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Natterings of a Nasal Barbarian

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SOTD FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST 21, 2020

I enjoyed two excellent dome shaves from my new Blackland Tradere blade holder. Prior to it’s arrival, my favorite DE safety razor was my Colonial Silversmith, which I haven’t shaved with in the last two months, one of the drawbacks of having too large a collection of excellent blade holders. The question in my mind was how do they compare? Since I no longer shave my face with a safety razor, the comparison will have to be my dome shaves. Although both Tradere shaves were excellent, my most recent was with a Feather blade. So I loaded a fresh Feather blade into the Colonial Silversmith. In keeping with my new regimen, I began my shave after my shower and shaved the dome first. The JR Rosewood Silvertip Badger whipped up its usual thick, yogurty MWF lather carpet. The noggin shave was magnificent. One and a 1/2 passes was all it took for my usual VBBS dome result. Although 12 grams lighter than the Tradere, the Silversmith felt great in hand and every bit as efficient, if not a trifle more so. The difference in utility is trifling, but in my estimation, I’ll still go with the Silversmith. The Silversmith‘s bead blasted finish is beautiful, and it is made from 316L SS which is from a utility perspective superior to the Tradere’s 303 stainless. Again, the difference, if any, between the two blade holders is trifling in my experience.

My son, Ben, had sharpened my Double Duck Goldedge on his Naniwa progression finishing on his ridiculously expensive Shapton Glass 30k grit, and it is quite sharp, but didn’t feel as buttery smooth as my shave yesterday with the CKBA Damascus straight razor. So for tomorrow’s shave, I’m going to kill his edge, and then refinish it to the same level of shiny polish in water on my single jasper stone. I’m betting that a slightly more rounded edge will shave better for me, but more importantly, will feel better. After all, I still have my filial honemeister to fall back on, if necessary. Back to my face shave! The Goldedge with its current honing did not achieve the level of comfort I experienced yesterday, requiring me to again clean up my neck with my faithful Silversmith. Tomorrow will be the test. Is there such a thing as too sharp? I’m betting there is, and that my refinished edge on my jasper stone will feel just as good on the Double Duck as it did on the CKBA Damascus straight yesterday. In any case I feel clean and velveteen smooth with a fair bit of heat on my neck from the Double Duck. Looking forward to tomorrow’s shave with this same refinished Double Duck!

RAZOR: Double Duck Goldedge 6/8 (Mug), Colonial Silversmith (Dome)
BLADE: Feather (Dome)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: JR Rosewood Silvertip Badger #378
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Aqua Velva (Spanish Version) and Pre de Provence Balm.
 
MilkCrate said:
I don’t think so. The sharpest edge I have used was lapping film to .1um with a diamond paste progression down to .01um. I think some progressions can get you sharp, but have a harsh edge.

But I could be wrong.
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I’m a simple guy, Tim, and admittedly new at this straight razor stuff, but my experience says different. My son finished my CKBA Damascus straight razor on his 30k shapton stone and I found it too sharp. I killed the edge and refinished it on my jasper stone, and experienced an incredible shave. I never understood what a buttery, velvet edge was until that shave! I’m going to refinish my Double Duck, which I believe my son also oversharpened in the same way. I guess I’ll see tomorrow!
 
jgreenepa said:
I’m a simple guy, Tim, and admittedly new at this straight razor stuff, but my experience says different. My son finished my CKBA Damascus straight razor on his 30k shapton stone and I found it too sharp. I killed the edge and refinished it on my jasper stone, and experienced an incredible shave. I never understood what a buttery, velvet edge was until that shave! I’m going to refinish my Double Duck, which I believe my son also oversharpened in the same way. I guess I’ll see tomorrow!
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I’m new to honing myself and my honing ability is sketchy at the moment. So take what I say with a grain of salt, I’m sure you are correct in your observations. That Jasper sounds like a nice stone, I’ll have to look into those.
 
