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Kingfisher's open blade (straight razors and shavettes) journey
- Thread starter kingfisher
- Start date
This is likely more info than you wanted. It is copied and pasted from another site, written by the guy who started the passaround:
Thing 1. The Balsa Strop.
Buy 3" wide balsa. Best to buy a 36" length. It is cheaper. Hobby Hut, Hobby Lobby, and other brick and mortars carries it. Or purchase online, at 3x the cost. 1/2" thick works well. Cut it into 3 12" pieces. For best results, which I believe are the only results worth pursuing, glue the balsa to a heavy piece of glass, or marble tile cut to size. Not wood. Not plastic. The idea is to bond the balsa to a dimensionally stable substrate, to fight the tendency of the balsa to warp.
The balsa must be lapped, for best results, which as I already pointed out, are the only type of results worth pursuing. Even if it looks flat and smooth. try 220 or 320 grit sandpaper. Or 400. Whatevah. Or a progression. Spray the back side of the sandpaper with Loctite or 3M spray adhesive. Just a faint dusting of the adhesive works great. Carefully stick the sandpaper to a polished granite countertop or a large heavy piece of glass. The flatter, the better. Eyeball flat is not good enough. Make sure the sandpaper goes on smooth and tight with no bubbles or wrinkles. This is extremely important. Now place the balsa face down on the sandpaper and carefully rub rub rub. When you see you have created a whole new surface, obviously the balsa is now as flat as the sandpaper. So, the flatter, the better.
Thing 2. The Diamond Paste.
I have not experimented much yet with finer grits than .1u, so that is the finest I can authoritively comment on. You need .1u, and .25u, and .5u. If you made 3 pieces, that works out well. I get mine from http://www.tedpella.com but there are a lot of vendors. It is sold in as high as 50% diamond but there is no need to go over 10%. The reason is, less is more. You want the diamond crystals embedded into the balsa, not rolling and scooting around on top of it. You can also get 1u and 3u, both of which are handy for polishing even if you dont use them on balsa much or at all.
Thing 3. Putting it all together.
It only takes a little bit. If you think you got enough, then you probably have about 3x too much. You MUST NOT have a coating on the balsa. You want a very small amount, rubbed in to the balsa. About 1/3 of a pinto bean worth or a bit less. Spread it around and rub it in good. You can thin it down with acetone or something if you like, for better distribution. Now, this is very important. It doesn't matter if you contaminate a coarse grit with a finer one. But you must NEVER let a coarser grit contaminate a finer one. the way it works is each stage makes scratches in the steel, the size of which is determined by the grit size. Each grit must totally eliminate the coarser scratches of the previous grit, replacing it with its own finer scratches. Even a few crystals of a coarser grit basically ruin your results from the finer grit. So, always clean your hands thoroughly when going from grit to grit. Applying diamond to the balsa, start with the finer grit first. Label it by writing the grit size on the ends of the balsa. Do the .1u balsa, then the .25u balsa, then the .5u balsa, etc. Now the proper sign is μ which stands for micron, but we usually use "u" because it is right there on the keyboard.
Thing 4. Using it.
You COULD just use the balsa to touch up an edge that is failing, but I prefer to hit it after every shave, so I never experience a dull or dulling edge. At least, not often. I go 2 or 3 dozen laps on the .25u, then a like number on the .1u. Fairly light pressure. Edge trailing. Use a slight x stroke even though the balsa is wider than the razor's edge. Always wipe the blade VERY WELL after stropping on a pasted balsa or between grits. You MUST NOT contaminate the finer balsa with coarser diamond, or get any diamond on your regular leather hanging strop. You will NOT GET BEST RESULTS if that happens. And best results are the only results worth pursuing. Sometimes I skip the .25u and just go 4 dozen laps on the .1u. I finish by laying the blade on the balsa and drawing it straight across and off the balsa. This helps to remove any fin edge. Occasionally it will seem like my edge is starting to go north on me, and that is when I go with the .5u or 1u. I strop until I am satisfied with the way the razor treetops forearm hair, then I hit my finer grits as usual.
Thing 5. Improving it.
After final stropping on diamond/balsa, I like to give my razor a special treat. I keep a piece of 1/16" thick, 3"wide balsa unpasted. I rest one end on a bench or counter or table, and hold the other end in my left hand. I strop on this very flexible unpasted balsa sheet, letting it sag slightly, about like a hanging strop drawn moderately tight. This seems to remove any vestiges of fin edge much better than linen. I am still experimenting with this technique but it is definitely an improvement.
Thing 5. Maintaining it.
After a few weeks, you may find that the balsa needs a refresh of diamond. You could just add a bit more, about half of what you used when you first pasted the balsa, but for BEST POSSIBLE results, which are the only kind of results worth pursuing, go ahead and re-lap the balsa. Sure, you got it flat, but it isn't flat anymore. Flatter is better.
Thing 6.. Other abrasives.
I have been asked again and again if CrOx (Chromium Oxide) won't work. Yes, it does work. I just don't believe it works as well as diamond. First of all there is basically only one grade of CrOx. Call it .5u, or call it .3u. The particle variation is so wide that it is practically the same whichever way you call it. If you use CrOx and you want to go finer, get some FeOx, or Iron Oxide, which runs around .1u grit size. Yes, they are cheaper than diamond. But you use so little, the cost is irrelevant. I strongly recommend going with diamond. Best possible results, right? You might also take a look at CBN, Cubic Nitride Boron or something like that. The new thing.
