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cmh737 Straight Venture Journal Continued
- Thread starter cmh737
- Start date
Thanks Chris, great shot and shave, the edge should mellow a bit, I hope you like it.
Well, actually, I use the term, "retail" to differentiate between any soap that is available for purchase, vice the home-made soaps of Chris L and Walt. Maybe I should say, "commercial" going forward? I'm open to suggestions.
Use what you like, I just wanted to understand where you were coming from. I'd still not lump artisan soaps under the "commercial" label. But that's just me.
Sounds like a great scent! Might have to actually pick up something by Stirling.
Thanks, Doug.
Thanks, Dave. You definitely know how to hone a razor!
Roger that, Chad!
Well, I'm just trying to come up with a way to differentiate any soap that is available for purchase, whether it's from a major corporation, or artisan, versus the ones from CBL and Walt that they have made themselves and graciously PIF'd.
Oh it's a great scent, no doubt. I definitely dig me some Stirling soaps!
SR Shave #589:
Today was a very interesting shave. I'll explain in a moment, but first....
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but in addition to the soft and hard Arks that I got a few weeks ago, I recently got a couple of more Arks; specifically, a "black translucent" from Natural Whetstone (6 x 2 x 1), and a translucent (white) from Dan's Whetstone (6 x 2 x 1). Now, I know what you're thinking - I just got the surgical black back from Dave getting it to working order, why would I want another? Good question, and the answers are: the one that Dave worked on is a Dan's Whetstone ark that is 8 x 3 x 1/2, and I was curious as to how a 6 x 2 x 1 might be in comparison. Also, I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference between the surgical black and the translucent. And finally, I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference between a stone from Dan's and a stone from Natural Whetstone.
OK, so the translucent that I got from Dan's, the white one, I unfortunately had to send back. On one side, it had 4 pinholes, and on the other side it had one. But they were deep enough that I didn't think I'd be able to lap them out. Plus, I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't be detrimental to the razor's edge. The folks at Dan's were very nice when I called to explain the stone's "flaws", and I'm getting an exchange. However, they are out of the trans Arks in that size and it could be months before another one is available, so I just asked if they'd exchange it with a black Ark in the same size. They said they'd be happy to do that. So it is currently in the mail. Actually, that's kind of cool in that I can now directly compare two different black Arks from Dan's.
Now, the "black translucent" from Natural Whetstone is very nice looking stone indeed; it's a very dark grey stone, with some color striations of black and grey throughout. I prepped the stone with Silicon Carbide powder on glass (50 grit, 120, 220, 400, 600) then finished on 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, about 20 minutes each grit. Then did 20 minutes of dry honing with a beater razor. The surface, visually, is shiny, but not quite crystal clear mirror-like. But the feel while honing is awesome - it's smooth as all get out - like gliding on a sheet of ice! So yesterday, I decided to dry hone some more with a "good" razor, just for the heck of it - the Hayashi Diamond 1000 that I had honed with an all Ark progression before sending the black to Dave. I remember thinking that the edge was smooth, but needed to be sharper; so why not try this new trans ark out by dry honing, which is something I've heard people do.
So here we are with today's shave, and the "interesting" part. I'm not sure if it made the edge sharper, but it is butter smooth! So smooth, that after the first pass, I thought it was a bust and there was no way that I'd even get past SAS. But I decided to go for a second pass. Hey....not bad. Like I said, not sharp like I prefer my edges, but it's getting the job done. So I decided to pursue a third pass, and voila - I ended up DFS(+)/BBS(-). Crazy! I would have sworn this wasn't going to get the job done, but BOOM! And like I said, so smooth that I was wielding the blade around almost "carelessly" with reckless abandon. It's definitely one of the strangest results I've ever got.
Now, I do prefer a sharper edge, so this one isn't one of my favorites, but it did work surprisingly well.
Alrighty, enough with the honing talk. The Rudy Vey Shavemac 3-band silvertip whipped up a nice Tabac lather, but the GTB was the real star of the show - my goodness, how I dig the GTB!
Today was a very interesting shave. I'll explain in a moment, but first....
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but in addition to the soft and hard Arks that I got a few weeks ago, I recently got a couple of more Arks; specifically, a "black translucent" from Natural Whetstone (6 x 2 x 1), and a translucent (white) from Dan's Whetstone (6 x 2 x 1). Now, I know what you're thinking - I just got the surgical black back from Dave getting it to working order, why would I want another? Good question, and the answers are: the one that Dave worked on is a Dan's Whetstone ark that is 8 x 3 x 1/2, and I was curious as to how a 6 x 2 x 1 might be in comparison. Also, I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference between the surgical black and the translucent. And finally, I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference between a stone from Dan's and a stone from Natural Whetstone.