MilkCrate said:
I’m new to honing myself and my honing ability is sketchy at the moment. So take what I say with a grain of salt, I’m sure you are correct in your observations. That Jasper sounds like a nice stone, I’ll have to look into those.
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Tim, my son was a student of Master Honer, Howard Schechter, a contemporary of Lynn Abrams. There’s a Nickshaves video of Schechter where he demos his entire approach. I found it very helpful. My son likes hard sharp blades, whereas I prefer smooth sharp.
 
jgreenepa said:
Tim, my son was a student of Master Honer, Howard Schechter, a contemporary of Lynn Abrams. There’s a Nickshaves video of Schechter where he demos his entire approach. I found it very helpful. My son likes hard sharp blades, whereas I prefer smooth sharp.
Click to expand...

I’ll go check it out, thanks!
 
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SOTD SATURDAY MORNING, AUGUST 22, 2020

Well, I confirmed my suspicions. The Dilucot method, originally developed as a way of honing razors using a single stone (Belgian Coticule) and a series of slurries of decreasing grit dilutions also works beautifully with my jasper stone. I used a coarse DMT plate to generate the slurries which are then successively diluted until finally one is honing with just water alone. In the case of my Double Duck, my son, Ben, had already set a great bevel. When I examined the edge he’d built with his 30k stone using a 60x jeweler’s loupe, I noticed metal feathers along its length. There was no need to go through the full process. So I very gently ran the edge over the face of the fine side of my jasper hone.

Reexamination with the loupe revealed the flattening and or elimination of the chaff I’d observed earlier along the entire length of the edge on both sides. For the next task I built a very thin slurry with the DMT plate and did 40 circles (20 clockwise & 20 counterclockwise) followed by 20 back and forth strokes. I then finished in water using back and forth strokes until the blade began to stick to the face of the stone. The blade passed the tomato slicing test and was popping hairs to beat the band at that point. I lathered up and discovered that I’d built the kind of buttery smooth edge that was a joy to shave with. I’ll admit that I really enjoyed the process of building an edge that I liked which then delivered me to VBBS land on my mug both above and below the jawline.

The Silversmith with the same Feather blade as yesterday shaved every bit as well as my new Tradere. An examination and comparison of the two head geometries revealed a very similar design. In any case my dome shave today was the usual 1 1/2 pass (ATG, ATG) VBBS. I feel cool, clean, and amazingly velveteen. My MrEE 007 brush performed in its usual superb fashion throughout the shave. The cooling MWF lather was a delight to shave with, as usual. I have four pucks of the stuff, so I’m set for the next few years. It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in the Philadelphia suburbs. I wish all my shave brothers and sisters a great day!

Tomorrow is the actual test of the DiluJasper method from bevel set through finish. I purchased a Puma Solingen razor for virtually nothing ($5), yesterday evening from a local cutlery dealer in Adamstown, PA who complained that he was never able to get a decent edge from it. Ben was with me by phone and encouraged me to buy it. He suspected the blade may be slightly warped and that’s why it may have not yielded to a standard honing progression. Well it failed the tilt ‘n wobble test revealing that it definitely needed a bevel set. Ben, after examining it, felt that I should set the bevel on the 1000 grit Chosera stone and then complete the honing on my jasper stone using decreasing slurry dilutions. So that’s the project for tomorrow’s mug shave. My first complete honing job from bevel set to finish on a problematic straight razor.

RAZOR: Double Duck Goldedge (Mug), Colonial Silversmith (Dome)
BLADE: Feather DE (2)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: MrEE Knurled Aluminum Handle Hybrid Knot
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Old Spice Fresh Lime AS Splash and Cremo Cooling Post Shave Balm.
 