IN CLOSING, I just want to say that this works. I basically never have to re-hone a razor that I have maintained with this method. YMMV, I am sure, but there is no reason not to try it my way. Hardly any steel is lost even in daily use. 1u is approximately equivelant to a 12k Naniwa Superstone. .1u of course is 10x finer. Some naysayers will state that this will surely cause a harsh edge. I use this method and the only kind of edges I get are sh-sh-sh-sh-SHARRRRRRRPPPPPPPP ones. Give it a go, and if you do it right you will love it.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
The balsa strop came included with the passaround. I did not make it. But, using the instructions above, I feel like I could do it. It doesn't feel anywhere near as overwhelming as, for example, thinking about honing with stones.
They only included one grit in the passaround. I am assuming it is the finest grit. The guy who started the passaround put the blades through the other grits prior to sending the razors and the balsa strop out on its journey.
As with others pasted balsa is intriguing. I did find a nice picture of a Kingfisher in my web wanderings
Nice, but that's not me. That's my cousin.
This morning I didn't have time for a straight razor shave.
So, to keep things interesting, I decided to shave with stuff I never, or hardly ever, use. So, I grabbed the Feather AS-D2 head and loaded it with a fresh Polsilver blade. Then I grabbed a handle I haven't use in a year or more, the iKon Tuckaway handle. I have a real Gillette Tuckaway, and this handle is slightly longer than the real deal, and certainly heavier, but it's still a short little thing. Kinda cute, I guess.
I decided to change it up with the soap, too, so I used a soap that I found last Saturday when I was cleaning up. I don't have it in the original container, but I remembered that it was one of Maria's soaps from Through the Fire Fine Craft. I believe it is the scent they called "Ignite." This stuff smells AMAZING. I mean, truly. One of the three best scents I have ever tried in a soap. I just LOVE it. I think they have discontinued this scent, but I don't know that for sure. These are the scent notes: orange, mandarin, mango, peach, lime, jasmine, and orange flowers. Wow. Fantastic!
If it was discontinued, I think it was because the soap lived up to its name a bit too well. There were a lot of complaints about tingling or burning from this soap. I remembered that I had tried it a long time ago and had noticed some tingling myself, so I was a bit trepidatious about using it again, but I had to try.
So, it lathered up really quickly and easily. I believe it is a non-tallow soap with a formula similar to that of MdC, but I could be wrong about this, too. Anyway, the lather was a bit foamier than my favorite soaps, but it did the job pretty well. Post-shave face feel was so-so, at best, which is about what I expected given the style of soap it is.
I did two passes with the midget AS-D2 and the fresh Polsilver and the shave was CCS+. Really an enjoyable shave. Maybe I should use this tiny little handle more often. It seemed to balance really well with the AS-D2 head.
Anyway, I had a good shave. I did notice just a tiny bit of tingling again with this soap. I can't decide whether that means I should PIF it, or whether I should endure the little bit of tingling so I can enjoy this amazing scent.
Hope y'all are having a good day today and that you will enjoy your weekend. I'm going back to the wicked sharp pass-around straight razor tomorrow.
CCLXIV this morning.
I decided not to go to the balsa last night, but rather just stropped the razor. So it was a second shave after the last sharpening.
The razor was still RIDICULOUSLY sharp. I used RazoRock What the Puck? soap and had a nice lather, but I ended up with three tiny weepers. Not sure if I caught the tip or what. The What the Puck lather is so thick it's hard to see where the point is, so maybe that's what happened.
But the razor sharpness is off the chart. Like a Feather Pro Super on its first use, at least.
I think if I were to adopt this pasted balsa method I would perhaps just use it every 7 shaves or so. The edge would settle nicely after 3 or 4 shaves, I think. The guy who promotes this method loves his edges this sharp. I guess if I kept doing it forever my technique would evolve to a lighter touch and a shallower angle and maybe it would be just awesome.
But for now it seems a bit too exfoliating and a bit too dangerous. I'd rather have a JNAT edge that is sharp, but much smoother than this one.
I decided not to go to the balsa last night, but rather just stropped the razor. So it was a second shave after the last sharpening.
The razor was still RIDICULOUSLY sharp. I used RazoRock What the Puck? soap and had a nice lather, but I ended up with three tiny weepers. Not sure if I caught the tip or what. The What the Puck lather is so thick it's hard to see where the point is, so maybe that's what happened.
But the razor sharpness is off the chart. Like a Feather Pro Super on its first use, at least.
I think if I were to adopt this pasted balsa method I would perhaps just use it every 7 shaves or so. The edge would settle nicely after 3 or 4 shaves, I think. The guy who promotes this method loves his edges this sharp. I guess if I kept doing it forever my technique would evolve to a lighter touch and a shallower angle and maybe it would be just awesome.
But for now it seems a bit too exfoliating and a bit too dangerous. I'd rather have a JNAT edge that is sharp, but much smoother than this one.
But at least you tried that method and now have another tool in your repertoire to use if the need ever arises! Nice experience overall...even if you won't use it a lot!
Yep! (And see below; may be using it more?.....)
CCLXV this morning.
I decided to fire up the other razor, which, as I mentioned, is clearly a shorty. I didn't measure the blade length but it was maybe just a bit longer than a typical AC blade, which means that the tang on this razor is really long (a lot like the folding Feather SS).
It was kind of difficult to strop, too, because the pin is a bit loose, so while I was trying to strop, the scales kept wanting to open more and more and I had to keep re-setting them, as it were, in my hand. A bit frustrating.
And I've not been a fan of shorty razors, in general, so I wasn't really that excited about this morning's shave. Until it started, when I was very pleasantly surprised by the amazing edge on this razor.
I had lathered up Soapy Science in the Mint Mint scent and had a great lather. First pass went amazingly well. Second pass, likewise.
Clean-up was minimal. I did it with my Slim Twist.
A great, smooth shave.
Hope y'all are off to a great start to your week!