In my last post I mentioned some trouble with my Double Arrow. The blade was getting caught on the scales and it had damaged the edge a bit. A damaged razor edge is nothing you want to have sliding across your face, so it was imperative that I get that baby fixed. I could either pay someone else to do so, or take care of it myself. I opted for the latter.
I had had some success in honing my Tosuke straight using a method described by a member of Straight Razor Place named Bart (good info here and especially here, basically using a Belgian Blue Whetstone and a Belgian Coticule progression, and Bart also recommended using it to hone a damaged razor to cutting sharpness. Having just such a setup, and just such a razor, I was glad to read that.
I started, for some reason, on the BBW. I gave it some passes with slurry, and then some more, and then a ton more, checking every once in a while in a microscope to see the progress I was making...which was none. I had misunderstood, or misread, the advice on SRP. In my thread about this, I was re-enlightened--the proper place to start was on the COTICULE with slurry...so I did just that.
And it was magic. The chips melted away, and I soon had a nice smooth edge again. Except for one stubborn, very deep chip, which seemed to last and last. I was stumped on this one...it seemed like progress on the coticule had stopped. Keeping in mind something I read somewhere about "Good honing judgment is based on experience, and experience comes form bad honing judgment," I decided to do something stupid. I took a 1000 grit diamond plate i had bought to use as a hone lapper, and tried to hone out that last chip. Well, I actually only gave it one lap...it grated and ground and felt sickeningly rough. I regretted it the moment I started, but I had already done the damage so I finished the one lap and checked the edge under the scope. Indeed, the blade looked like I had used it to fight off an armored horde.
So I went back to the coticule and, 100 laps later, the blade was in perfect condition--including that one stubborn chip. Maybe I scared him with that monster of a diamond plate. Whatever the case, I had repaired the damage, and the blade was ready for final polishing. I took it to the BBW with a slurry, and then back to the coticule with just water and tried a test shave.
The shave was, of course, all kinds of interesting--not only was it my first "ground up" honing, is it were, but I was also testing out my scaleless razor concept for the first time. Results? Odd.
The blade felt very very strange. It cut, certainly, and I ended up with one of my best shaves yet, but in the process it pulled and did not "feel" sharp--it's like, the hairs would first bu pulled and THEN cut cleanly. However, there was none of the irritation or discomfort I associate with a dull razor. So the hone was kind of successful, though I am not really satisfied. Subsequent discussion onteh forum has led me to believe I didn't use the BBW right, and I need to go back and refine the edge more before the final polish. I'll try that out before I pass final judgment.
As for the scaleless razor...It was actually pretty good. It took some adjustment in grip and angle at first, to accommodate the new setup of the razor, but in the end it actually did seem easier to adjust to the different angles of my face without the scales to get in the way. It definitely made going against the grain on my right jawline easier...I'll give it a few more tries, but I think I can say with some surety, a scaleless razor is not the deadly, horrible mistake that some said it would be. The scales do serve a purpose, but they are certainly not essential to the balance of the razor.
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