MilkCrate said:
Very nice! $5 is an awesome deal once you work out that edge.
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True, Tim, provided I’m able to do so! I’m lucky to have my son, Ben who’s dropping by this afternoon for a visit with his daughter and granddaughter. He’s an amateur bladesmith who’s just finished his first forge. Hers been a straight shaver and honed for over 15 yrs, so I‘ll have a ringer present who can hopefully stop me if it looks like I‘m screwing the pooch!
 
jgreenepa said:
True, Tim, provided I’m able to do so! I’m lucky to have my son, Ben who’s dropping by this afternoon for a visit with his daughter and granddaughter. He’s an amateur bladesmith who’s just finished his first forge. Hers been a straight shaver and honed for over 15 yrs, so I‘ll have a ringer present who can hopefully stop me if it looks like I‘m screwing the pooch!
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Nice!
 
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SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 23, 2020

Setting the bevel on the Puma was an excellent learning experience. Using the Schechter finger positioning method with the White Chosera stone worked just the way it’s supposed to. Ben lapped the stone before first use. Schechter uses 60 diagonal stroke on each side.

It was clear from the resulting slurry created during the bevel setting process that the heel of the blade was not getting the same exposure to the stone as the rest of the blade. Applying pressure in this area with Schechter’s finger positioning approach resulted in a clean bevel along most of the blade. After Ben examined the edge with the 60x jeweler’s loupe, he recommended another 40 strokes on each side.

With the bevel set, the action moved to the jasper stone where I built a slurry on the rough side with a smooth coarse DMT plate. I began with 80 circles, 40 on each side until the slurry was dark gray. I then rinsed the stone and built a second slurry, this time using back and forth strokes. Three slurries later, I began to notice resistance in the stone.

I then flipped the stone to the fine side, removed the steel feather buildup from the edge by running it gently at 90 degrees across the face of the stone.and began regular back and forth strokes under clear running water (about 20 minutes) until it felt like the blade was beginning to stick to the stone. I finished with 10 strops on Chromox infused linen and 10 strops on leather. At that point the blade was popping hairs and slicing a tomato evenly along its length.

The shave went very well, VBBS above the jawline and DFS++ below. The Puma blade was a bit longer than I’m used to, and I found the XTG challenging on my neck leading to a minor set down error under my left ear. That being the case, I opted to use my twinjector loaded Supply razor to finish the job on my neck. The dome shave with the Supply was a breeze, and again I finished the shave feeling cool, clean, slightly wounded, but still velveteen!

RAZOR: Puma Solingen 5/8 (Mug), SS Supply V2 (Dome)
BLADE: Schick Twinjector
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube.
BRUSH: Rooney Ebony Pure Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Chiseled Face Natural AS Splash with menthol and A&E Post-Shave Serum.
 
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SOTD MONDAY MORNING, AUGUST 24, 2020

Great shave today with the Tanifuji Airi. VBBS above the jawline, DFS++ below. Cleaned everything up below the jawline with the new Tradere along with the dome. All in all another great shave leaving me feeling cool, clean, and velveteen!

RAZOR: Tanifuji Airi (Mug), Blackland Tradere (Dome)
BLADE: Feather (2)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Cremo Cooling Balm .
 
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SOTD TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 25, 2020

Excellent shave today with two of my favorite razors on this beautiful sunny day in the Philly burbs. After a touch up on the Jasper stone, and 30 strops to the Feather FAS carbon steel blade for the VC4, both the CKBA Damascus straight and my Valet VC4 were ready for business. The CKBA Damascus straight razor seemed to almost brush away the slick MWF lather delivering a perfect VBBS above the jawline and a DFS++ below. The freshly stropped Feather FAS carbon steel blade in the Valet VC4 cleaned up the rough spots remaining on my neck and sheared my noggin stubble right down to the skin line opening the bloodless door once again to VBBS land. I feel cool, refreshed, clean and velveteen!

RAZOR: CKBA Koa Wood Scaled Damascus (Mug), Valet Autostrop Model VC4 (Dome)
BLADE: Feather FAS-10 (Dome)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute w/ 26mm Two Band Badger Ferrule
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Royall Lyme AS Splash
 
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