Nice little mail call. These three waterstones expand me options. I only had 3k and 10k waterstones so far and i was curious about how a little more range and resolution would feel.

Also, this dull-like-a-butter-knife Thiers Issard frameback. It’s my first frameback, and it was a bitch to hone (I did that two days ago). It just would not pass the packing peanut test off the stone. A real mystery to me. In my limited experience, I always manage to get the edge sharp on the stone without stropping, if I used a light enough touch and alternate the sides frequently, ending on leading edge strokes. But not with this guy. It wouldn’t even shave arm hair without stropping.

In my mental model, this means that the steel is ductile and forms a burr, but I’ll gladly be corrected by any Honemeister who actually knows what they’re doing😅

Either way, I have up after it somewhat push cut into the packing peanut, but was a bit disheartened when I compared it to the pushing-into-a-cloud sharpness of other straights. We’ll see how it goes. Either I’ll figure it out or maybe the steel has lost its temper and is a paper weight now?

  • gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social
    0·
    15 days ago

    I like the Naniwa Advance stones for razors. Good value IMHO. The binder in the Advance loads up easily, so I always recommend a good amount of slurry on each stone until you get to the finishing stage.

    I’ll gladly be corrected by any Honemeister who actually knows what they’re doing😅

    I would not use Honemeister and knows what they’re doing to describe myself, but here goes:

    Since you have already honed quite a few razors, I’m leaning towards steel temper as the problem. An easy way to tell is to go back to the 1K stone and don’t come off of it until it push-cuts a packing peanut. It should take a little effort and the peanut may make a sound when push-cutting, but the razor should cut. Sample cuts from heel to toe should feel the same. If the razor does not push-cut, then try to inspect the edge with a 25X loupe, or equivalent. The texture of the apex relates to the abrasive size of the stone, but temper issues typically prevent the edge from taking the smooth form that you expect. I suggest using Sharpie, also, just to have a visual check on overall geometry.

    If the steel is soft then half strokes on one side of the razor will easily form a burr that you can feel with your fingers. The burr will be on the side of the razor that faced up during the half strokes. With soft steel, this burr is easy to flip (with half strokes) from side to side, and it is very difficult to remove with alternating strokes on the stone. Here is a video that talks about feeling the burr. Go to about the 29 min point.

    Hope this helps!

    • djundjila@sub.wetshaving.socialOPM
      2·
      9 days ago

      I always recommend a good amount of slurry on each stone until you get to the finishing stage.

      I have a follow-up question about raising a slurry. I’ve always been reluctant to raise a slurry on the finer stones because I worry about contaminating the hones with the coarse particles of the little diamond plate I use on coarse stones (the kind of plate sold for sharpening ski and snowboard edges).

      It’s this worry justified? I think you use something similar to raise a slurry in your videos. Curious about your thoughts.

    • HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social
      1·
      14 days ago

      You know, I’ve seen you mention this a time or two and I think noticed it elsewhere but still have yet to try it. Next razor I’m going to try and remember to bring some peanuts around. Usually I just try to get it shaving arm hair to determine if a bevel is set and then I cut an unsupported strand of hair as the final test but this does seem more convenient and might offer better feedback for the stages in between.

      I looked to your videos for a bit more detail and found this, thanks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieTUQM0YwZA

      Also, I’m curious which microscope you use? …nevermind, you answer in a comment here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmD7UJ6e0II&lc=Ugz6_cFe2Rd5nqrJzZp4AaABAg.A86bp_jlZxrA87yuAG-1oY that it’s this one https://www.dinolite.us/products/usb-microscopes/am73515mt8a/