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What did you hone today?

2nd attempt on a newly acquired TI 69 wedge. 1st attempt I didn’t set the bevel properly. I think I got it this time, the shave tomorrow morning will confirm. Same stones as last time, but made sure that I got a burr on both sides for the whole length.

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This Friodur 17 needed a touch-up badly, so went down the Kuromaku 5k, Super Stone 10k and finished on the SG20k. Love this hefty razor, and the SG20k edge provided a smooth and satisfying test shave this morning.

I probably won’t wait long to refinish the edge on a Jnat since I finally repaired my Mejiro nagura that had developed a nasty pit. Sanding rocks is a lot of work! I sanded enough so that the pit is not on the rubbing surface. But, I only removed about half of that pit, so I will have more wet sanding to do at some point.

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This blade was sharp enough during yesterday's shave, however it didn't feel good to me. Alejandro ships his Ale razors with a synthetic 12k edge and I don't usually care for how a 12k synthetic feels. Today I kiiled the edge then gave it a full treatment. 3k Ouka, 5k Rika, 8k King Gold and then a semi-synthetic Morihei Hishiboshi Extra Fine Karasu. Finished on translucent Arkansas. Edge tests with packing peanut and HHT were awesome, looking forward to the next save with it.
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Forgive the wonky pic. A couple of Kikuboshis tonight. The 2002 was honed on a nagura progression starting with tenjyou this time, and the SK-1 got essentially the same treatment as the other day, synth progression and then Escher. It's a lot easier for me to manage the curves on a little stone like that.
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Taping the spine evenly must be a whole lotta fun!
 
More honing practice for me on the synthetics before I return to my JNats. Using this Manaslu 55 test razor, I’m working primarily on my rolling x-stroke using the Kuromaku 1.5k and 5k, Super Stone 10k, and finally the Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. Plan on testing this edge tomorrow. AHT was promising, and I managed to get this one honed fairly evenly from toe to heel. Test shave will be the ultimate judge of that consistency though.

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Easiest thing to do is lay a half width piece on each side so it hits the whole spine and then snip it in a few spots so it will lie down on the top.
Slight revision to that, if you're going to be replacing the tape with any frequency, just lay a full strip on each side and don't worry about folding it over. Since I needed to revisit the razor anyway, I decided to extend the bevel. The existing bevel was only about to the left arrow, maybe not even. I cut a new one over to the second arrow (you can see a faint pink Sharpie witness mark that I put there as a guidepost). The razor is ground to take a bevel at least that far, and that evened out the curve from toe to heel on the actual cutting edge. It did take a little time on the Shapton 1.5k and a few tape changes but I'm happy with it now. After that it was Shapton 5k, Fuji, Naniwa 12k and then Escher. I thought about doing a mikawa nagura progression after 5k but after cutting a new bevel I didn't think I had the patience and focus for that.
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Heljestrand MK7 on the big Nakayama. Tenjou all the way up to tomo nagura today. Noticed a little bit of a difference in feedback and hardness. Not sure if I just hit a harder layer after lapping or was still going through some oxidized parts of the stone (visually I didnt notice much of a difference). Very happy though with the HHT and Feedback 🍻
 
Heljestrand MK7 on the big Nakayama. Tenjou all the way up to tomo nagura today. Noticed a little bit of a difference in feedback and hardness. Not sure if I just hit a harder layer after lapping or was still going through some oxidized parts of the stone (visually I didnt notice much of a difference). Very happy though with the HHT and Feedback 🍻
I'm always surprised how quickly a jnat oxidises, lapping after a couple months there's always a darker layer on top to clear, and which often seems a wee bit softer.
 
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Maiden honing for this Echo 13/16 full hollow. This little koppa looks super soft, right? It's actually a 4.5-5 and a delight to hone razors on, a little velvety, soft enough to not be annoying with a tomo, hard enough to smooth out completely when you're done with a stage.

The steel is hard, not super hard but harder than typical Solingen steel, and so took a little while to hone up, but the HHT was very good. My HHTing has changed over the past few weeks, held further down the hair and pulled more gently over the edge, but achieving the same results. I think I might be starting to get the hang of this honing lark.
 
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