What did you hone today?

Nice Pelikan too!

Thanks - I put that in photo because of my interest in the Nib section of the B&B Forum. It also helpd keep the Puma from sliding on the counter!

Today it was a pleasure to tune up an old Smith & Daniel's Sheffield on a Nakayama suita. Suita are often fast cutting stones and this one is loaded with grit, but it is hard enough and can be used with dilutions and just clear water towards the finish. And Jake, thank for the upgrade. Alx

Touched up my Bismark today on a Jnat. It was "Professionally honed" but I have to tell ya it was not a comfortable edge. Shaved with it again and it sure seems so much more comfortable now.

tip of the cow bone schale by the pivot pin is broken off. I have some schales I plan on using to replace these but I wanted to hone the razor first to see what kind of edge she has...obviously, she's half hollow ... I have another Sheffield that is a wonderful shaver, yet that one is extra full hollow...I'm looking forward to trying this edge

Explaining my progression...the big bout on the paper towel is where I start, doing half strokes back and forth starting with sets of 30 reps on wet slurry then when the edge comes around I step it down to 15 reps on this bout, thinning the slurry as I go along and feel it's finished when she shaves arm hair but I usualy do that probing test before moving from 30 reps to 15, then it's onto to the BBW for approx. 100 x stroke laps misty slurry, then I'll hop over to one of the les lats, with or without slurry and maybe call it done when it feels right and under cuts water well...or I might finish on the la verte. la verte is underenath the BBW (blade is resting on la verte)

FWIW, the only stone that gets laid on the table top is the first one, the bout I use to correct the bevels...allother stones are hand held, which explains all of the drips of dried slurry everywhere


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

Thanks for the commentary Jake - it helps those of us early in the learning curve.

chuckr9 said:

Thanks for the commentary Jake - it helps those of us early in the learning curve.

Click to expand...

~~~thanks for the attaboy Chuck...something else too, in that photo...I'm honing on top of my electric stove...this is where I do most of my honing. the spray bottle is filled with water and keeps me from having to walk over to the sink when I need water for a rinse or other hydration needs

I've recieved a lot of help learning how to hone from the coticule community. I bought my first coticule with my first razor from Jarrod (superiorshave.com)...an LPB bout

Scott (lifetooshort1971) lives an hour north of me and has been wonderful having me come over to his place to show me how he hones. Bart's site (coticule.be) is truly a God's send and what really opened up the doors for me was reading and following his advice on progressive honing http://www.coticule.be/progressive-honing-method.html Before trying that approach I was using my LPB bout from start to finish and although I was eventually successful, learning how to dilute to get through dilucot, it was difficult for me so when I went from bevel correcting w/the LPB bout doing 1/2 strokes then onto using the BBW as outlined in the above link, that simplified dilucot, making it a no brainer to 'progress'....so if you want to make great strides quickly, I suggest anyone starting out with coticules to get a BBW and BBW slurry to simplify dilucot

Another pearl of wisdom laid on me from the great coti master was the concept of correcting the bevel (using whatever you have, slurried coti, 1K syn, etc.), then going straight to coti w/water only finishing with that, omitting slurried coti...but you need a fast stone if you want to get through it quickly & FWIW, the la verte I use (in the photo) is a slow stone, slow on slurry, slow on water, but it makes a great finisher me thinks, when I'm not in a hurry...both my les lats are quick fast stones...there's so many ways to get it done

I'm still an ardent student at the University of Coticules= ...working on my bachelor's degree...I think I have the first semester out of the way yet the old addage applies here...the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know

Something I'd like to mention...occasionally I'll read where some will say it's difficult to learn how to hone using coticules, that an easier way (for instance) is to learn using Norton synthetic stones. I wouldn't know...I began with coticules and have stuck with them, but I did buy a 1 K synthetic stone to use to make fast work of chipped bevels as using slurried coticules is maddenly slow if the chips are substantial, but be careful...a 1 K syn stone will cut quickly. I do not own a jeweler's loupe so I make due using a magnifying glass to chart progress when correcting bevels. Hope this helps


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

9/16", a razor that's 'been around' I bought it last summer as part of an ebay auction where I won about 19 razors, bidding on each one individually, from one seller. Anyways, this razor, the schales were split in two at the wedge end...it was obviously a cheap set of schales, plastic that were made w/o ever using a wedge, so it looked to be originally glued and somewhere along the line, the glue came undone. So the plan was to re-glue and put back together but I didn't have any super glue, until a few days ago...so I glued, let it sit over night and I just finished honing this razor about an hour ago. Had one good sized micro chip I worked out using my 1 K Norton then I progressed using the progressive honing method...slurried coti after the 1 K Norton to correct the bevels and to give it (the beginning) of a coti edge, then BBW (slurried) using X strokes (100 +) then I finished on water only my 25X160mm Les Latnueses til the edge felt right, which didn't take long. I got HHT2 after les lat and HHT3 after stropping. I'll shave with it this afternoon


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

shakin_jake said:

