I couldn't quit while I was ahead! In my quest to wrangle a servicable shave-ready edge out of jnats, I finally coaxed a darn near outstanding edge from my Ozuku Asagi. I got there after dulling what was a shave-ready gold dollar from Buca, via the following progression:
Bevel Set:
Ikarashi, 4K Gesshin Synthetic, Takashima, Ozuku + Tenjyou, Ozuku + Mejiro, Ozuku + tomo. After finishing the tomo breakdown, I did HHT and got barely a 1. Stropped on cotton, followed by leather, and was getting HHT3 and/or 4 roughly.
Had a shave with it, and it was outstanding! Wasn't quite as smooth as a pro honed jnat finished edge, but was still among the sharpest I have shaved with. I really enjoyed shaving with the edge and it held up for 3-4 shaves before I got the honing itch.
So I decided (not sure why) to see if I could further refine it or touch it up. I made tomo slurry on the finisher, went to work, and ended up with a much worse edge. I tried to further refine or polish and it only got worse. Then after working through a few dulutions of the broken down slurry, it was still performing more poorly than before I took it to the stones again. Edge is inconsistent with HHT - getting some HHT3 and occasional 4, but also some 0-1. Is this what is referred to as cooking the edge?
A few questions:
How low in progression do you think I need to go to get this back to operational? Is it common to have to reset bevel after screwing up an edge? Since I need practice, I don't mind dropping all the way back down, but for my nicer razors, it would be nice to know what is the least amount of work that could get me where I want to be.
Is it normal to see a complete inability to pop hairs in a HHT test immediately off the stone, but then to get a HHT4 or so after stropping? That seems a bit concerning in that I commonly hear honers reporting HHT4's right off the stone. Does this reflect an incorrect bevel set, or just perhaps a residual burr that gets cleaned on cotton weave?
Thanks for the help - I have a lot more practice to do, but curious about whether my experiences are common of if there is any wisdom that could help me push past this.
Bevel Set:
Ikarashi, 4K Gesshin Synthetic, Takashima, Ozuku + Tenjyou, Ozuku + Mejiro, Ozuku + tomo. After finishing the tomo breakdown, I did HHT and got barely a 1. Stropped on cotton, followed by leather, and was getting HHT3 and/or 4 roughly.
Had a shave with it, and it was outstanding! Wasn't quite as smooth as a pro honed jnat finished edge, but was still among the sharpest I have shaved with. I really enjoyed shaving with the edge and it held up for 3-4 shaves before I got the honing itch.
So I decided (not sure why) to see if I could further refine it or touch it up. I made tomo slurry on the finisher, went to work, and ended up with a much worse edge. I tried to further refine or polish and it only got worse. Then after working through a few dulutions of the broken down slurry, it was still performing more poorly than before I took it to the stones again. Edge is inconsistent with HHT - getting some HHT3 and occasional 4, but also some 0-1. Is this what is referred to as cooking the edge?
A few questions:
How low in progression do you think I need to go to get this back to operational? Is it common to have to reset bevel after screwing up an edge? Since I need practice, I don't mind dropping all the way back down, but for my nicer razors, it would be nice to know what is the least amount of work that could get me where I want to be.
Is it normal to see a complete inability to pop hairs in a HHT test immediately off the stone, but then to get a HHT4 or so after stropping? That seems a bit concerning in that I commonly hear honers reporting HHT4's right off the stone. Does this reflect an incorrect bevel set, or just perhaps a residual burr that gets cleaned on cotton weave?
Thanks for the help - I have a lot more practice to do, but curious about whether my experiences are common of if there is any wisdom that could help me push past this.
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