Touchup for the Saitō: asano progression to tomo.
Hones of the day
- Thread starter Substance
- Start date
Synthetic progression from 1K (bevel set), 3k, 5k. It was shaving leg hair at 5k. Then made a slurry with the tomo and worked my way up, diluting to only water. Stropped on linen then leather. From the shave, the edge was buttery smooth (so this is a 'jnat' edge), but didn't feel as though it was shaving as keenly as I like. I've also finished a few other razors with this stone to see if it was just this razor I'm having a problem with.
Been too long: back to an Ark edge for tomorrow's shave... 
Something special about heavier grinds on a coticule...
Asano progression on Ozuku. HHT suggests a lovely shave awaits...
Went HAM on a 1K diamond plate to fix the heel and toe problems on this razor (check out the uneven hone wear on the spine), then Naniwa progression 1K, 4K, 8K, to finish on the ozuku with light tomo slurry and water. No tape this time. Light edge leading strokes on the ozuku until it got 'sticky.' Getting a lot closer to where I want to be with the edge. But wondering if investment into a full nagura progression would be worth it.
How hard is that stone? Could you move from a bevel setter to it with diamond slurry, or is it purely a finisher?
It's pretty hard. Feels as hard, if not harder than the Adaee. Harder than the Sungari. I've only used it as a finisher to this point. I may give it a go with the slurry from the akapin off a 4k bevel set.
Yep. I'd figure out what it's full range looks like before investing in nagura. I mean, you'll probably end up there anyway, but it can't hurt to delay the inevitable!
Asano progression on Ozuku. HHT suggests a lovely shave awaits...
Am I the only one here who finds these the use of these mysterious odd-shaped rocks to be a black art? Back in my former life as a blacksmith, when I used to shave (face only) with a western kamisori (made by myself) and a couple of other much less satisfactory razors (Gold Dollar and Dovo), I was content with my Arkansas as a finisher (not counting a few touches of the strop), and the resulting GBS(*) was about as good as anything I had achieved with a DE.
Would anyone care to enlighten us to what these rocks do? Or do we have to learn Japanese to join the cognoscenti? And what are cognoscenti in Japanese anyway?
* Goddess Boobies Smooth, a term coined by our late friend @Mastropiero, whose name still ironically pops up here as the most recent contributor to our Charity Auction thread before he too was untimely claimed by cancer.
There's nothing magical about it. Nagura are just a relatively fine grained slurry stone that allow you to refine/polish your bevel.
They don't necessarily make for a better edge than an Ark, but it does feel different (to me, at least).
They are also nice to work with: the slurry imparts a lovely feel on the stone, especially on a very hard one like the Ozuku above.
Tooling around. I have a tiny 3x7cm coticule that I picked up a while back which I used as a slurry stone for the Sungari. Dulicot hone off a Shapton 5k bevel set, and then finished on the Adaee with just water until stick-ion occurred. I did achieve HHT, but just not sure how good the edge is going to be. I'll find out next shave.
Fili 14 on a Charnley Forest with WD40. HHT was wicked.
Two coticules, one Friodur. Dilucot on the LV and then on to an oil finish on the vintage. HHT was good off the LV, and improved off the vintage.
Roman's edge was great, but you haven't really broken in a new razor until you've put your own edge on it...
Iromono with diamond slurry to asano progression on Ozuku. Shave in the morning.
Iromono with diamond slurry to asano progression on Ozuku. Shave in the morning.
Touch up on the Ozuku: botan → koma.
Quick touchup: very light slurry to running water. HHT was good off the stone, stellar after linen. Shave tomorrow morning should be a delight.