~~~thanks for the attaboy Chuck...something else too, in that photo...I'm honing on top of my electric stove...this is where I do most of my honing. the spray bottle is filled with water and keeps me from having to walk over to the sink when I need water for a rinse or other hydration needs

I've recieved a lot of help learning how to hone from the coticule community. I bought my first coticule with my first razor from Jarrod (superiorshave.com)...an LPB bout

Scott (lifetooshort1971) lives an hour north of me and has been wonderful having me come over to his place to show me how he hones. Bart's site (coticule.be) is truly a God's send and what really opened up the doors for me was reading and following his advice on progressive honing http://www.coticule.be/progressive-honing-method.html Before trying that approach I was using my LPB bout from start to finish and although I was eventually successful, learning how to dilute to get through dilucot, it was difficult for me so when I went from bevel correcting w/the LPB bout doing 1/2 strokes then onto using the BBW as outlined in the above link, that simplified dilucot, making it a no brainer to 'progress'....so if you want to make great strides quickly, I suggest anyone starting out with coticules to get a BBW and BBW slurry to simplify dilucot

Another pearl of wisdom laid on me from the great coti master was the concept of correcting the bevel (using whatever you have, slurried coti, 1K syn, etc.), then going straight to coti w/water only finishing with that, omitting slurried coti...but you need a fast stone if you want to get through it quickly & FWIW, the la verte I use (in the photo) is a slow stone, slow on slurry, slow on water, but it makes a great finisher me thinks, when I'm not in a hurry...both my les lats are quick fast stones...there's so many ways to get it done

I'm still an ardent student at the University of Coticules= ...working on my bachelor's degree...I think I have the first semester out of the way yet the old addage applies here...the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know

Something I'd like to mention...occasionally I'll read where some will say it's difficult to learn how to hone using coticules, that an easier way (for instance) is to learn using Norton synthetic stones. I wouldn't know...I began with coticules and have stuck with them, but I did buy a 1 K synthetic stone to use to make fast work of chipped bevels as using slurried coticules is maddenly slow if the chips are substantial, but be careful...a 1 K syn stone will cut quickly. I do not own a jeweler's loupe so I make due using a magnifying glass to chart progress when correcting bevels. Hope this helps


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

Click to expand...

It does help - Thanks Jake.

Bengall DeLux restore on a 20cm LPB coticule. FANTASTIC edge. It's taken me a little while to get the finishing stages worked out on that particular stone, but by golly, I've got it now. Super sharp and super smooth. The kind of edge that makes it hard to test shave because you are smiling too much.

Honed last night for shave this weekend. Was already sharp so just a touch up with coticule (La Dressante I think), 0.25u diamond spray on felt and stropped on horsebutt strop.

Touched up this nice shoulderless National on a Ozuku jnat I recently bought. The honing went fantastic, cant wait to shave with it.

View attachment 199844

This razor arrived from the Bay with no corrosion, but heavy spine wear and a "frown" of about 1mm. After one layer of Tape, I worked for hours on 8x3 Dia-Sharp course then a Fine DMT Durosharp and EF diamond plate (hard steel!). Added 2nd layer of tape and worked on Bevel with Shapton Glass S1000 then 6000 followed by LPB Coticule with slurry to refine bevel (over 200 X-strokes diluting slurry every 50X). Finished with Shapton S16000 then AlOx Film (1.0u and 0.3u), then back to Coticule on water for a few strokes [The AlOx leaves the edge a littel too "edgy" for me, but I am not good enough on the stones to get the edge keen enoiugh - so avoid frustration I "cheat" on the AlOx then go back to Coticule before stropping].

Shaved with it this morning & was VERY PLEASED with my efforts!

With help from another B&B member found out the razor is a GB Bidingham & Sons Damascus Steel straight razor. Not considered a quality razor (too bad, I though I had found a gem for $30 shipped on the Bay). Oh Well, got a good shave out of it, even if it took several hours to hone.

Killed the edge and honed up my 5/8 fabrieks merk on my new, old, coticule - the bigger one in the pic. With some advice and encouragement from shakin_jake I've cut down the time I need to spend playing around with dilutions dramatically. Ten minutes from dull to shaving sharp, spent a little longer on the linen than usual and had a very nice shave.

DMT 325/1200/Coti

I took the chips out of my Dubl Duck "EBay Special" today. I will get her on the finer hones once I take off the scales, polish her out, and put new scales on. (This is a "before" pic. I don't have time to shoot an "after" right now... not that it would matter anyway since the "before" doesn't show the three chips it had in the edge.)

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