What Did You Hone Today?

[drmoss_ca]

And it did outshine the newer 5/8 Super Gnome. The small stiff half hollow blade goes through stubble with that same quiet cloth-tearing sound that you hear from a big wedge. I'm going to say something I've said before: I could live happily with these razors. I guess I'm either lucky (or confused and unfortunate) to have so many razors I can say that about!

I'll stick with them for a while, and when the honing hug next comes upon me, I'll be trying out the stopping-at-the-coticule method on some others.

Chris

[drmoss_ca]

Another shave of two-day stubble to report, using the newer TI 5/8 Super Gnome. The razor has lost the brand-new edge feel, after being stropped three times, and is as close to the old one as makes no difference. I'm going to try an extra step just for fun, although I don't really feel the need to improve on perfection: a few strokes on the coticule with the glycerine/water mix I use on the Arkansas stones. I have read of people using oil, glycerine, or water-based honing solutions to get an extra fine edge on a coticule-honed razor. Will it add anything for me? We'll see.

C.

[drmoss_ca]

On the WTG pass I didn't feel or see any difference, but going ATG it was nearly without sensation. So, yes, the glycerine and water finishing stage on the coticule does add a little extra finesse to the edge.

Chris

[drmoss_ca]

Turns out I repeated myself today, deciding to try a coticule-only shave with one of the two Dovo EnVogue stainless razors that were my first straights, twenty years ago. They felt pretty sharp, so I just did the coticule under running water and then with glycerine and water. Stropped and used the one with blonde Micarta scales. Pretty nice, not quite as close as the SuperGnomes, and with some cutting sensation. End result very smooth though. I vaguely remembered I had liked them more during the Great Honing than I had back when I didn't know anything, so I looked them up. For some reason I had done exactly the same thing back in this post.
So I re-read what I'd written. I don't remember most of it, as I was in a bit of a whirl, trying to get honing done and perfected before going in for the transplant. Looks like I found the coticule-only shave was improved by adding either a black Ark or the 2k-lapped Spyderco UF, but I'm not sure I ever discovered if one was better, or if using both, what the order should be. I seem to have had the impression that the UF was a much faster hone and should the Ark be used after it, it would take a long time on the hone to improve things.
So having honed two razors of the same kind the same way today, and shaved with one of them, I have taken the other for a quick visit to the UF and tomorrow I'll see how it compares.

[drmoss_ca]

I don't think the UF added anything. My face was a tiny bit sore after the shave, but it was a consecutive day shave, not my usual (these days) two-day shave. I'll stick with the Super Gnomes finished on the coticule for now.

[drmoss_ca]

I don't seem to be able to help myself, and I took out the 6/8 Super Gnomes and re-did them on the coticule under running water. No glycerine, no UF, no finishing at all. One of them just gave me a superb shave.

[drmoss_ca]

And the second did well, also. So I dug out the other two 5/8 SuperGnomes and sharpened them on the Chosera 1k, BBW, and coticule as previously described. For the first times in a few years I also bought another razor from eBay, another 5/8 Super Gnome. It is an older one with the stamped tang, rather than the laser etched, but I'm not sure that means much as all my laser-etched Super Gnomes are STAMPED on the back of the tang with the factory number '275'. I don't think I was that smart 18 years ago when I recommended the Super Gnome to everyone, just lucky. Especially not smart if it has taken me 18 years to realise how lucky I was then.

[drmoss_ca]

I'm sad to discover that Thiers-Issard have discontinued all their half-hollow blades! Such is fashion, and I've written before that the fad for full-hollow blades was exactly that: a marketing arms race where one manufacturer claimed to have a sharper blade and the others had to follow.
I had one other half-hollow TI, other than the Super Gnomes, the "1937 Special Coiffeur" which I always suspected were Super Gnome seconds. Certainly mine had thin scales that have discoloured and become warped. But I honed it up and had a superb shave from it. So sensationless it was sensational, if you see what I mean! I'll have to heat and straighten those resin scales.
There are still a few out there to be had new, as at the Superior Shave, in white or black scales. These are 6/8 versions, the last 5/8 from knifecenter is on its way to me, and Superior Shave doesn't ship to Canada, so my hard luck might be your good luck! Anyway, I'll have a seven day set of Super Gnomes shortly (the seventh is coming from eBay), so it would be greed to collect more.

[drmoss_ca]

Blasted eBay razor is a disaster. It's been honed to death, unsuccessfully, as it's as blunt as a butter knife. It's now 4/8 instead of 5/8 and has been turned into an irregularly curved smile. I've had four goes at honing it on narrow hones with x-strokes and it still won't cut. "Shave ready" indeed!

[CMur12]

That's a disappointment, Chris.

For the most part, I do all right on eBay. But occasionally, I get burned, too.

- Murray

[drmoss_ca]

Having got the half-hollows as I like them I moved on. It's been nearly three years since I last honed and used the Zowada damascus razors:



So I have so far used two, and did nothing other than strop them. If I thought the TI half-hollows were good, these are showing me all things are relative! Very smooth, very close, and something else I've missed with the little 5/8 razors is having a decent sized shank to hold on to. Thin blades with thin shanks are fiddly for older fingers.

[drmoss_ca]

Shaving every other day, I just got through all the Zowada damascus blades. I'm going to stick with them until some other itch comes along. But there is some unfinished business: I honed my TI Super Gnomes with a coticule, but looking back I have previously found the Spyderco makes such lovely shavers even better. So I used the UF and tried out one of the two olivewood-scaled Super Gnomes today, which is why I have a silly grin on my smooth face. I'll use the other next shave, and then go back to the Zowadas.

C.

[drmoss_ca]

Last week I took out the seven day set of TI Eagle 6/8 razors. First time I've used a full hollow in a while, and it's been 2½ years since I last honed and used these razors. But simply stropping and shaving shows they have kept their edges. Given that I collected these nearly twenty years ago, I wonder whether I shouldn't have just used and enjoyed them instead of chasing after....whatever it was I was chasing. But I keep having that experience, I go back to razors and find them far better than I thought at the time. Perhaps it doesn't matter what you use, as long as you can hone it properly and know how to use it.
There was an old diagnostic set (an otoscope and ophthalmoscope) in a drawer in the office I bought, and since I had far nicer modern tools of that kind, I took the molded insert out of the case and fashioned from velvet, cardboard, glue and cotton wool a case to hold seven razors.