Hone of the day.

Steve56

Forum GOD!
I’m playing around with a stone that I’ve had for a while - a fitted stand kiita that’s a razor finisher, also an old style maru-ka. It’s a light yellow with a greenish tint in some light, and I’ve gotten some mixed results with it. Sometimes the edges are fantastic and sometimes just average, so I’m going to try and figure it out. It’s either sensitive to the nagura or I haven’t been conscientious enough about making sure that my razor is well enough prepped before going to the stone. Probably that latter, lol.

Anyway, the victim tonight is a user grade Filly 14, no wash, little etch, some pitting but very near full width. It makes a good test razor because like most F14s that haven’t been abused, it is capable of taking a splendid edge so using it to test takes razor quality out of the equation. The nagura is a piece of deep strata kiita from AlexGilmore’s hoard stones, and I’ve never used it with this stone before. The nagura is known ‘good’ from use with several other stones. So let’s see what the hone can do. HHT was silent root in or out.

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MichaelS

Forum GOD!
Just refreshed a 'W. Alliott' 6/8 Sheffield razor. The one previous time I honed it (synthetics) it took a great edge, soooo....

Still very sharp so straight to a Nakayama Asagi + Tomo (both from The Japan Knife Shop in Germany). Hard stones, I needed help from a diamond card to generate even thin slurry on the Tomo. About 20 passes.

Then to a Surgical Black Ark with Camelia oil, this time 50+ passes (nothing seems to be happening, but have faith it is :))

One of my best shaves in a long time, very keen and totally non threatening. Did I get lucky? Only honing more blades this way will confirm one way or the other.

 

Steve56

Forum GOD!
Russell is going to be very happy - the Cape 2000 is one of my all time favorite Japanese razors. It’s a bit thinner and more hollow than the 1000, but not by a huge amount.

The razor on the left has the slightest wear, the middle and right I bought NOS. Alfredo Gil (Doc226) did the honey horn scales.

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BlacknTan

Forum GOD!
Russell is going to be very happy - the Cape 2000 is one of my all time favorite Japanese razors. It’s a bit thinner and more hollow than the 1000, but not by a huge amount.

The razor on the left has the slightest wear, the middle and right I bought NOS. Alfredo Gil (Doc226) did the honey horn scales.

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Those horn scales are very nice, Steve!!
 
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Steve56

Forum GOD!
This one is for my friend Scott over at TSD, a Thuri/jnat comparison. The razors are the ones I used in the above comparison, so they were already shave-ready edges, just from a different stone.

The jnat is one of my favorites, unknown mine but makes an incredibly smooth edge. Razor M-10 got 2 sets of 20 circles and ellipses on light slurry, followed by 25 linear strokes and 10 clear water strokes. Razor M-11 got the same minus the clear water jnat strokes, and was finished with 30 clear water strokes on a 10 x 2 Thuri, an Escher according to knowledgeable Thuri people because Escher was the only company that cut them this size - they were for the US market. The bevel was shinier than the jnat bevel.

Both tested great with HHT root in or root out, though I believe the jnat is a little keener/sharper, but not by much. This jnat doesn’t always HHT test as well as some others, but there’s no denying the smooth edge that it makes so it seemed like a good one to throw at the thuri.

Shave tomorrow, should be fun.

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Zwilling

Kamisori shaver
I have been getting used to my new Shobudani. I put a new edge on my Iwasaki, using a Tenjou nagura slurry, followed by my new Nakayama tomo, followed by 20 clear water strokes. A lovely smooth and keen edge, the best I’ve gotten out of this razor yet.

The Shobudani is great and easy to use compared to my Takashima and my Ozuku. There is a small hairline crack that you can see, but it does not go all the way through to the bottom, and cannot be felt. I have a feeling it is fold between layers that will lap out, but I haven’t bothered to because it poses no problem.

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I probably have the Iwasaki on the stone a bit more often than I should, but why baby these razors after all? A barber would be honing it everyday.
 

BlacknTan

Forum GOD!
I have been getting used to my new Shobudani. I put a new edge on my Iwasaki, using a Tenjou nagura slurry, followed by my new Nakayama tomo, followed by 20 clear water strokes. A lovely smooth and keen edge, the best I’ve gotten out of this razor yet.

The Shobudani is great and easy to use compared to my Takashima and my Ozuku. There is a small hairline crack that you can see, but it does not go all the way through to the bottom, and cannot be felt. I have a feeling it is fold between layers that will lap out, but I haven’t bothered to because it poses no problem.

View attachment 83260

I probably have the Iwasaki on the stone a bit more often than I should, but why baby these razors after all? A barber would be honing it everyday.

That's a very pretty Shoubudani!
 

Steve56

Forum GOD!
Testing a stone from Takeshi, not really a kiita as advertised (more green than yellow), but a very pleasant light green and a full sized stone at a reasonable price. It’s a very easy to use hardness, not so hard. The test Filly was finished on medium slurry, a little thicker than I usually use, to kind of feel out how fine it is. The shave was very smooth, and just slightly ‘hot’ on some parts of my face, but the important thing is that the smoothness was there. Next up, a little thinner slurry and/or clear water finish.

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