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McVeyMac's Straight Razor (and other traditional wet shaving) Adventures

I always enjoy your posts, Walt!

I was just up in central PA this past weekend. Father-in-law and brother-in-law invited me to their rod & hunting club cabin up above Halfway Dam, between Watsontown and Mifflinburg. It was a nice relaxing couple days with no internet, plenty of laziness, beer and poker.
 
Great shave Walt! I tried alum on my face once. I was not a fan. All I ever use it for is grip.
 
clyde72 said:
Great Shave Walt!

Thanks for the details and for answering my questions!

So me being the novice still I have another question. As to burnishing a stone, basically that is just smoothing the surface, correct? Wouldn't the same results be accomplished by using a finer grit SIC or diamond paste?
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Yes, that is correct Craig, burnishing is smoothing out the stone to a stable (no more change) state. To some extent, you can get the stone closer to being smooth and stable using finer SiC. But the final burnishing is always using hardened tool steel from everything I have read. I sense that the there remains enough of a crystalline structure on the surface that still needs to be worn/fractured off. People have also used various grits of wet/dry sandpaper after it is flat to smooth it out prior to taking steel to it, and this might be worth doing. When I got these stones new from Dan's, I just took steel to them, so I really do not have experience flattening and bringing them back to a usable razor surface. My guess is that the finer SiC followed by finer wet/dry paper will get you that much closer. I have three grits of SiC, and frankly it has been so long I do not remember what they are. I got the three that was purported to work reading posts from that other forum from those that have done it.
 
Quijote said:
Great shave Walt! I tried alum on my face once. I was not a fan. All I ever use it for is grip.
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I used it after every shave for quite some time Don for the feedback (even though it was negative feedback). But I have abandoned it for quite a while now.
 
Don't Tell Chris H but I broke down and ordered a 3x8 surgical black ark...I am going to try following in Dave's foot steps but use a black ark instead of my little trans ark (that hasn't killed an edge yet). After a little research i understand one should "burnish" the ark for best results OR not burnish it for best results ...there really isn't consensus if you keep looking on the web for input.

I'd like to ask you Walt, the Ark you get best results from, is it burnished with a shine/gloss or is it just well used with a somewhat mat finish? is the bench stone you feel performed less well prepared any differently (does it have a shine or is it mat)?
 
CBLindsay said:
Don't Tell Chris H but I broke down and ordered a 3x8 surgical black ark...I am going to try following in Dave's foot steps but use a black ark instead of my little trans ark (that hasn't killed an edge yet). After a little research i understand one should "burnish" the ark for best results OR not burnish it for best results ...there really isn't consensus if you keep looking on the web for input.

I'd like to ask you Walt, the Ark you get best results from, is it burnished with a shine/gloss or is it just well used with a somewhat mat finish? is the bench stone you feel performed less well prepared any differently (does it have a shine or is it mat)?
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Everything that I have read on the other forum regarding finishing Arks is that you always burnish for use on razors. I am not aware of any body of thought that suggests otherwise. In fact, I suggested in a post one time that I was thinking of using the un-burnished surface as part of a progression before I had acquired the Soft and Hard stones, and the reply was that I could very well ruin the bevel doing that. Now I am talking about comments from that group of guys that have quite a lot of Ark stone experience, rescuing old stones off of the Bay. But honestly, I never looked outside of that forum for additional viewpoints. I have read on Dan's website that the more that you use his stones, the better they become. And I have generally heard this about Arks over the years, so I really had no reason to question this reasoning. I did learn to sharpen knives on Ark stones as a adolescent. But that is an entirely different way of sharpening. I think that is why I am so committed to getting this Ark progression to work well for me, the nostalgia I feel when using them.

Neither my 2x8 nor my 3x12 would be considered a high gloss finish, and I would best describe them as matte looking at them straight on. And honestly, they appear to have similar glossiness to the naked eye between the two of them. But they both reflect a lot of light like a mirror when looking at them from an angle.
 
Sorry I have been absent for a while. I left for Panama last Sunday, and did not return until Wednesday night. Since then I've been digging out at work.

