Zowada Time

Use a straight. You know it makes sense.
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drmoss_ca
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Zowada Time

Post by drmoss_ca »

I'm lucky enough to have eight TZ damascus razors, one from his early days and seven from the era when Tim had got into his stride. These, along with all the others on the Wall of Shame, have returned home now my office has been sold. My nicest razors have ended up in two display cases on my bedroom wall, and I have been working my way around them in turn. Tim has recommended in the past a double-bevel method of honing using two, then one layer of electrical tape. I decided some years back that they were so hard that they could withstand a narrower bevel angle and committed myself to honing them with no tape at all. This has worked well, and my only hesitation about using them is the fact they are carbon steel and our summers are humid. I don't think leaving them for someone else to use makes much sense, so I'm enjoying them as much as I can. I'm bothering to oil each one before it goes back in the display case so I think I'm avoiding rust issues.
I know they are far harder than the mild steel that used to be used in Sheffield razors, but I was curious to see what happened when using the traditional pastes after my usual touch-up honing. That's been described before, but it involves a Norton Arkansas stone that has been lapped with a 2k diamond plate (it's the scratch pattern from the 2k plate that does the work, just as on Spyderco ceramics, and the effective grit is around 8k) followed by a 20k Suehiro Gokumyo. I've followed that with paddle strops with Dovo Red paste, HandAmerican Liquid Chrome, and Herold Black paste. They are absolutely exquisite! Silent shaves with no resistance or tugging even with a three day beard. The results are close enough that I generally stop after a single WTG pass, although I confess I still go ATG sometimes just for the fun of it, and still feel no resistance even on the toughest area between my larynx and my chin. Delightful! If you think you can stretch to ordering one I can only say go ahead and do it - you won't regret it.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
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drmoss_ca
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Re: Zowada Time

Post by drmoss_ca »

Well, good bloody God. I just had a knock at the door and an old guy presented me with a lovely old bench hone with two leather surfaces impressed "Lipshaw Mfg. Co., Detroit USA". It seems I 'fixed him up' after he slipped on the ice a few years ago and he thought I ought to have it, despite his wife's advice 'not to bother that fellow'. He saw my Wall of Shame in the office and remembered my interest in such things. 'I'm going to die soon, it's on both my kidneys' he said, so what a nice thought. If you reap what you sow, I must have planted one or two seeds in the right spot. Straight razors bring out the very best in people.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
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Brutus
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Location: Vancouver (Canada), Coimbra (Portugal)

Re: Zowada Time

Post by Brutus »

Very kind of this fellow - even more so in his condition, when he has other things to worry about.
Hope he can enjoy the time that he has left.

B.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
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