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Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:34 pm
by EL Alamein
Good to go for today! Nice comfortable shave with a very keen edge. The hone had been roughed quite well with an 8K diamond plate.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:51 pm
by EL Alamein
Well the week went well with the Eagle giving excellent shaves until yesterday when I felt a tad harshness from it. Not much mind you but enough to signal it may be time to hone.
For the Easter Feast I retrieved Magic Strop from the Chateau's Bunker location. I wanted to see if it could tame the harshness and deliver a better shave for today (Sunday). I stropped as normally on magic strop and shaved this morning and the ensuing shave was indeed excellent yet not quite as smooth at the end as I would have liked nor as it would normally be. So the edge is fading a bit but still I am always amazed at what this strop can do. I should submit it to a lab for testing to see what it's been treated with all those decades ago when it was supposedly used in a Barber shop. I have a hunch there might be graphite in the leather portion as it's very dark - near shoe polish black. I have an NOS version of Magic Strop (though not exact) and the leather isn't nearly as dark (nor as pliant) and the linens are different too. The linen on Magic Strop is more pliant lacking the stiff wax coating of it's NOS cousin and it seems to be treated with an earlier formulation of the Dovo White Paste for linens. That paste, though, seems to be all dried up and you can see hard chunks of it at the top of the linen (they're very minute though) and it leaves no residue whatsoever (contrary to the modern version of the Dovo White). It's more like dried spackle!
Anyway I honed the Eagle tonight in preparation for the week coming so it's good and keen. I'll be using Magic Strop for the next few weeks instead of my usual these days just to see if it can make any difference.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 5:34 pm
by EL Alamein
Gosh, just a wonderful shave today. An there still is a lot of magic left in Magic Strop!
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 6:08 pm
by EL Alamein
So I gotta say that the shave today was fantastic and I'm still using magic strop. I tell ya, there is something about this vintage strop that is just very different.
By now I'm usually getting a hint of harshness in the edge and so far I'm not. Now this could change with tomorrow's shave and I wouldn't be surprised but still I'm enamored with the qualities of this strop and it's ability to maintain a smooth keen edge. Let's see how long this will go.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 6:18 pm
by EL Alamein
Shaved today and the blade was pulling a tad so it got honed. So magic strop moved the goal a bit forward but not much. We'll see how long this can go on.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 5:35 pm
by EL Alamein
Great shave today from the freshly honed blade. Just nothing like it.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:01 pm
by EL Alamein
The TI is still going. I've switched things up a bit so I will see how long this lasts.
I'll let you know what I did when the edge dies.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:42 pm
by EL Alamein
The Eagle is still going . . .
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:10 pm
by EL Alamein
Saturday I got a decent shave but it started to pull ever so slightly so off to the hone it went for the work week ahead. Working a treat and I am curious to see how long this goes as well. My switch up last week pulled an extra week out of the edge with no problem and that was after the edge started to decline a bit. I'll be curious to see how following this switch up fairs directly from a fresh honing.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 5:34 pm
by EL Alamein
So far still going.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 5:45 pm
by EL Alamein
Still going strong.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 6:37 pm
by EL Alamein
Still going strong!
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 5:36 pm
by EL Alamein
Still going strong!
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 7:33 pm
by EL Alamein
Well, yesterday (Saturday), the blade displayed some tugging so I knew it was time for a touch-up.
So it's been nearly two months since it's last honing and I attribute the longevity of the edge to my switch-up. And what was that? I stropped on a taut strop with pressure. However, if the blade seemed like it ever needed a little extra keenness I let the strop lax a bit for 10-12 passes, with pressure, on the linen followed by 60 round trips with the strop held taut with pressure. All my leather passes were made with a taut strop no matter what the state of the blade was.
Today I did 20 round-trips on the Crox strop then followed by my normal taut strop routine on linen (40) then leather (60). The shave was excellent and smooth, Let's see how long I can keep this routine up without having to go back to the hone.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:38 pm
by EL Alamein
Friday I crox stropped the Eagle again (crox strop held taut as possible) as it seemed to loose some keeness by Thursday. I gave it 40 round trips this time on that strop. Then I proceeded on the linen and leather as usual. Smooth, effortless shave ever since.
Saturday (yesterday) I changed the normal stropping routine to an X stroke on linen and leather as opposed to my normal routine of back and forth. BUT I followed my X stroke with maybe three or four back and forth strokes. Results so far are excellent. I'll keep this up and see how long the edge lasts.
My goal is to see how long I'll need before having to hit the hone again because the crox strop and normal strop no longer produce a comfortable, effortlessly keen shaving edge.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:16 pm
by EL Alamein
Wednesday of this week the Eagle seemed to need a touch up so again it went to the crox strop. I followed with my stropping routine of X strokes on linen then leather. All stropping on crox, linen and leather were taught and with pressure. So far smooth, effortless shaves.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 6:13 pm
by EL Alamein
Yesterday's shave with the Eagle seemed a bit rakey so today I opted for obscure French blade to reorient me to a freshly honed blade. The experience was excellent.
I'm thinking that the Eagle needs a bevel reset so off to the hone it will go one day this week.
More to come.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 6:21 pm
by EL Alamein
The Eagle got honed on Sunday. It was the usual routine of bread-knifing on the G20 followed by honing on the Arkansas slip stone (roughed on an 8K diamond plate) until it was slicing hairs on the back of my hand. The thumbnail test seems rather useless here as the edge is so smooth from the bread-knifing yet will still cut hairs with ease.
I followed with the usual crox stropping and I final stropping on vintage linen (treated with Dovo white paste) and vintage shell leather.
The shave Monday morning was superb. Today's shave (Tuesday) was also superb. Let's see how long the edge lasts.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 5:30 pm
by EL Alamein
Still going with an excellent shave again with the Eagle.
Chris
Re: Back to the basics
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:24 pm
by EL Alamein
Still going . . .
More to come.
Chris