Last Saturday afternoon, I opted for a C-MON Blackie shave with a solid 1.75 day of growth. I had an early morning flight on Sunday, so I elected to not shave in the morning. The Blackie performed well, but it just was not quite as smooth as the Cadillac sibling. This is a function of the bevel on these razors for certain.

Monday through Wednesday shaves were all with the Feather AC DX with a fresh Pro Super blade. I had lost count on the previous blade, so I threw caution to the wind and started fresh. Of course the soap was my standard travel routine, the Arko stick.

Thursday and Friday were back in the den shaving with the BRW, and I was glad to be home.
 
Dagwoodz said:
Nice catch-up Walt...hope the trip to Panama went well!
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Thanks Josh. First time in Panama for me, so I enjoyed it very much. I even got defecated on by a Howler Monkey in the Panamanian Rain Forest, so I feel very fortunate. Did not get to see a Puma or a Jaguar, but that is probably for the best as I was likely the slowest person in the group!

clyde72 said:
Nice re-cap Walt!
Hope the trip was enjoyable.
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Thanks Craig, it was. It was a working trip, but we had a little time to see some amazing biology.

dkeester said:
Nice shaves, Walt. Welcome home. I hope your trip was pleasant.
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Thank you Doug, it was.
 
Dave's story regarding Chris' Black Ark inspired me this morning. I got out my 3x12x1 Black Ark and decided to lap the opposite side to the one I've been using. First I lapped using 120 grit SiC, then 220, then 500. Then I went to 600, 800, 1,000, 1,200, 2,000 and finally 3,000 grit wet/dry. I stayed on the 120 until I got it almost completely flat across the entire stone. The last 7/8th of the stone shows some light coming under my Sterrett straight edge when I place it longitudinally. But horizontally, there is no light coming under the straight edge across the length of the stone. So I stopped there, and proceeded with the progression.

All wet/dry was done wet with the exception of the final 3K grit that was used dry until the grit filled up with stone, then I went wet with it. I got the chisels and burnished the surface for about an hour. I'm not sure that the surface is ready for a razor yet, but the surface is reflecting light pretty well.

FYI, I sourced the SiC at http://www.gotgrit.com.
 
After all of the elbow grease to lap the big 3x12x1 Black ark yesterday, and the hour of burnishing, I just had to try it out to see where it is. I have two BRW razors with a Barbers notch. One is 6/8" with red scales, the other is 7/8" with black scales. I had honed these on the Ark progression probably 7 or 8 months ago, but I do not remember shaving with them. I decided to take them back to the Soft and hard Arks, and I'm glad I did. I placed sharpie on the bevel to convince myself that the stone was hitting across the width of the blade, and the 7/8" was not hitting at the toe on one side. I started doing rolling x strokes to hit it, but I soon abandoned it and decided to hone it down. It was not too long until the hone was hitting all the way across the blade. After the Soft and Black, I decided to finish the 6/8" on the Trans, and the 7/8" on the Black to see if I could discern a difference in the finished blade.

This afternoon I shaved with these two razors. I must say that neither one will give me the feel that I can get finishing on my smaller 2x8x1/2 that I do maintenance with in my den, but both razors shaved very well. I have to say that the razor finished on the Trans. was a tad bit more comfortable, but both razors shaves my 2.25 day growth with ease. Two passes and no cleanup left me DFS, exactly what I would expect.
 
Interesting experiment on the Ark's, Walt! Good shave too...I still have to pick up a BRW. Just waiting on him to put more in the storefront.
 
Great work on the Arkansas Stone Walt!

Looks like I need to get some sandpaper and get to work on my Translucent Arkansas some more.
 
Dagwoodz said:
Interesting experiment on the Ark's, Walt! Good shave too...I still have to pick up a BRW. Just waiting on him to put more in the storefront.
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Thanks Josh, I'm a fan of his work. Simplistic design that just plain works.

clyde72 said:
Great work on the Arkansas Stone Walt!
Looks like I need to get some sandpaper and get to work on my Translucent Arkansas some more.
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Have you checked the stone for flatness Craig? What vendor stone did you get, or is it old from the bay?
 
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