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High Rockwell hardness razors vs natural stones

Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
Any tips for someone having a hard time? I had to break out my Naniwa SS set to hone up a particularly beautiful, yet VERY hard BB kamisori. I seemed to be getting nowhere with my Coticule and Jnats. Even with the synths I failed to fully reset the bevel as evidenced by scratches I didn't fully remove.
The problem is compounded by my detestation of spine taping, and the fact that it's forged from Damascus. I almost broke down and taped the spine, but on a kamisori grind I feel tape is harder to apply evenly. There is already noticeably more hone wear than before my attempts, but that's how the cookie crumbles :).

The simple answer is to just double the laps taken at each step. Any magical chants? Special ionized honing water? Oil on the coticule? (snort! :lol: ). Just tape it and go to town? Dare I ask lapping film?

Lay it on me fellas.

BTW the Naniwas put a very sharp edge onto it despite an incomplete bevel reset.
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Edit: I should add the thing shaves like a dream and is, dare I say, almost too sharp!? Pshaw!! No such thing ;).
 
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Legion

Staff member
I guess it is just time spent. I have a very hard Swede that laughs at my coti's. My only guess is I need to spend more time. It's a work in progress.
 
Are you Brian did not tape the spine?

I think-but don't quote me- he routinely applies one layer. If so, then going from tape to tapeless is going to take a while.

Very nice looking Kami you have there.
 
Hey Ken taping should be no harder than any other razor. Just cut strips and apply to where the hone wear is if its too hard to use a full-size piece. The tape is only really protecting where the stone hits anyway and with the taped edge it should hone quickly since your working on a smaller bevel now.
 
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Ha!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Yet another whimpering "my natural stones can't handle hard" thread.

Ha!

I guess mojo comes from endless rubbing of one's razor against a rock, instead of honing it up quick and effectively on lapping film.

You know you wanted this kind of abuse from me...
 

Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
I requested specifically no tape :smile:.

Brian was gracious enough to accommodate my request, and I knew full well that hone wear was inevitable by that request.

Up to now all my razors have been the "soft" steel, so this one is outside my normal skill level. Brian set the bevel with as can be seen with virtually no hone wear...talk about skill :)
 
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Like I always say Ken...Careful what you ask for you might just get it. :lol: Kidding aside I hope you get it soon before you have a lot of undue wear.
 

Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
Hey Ken taping should be no harder than any other razor. Just cut strips and apply to where the hone wear is if its too hard to use a full-size piece. The tape is only really protecting where the stone hits anyway and with the taped edge it should hone quickly since your working on a smaller bevel now.

This will be a second to last resort. Do you think I could get a repeatable angle at the bevel when taping an unsymmetrical grind? I may be thinking too hard on that. :)
 
This will be a second to last resort. Do you think I could get a repeatable angle at the bevel when taping an unsymmetrical grind? I may be thinking too hard on that. :)

Looking at your razor (I'm extremely jealous - very nice), I would say you should be able to do so. Just cut a strip and lay it over the place where the stone would touch. I had to do that with my recently concocted Kami that I made from a file. I had to build it up to get the angle correct since the darn file was too thin for the size of blade that I made. The flatter angle was making the edge too thin and it was chipping. It was easy to duplicate the taping.

However, I also don't see a need for taping. I like your thought that you should hone it the way it came.

OH... and... this person has Mojo... do you really want to be like him? He doesn't need a razor to shave so he uses a Coti... not sayin'... just sayin'... (edit: :lol::lol::lol: - just in case it wasn't obvious... ;-})

$mojo1.jpg
 
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Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
Yeah, it's a harder decision to come to grips with now that I have this beauty in hand, and I see the results of my disdain for tape :lol: like Scott said, careful for what you wish for.
The flip side is the edge is so amazingly smooth yet sharp like a DE blade. It's a keenness I haven't experienced before on the softer steels IMO.
 
Kent,
A question and something to try.
1) after you reset the bevel, did your coti remove the your SS scratches?
2) you could reset with tape, then remove the tape and set it again.
This should save some of the spine steel but still have a little less work to set it without tape.
 
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