OK, so the translucent that I got from Dan's, the white one, I unfortunately had to send back. On one side, it had 4 pinholes, and on the other side it had one. But they were deep enough that I didn't think I'd be able to lap them out. Plus, I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't be detrimental to the razor's edge. The folks at Dan's were very nice when I called to explain the stone's "flaws", and I'm getting an exchange. However, they are out of the trans Arks in that size and it could be months before another one is available, so I just asked if they'd exchange it with a black Ark in the same size. They said they'd be happy to do that. So it is currently in the mail. Actually, that's kind of cool in that I can now directly compare two different black Arks from Dan's.
Now, the "black translucent" from Natural Whetstone is very nice looking stone indeed; it's a very dark grey stone, with some color striations of black and grey throughout. I prepped the stone with Silicon Carbide powder on glass (50 grit, 120, 220, 400, 600) then finished on 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, about 20 minutes each grit. Then did 20 minutes of dry honing with a beater razor. The surface, visually, is shiny, but not quite crystal clear mirror-like. But the feel while honing is awesome - it's smooth as all get out - like gliding on a sheet of ice! So yesterday, I decided to dry hone some more with a "good" razor, just for the heck of it - the Hayashi Diamond 1000 that I had honed with an all Ark progression before sending the black to Dave. I remember thinking that the edge was smooth, but needed to be sharper; so why not try this new trans ark out by dry honing, which is something I've heard people do.
So here we are with today's shave, and the "interesting" part. I'm not sure if it made the edge sharper, but it is butter smooth! So smooth, that after the first pass, I thought it was a bust and there was no way that I'd even get past SAS. But I decided to go for a second pass. Hey....not bad. Like I said, not sharp like I prefer my edges, but it's getting the job done. So I decided to pursue a third pass, and voila - I ended up DFS(+)/BBS(-). Crazy! I would have sworn this wasn't going to get the job done, but BOOM! And like I said, so smooth that I was wielding the blade around almost "carelessly" with reckless abandon. It's definitely one of the strangest results I've ever got.
Alrighty, enough with the honing talk. The Rudy Vey Shavemac 3-band silvertip whipped up a nice Tabac lather, but the GTB was the real star of the show - my goodness, how I dig the GTB!
Thanks, Josh. And yes, dry honed on the trans ark - kind of like one would use a barber's hone.
Thanks, Doug.
Thanks, Walt. And I used the razor that Dave honed just a couple of days ago. He put an excellent edge on the blade. I think another shave or two and it'll really settle in nicely.
SR Shave #590:
I decided to break out the Fili 14 this morning; this one:
I first gave it a few refresh laps on one of my coti bouts, but turns out I really didn't need to (this is actually one of my few coti success stories!). I did two wonderfully comfortable passes and was going to walk away with a perfectly acceptable DFS, but I was enjoying the soap and the edge so much that I pushed my luck and opted for a third pass. Well, like I mentioned, I really didn't need to refresh this edge. The third pass left me with a couple of weepers that just magically appeared following the aftershave, and the a/s made its presence felt. I really know better, but I still call this a great shave!
The soap today was great. I still have some of Walt's first soap, the MVM Beta 1.0; and the Doug Korn w/Ubersoft synthetic really whipped up an awesome lather - slick and nice post shave moisturizing. The scent is still present, and is a really nice, clean, fresh scent. There are many aftershave and frag options with this one. I chose to go with Chiseled Face Santa Paula a/s, and then Creed Imperial EdP. Great combo!
I'll be off to work later this evening. Hope everyone has a good weekend!
I decided to break out the Fili 14 this morning; this one:
I first gave it a few refresh laps on one of my coti bouts, but turns out I really didn't need to (this is actually one of my few coti success stories!). I did two wonderfully comfortable passes and was going to walk away with a perfectly acceptable DFS, but I was enjoying the soap and the edge so much that I pushed my luck and opted for a third pass. Well, like I mentioned, I really didn't need to refresh this edge. The third pass left me with a couple of weepers that just magically appeared following the aftershave, and the a/s made its presence felt. I really know better, but I still call this a great shave!
The soap today was great. I still have some of Walt's first soap, the MVM Beta 1.0; and the Doug Korn w/Ubersoft synthetic really whipped up an awesome lather - slick and nice post shave moisturizing. The scent is still present, and is a really nice, clean, fresh scent. There are many aftershave and frag options with this one. I chose to go with Chiseled Face Santa Paula a/s, and then Creed Imperial EdP. Great combo!
I'll be off to work later this evening. Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Thanks, Doug. I have to say that a Fili definitely lives up to all the hype.
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks, Chad.
Nice reads and nice blades, Chris.
dkeester
"TSC's Master of Bourbon"
I think I am going to save up my pennies to get a Koraat 14 2.0. Hopefully it will have at least similar performance to a Fili 14.
You won't be disappointed. I almost think my 2.0 is better than my Novodur and EPBD.
Interesting shaves, Chris! The dry Ark hone is intriguing to me...