapply. Always rub the finish out smooth though - never leave it soggy shiny wet or you'll get ridges. After about the second re-dip, you will notice that the rubber starts sticking to the finish and dragging. Dip your index finger into the BLO and rub a very fine coat on the rubber. Continue polishing - should be much easier now. Now you will see the candy finish starting to develop. Take this as far as you want it, reapplying shellac and BLO to the rubber whenever you feel like it needs it. One word of warning though: If you get it dry and are polishing it out with the rubber, don't try to press super hard and polish hard - this will "warp" the finish, and you'll have to back up with fresh shellac to fix it. Heat from friction at this point will soften the shellac and cause it do gum and wad, causing the orange peeled look.

Let the finish dry overnight. Then you can come back with a wheel and some tripoli for a finer polish, or just paste wax it. Turtle wax polishing compound is great too, but do it by hand.

I usually just use paste wax.

Once you do a few, you'll see how easy it is to make great looking finishes on your scales. I can so a set of scales in an evening this way.

[trick420]

You're liking the marble slab, eh? :)

Y'know, I have yet to use my Welsh Thurry since I got it. Been stopping at the LM.

I rarely use tape anymore. I like the feedback I get without it.

The LM is great, but I really prefer the Welsh Thuri. It's awesome. You could finish on the LM and then just try oil on it, or try going directly to an oiled Welsh Thuri...

[trick420]

I should point out to anyone who happens to notice... The spine work looks a lot like Mycarver's Ebony/Ivory razor from the 7 day set. I think it was subconscious, as I never intended to so blatantly rip off his work like that... And I do owe him a thank you for pushing me to try and fix that wonky grind job...

Thanks Mark!

[PFP_Dad]

I love the purpleheart for wedges, great work as usual!

[paco664]

nice lil brother...

[trick420]

My latest GD is a PIF for a contest here.

Details can be found there but here's a few pics - It's a very simple mod this time. No frills, but sheesh, it's a great shaver nonetheless.

[hig789]

Nice work. I really dig the tip.

[tomjr]

pretty, i like simple & elegant.