What a week...

Man. This has been a tough one on the shave front. I've been trying some serious hone stuff, and it's been failing miserably, which means BAD SHAVES!!!! GRRRR....

My trials and tribulations trying to get used to the hone my barber gave me a couple months back are well known to many readers of Straight Razor PLace, and I'm not going to review them here because, honestly, I'd rather just forget it. Not a pretty incident. Lots of ugly feelings, and some stark realizations...*sigh* Drama.

However, on Sunday I went back to visit Kawaguchi-sensei, and it was refreshing in oh so many ways. We talked razors, he helped me with some technique, honed a razor (and I got a video...awesome, eh?) and he gave me another hone!

I truly love that man.
Watch the video, I bet you will too.


Here's a VERY rough translation:
Around the 00:20-00:55 mark
K: About this much.
Me:Ok, ok...
K: Do about this much, and it'll be really different.
{pause}
K: The hone is Best? (Even my wife doesn't understand this one...). The hone is really flat/smooth, that's why it's stuck. (He picks up the hone using the stuck nagura).

(Then he talks to the guy watching, who says "Unbelievable...")

1:02
(He starts honing the razor...)
K: Like this, yeah? Slow is fine. When you do it, about three times is good. (I think he means circles...that ISN'T the stroke he showed me before...)
J: Three times...
K: Then change sides.
{pause}
K: About like this...
{pause}
1:25ish
K: To know if you7re doing it righ, look at the color (points to slurry). (At this point, I have no idea what his WORDS are, but I get the feeling he's saying that the color of the slurry is the best indicator of your honing--the faster it changes, the better you're doing. Maybe...)

1:40
K: When the color starts to change you're honing right.
Me: The amount of steel is increasing...

{He goes over to the window to check the edge by it's color}

2:35
K: The part of the edge that I honed is right here, you see? Up to here, it honed well. This part here, that I honed, is straight. This part (points to tip) is rounded. This part, you raised the tip when you were honing. Anyway, there's no color. This is the part I honed (points to straight edge of blade). The end...
ME: The end is rounded (meaning there bevel extends up onto the toe a bit from a previous smile...)
{back to the counter...}

3:01
K: If you really pushed it, you could hone the tip like this (exaggerates a tip-down position) but if you do that the edge won't be any good. To hone this out (looks carefully at the blade) it'll take about an hour. (Meaning to hone out the smiling tip on this hone...).
ME: Really?
K: If you honed it...
Me: Sooo...This part, the one you just honed...Will it shave well?
K: Not quite yet...
ME* How do you tell? Just by looking? (long pause while I search for words)Feeling with your fingers?
K: no no, no need. Just by looking, I can see in the color...a little more. But...This will cut, I think. (Tests on his arm) It'll cut.

3:54
ME: Ok, well, (Here I WANTED to ask about overhoning, but failed miserably) Can you hone too much? You said to go for an hour...
K: OK, here...One time, ten minutes. Ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes...to one hour. Don't just hone for one hour.
ME: Don't...
K: Even just five minutes...ten minutes. Try it.

ME: And always use this nagura? For example, at the end, hone with just water...
K: Don't.
ME: Don't.
K: Don't. It'll be rough. This (indicates slurry) will get finer over time. Just with this (stone), the color won't change (rinses stone).
{starts honing with water only}
5:05
K: (Totally don't understand...something "don't use..."
5:45
K: This color...there's no light (???) Just look at the light.
ME: (not seeing what he wants me to see) Sooo...it's not there? The color?
K: Yeah.

{back to the counter. at this point, I forgot about the camera...sorry}
6:04
K: (???)
ME: This Nagura, it's the same stone as this stone?
K: This is a good stone (???)

Here it breaks up. Sorry.

And he gave me this massive rock:



It's huge, and it's pretty, and I bet I won't be able to use it right for years. Oh well, I'll hang in there. I would love to do it justice--it's a good 50 year old hone, nice yellow with spots of nashiji...and it's so freaking big. Like, 8 inches by 3 inches by 2 inches. Weighs a good 4 pounds. A brick.

Lots of Japan in that rock...I'd like to get some of it out and into my razors!

It hurts SO MUCH Sometimes.

When honing goes well, it's an awesome feeling. Success, baby. Gotta love it. But Failure? GAAAAAAGH!

I have this Filarmonica #13 Inox. It's a lovely razor, and of course Filarmonica is quite the name these days.But it had this little chip, see? This little, itty bitty chip...


It's so small, I thought, I'll try to hone it out. Maybe it'll be a good learning experience!

So I tried it. Got out the old diamond plate, taped the spine, and started honing out that chip. The first thing I noticed was that the steel around the chip was also kind of broken, like it had been shattered when the chip happened.

The second thing I noticed was that, even after the chip was gone...the steel around where it had been was STILL broken!

Crap. The edge was crumbling right there. The steel was so weak that I could shatter it with my thumbnail, and I'm not even a Shaolin Monk!


Wellll...crap. I talked to Lynn Abrams, the godfather of razor honing, and he gave me some advice, but it all came down to this. Either throw it away, or hone and see if I can get past the weakened steel.

I found that I could actually see the weak spot on the bevel under the microscope--it reflected the light differently, so I could check as I honed. And hone I did.

For hours.

And hours.

And finally, FINALLY, today I got past the weakened steel. The razor is a good 2mm narrower than it was, but I got the defect out. HUZZAH!!!!

And I've spent 2 hours setting the bevel with no success.

GGGAHHHHH!!!!!!!

I GIVE UP

This freaking Rongin has broken me.

I've spent a good 4 hours trying to get this razor sharp. It has taken me over 200 passes on a 1k diamond plate and a 1k King stone and I haven't even set the bevel!!!! I think I've taken a good 1/8 inch off the edge, and all I've done is gotten half a good bevel set. The back half, toward the heel, is sharp and pops hairs easily, the front half is butterknife blunt. Ridiculous.

Thank god I didn't actually care about this one...but man is this discouraging. Of course, the fact that it had a ridiculous frown when I got it should have been an indication of problems, but silly me I thought I could fix it.

Obviously, I was WRONG!!!!!

**UPDATE** Well, with a little help and encouragement from the good folks at Straight Razor Place (Thanks Lee!) I finally got a decent bevel set on this one. I was being stupid (of course) and not paying enough attention to BOTH sides of the blade. Don't do that.

So, I still need to move (carefully!!!) up the progression, but the heavy lifting is done I think. From the keenness of the bevel, I have a feeling that if I am careful this could be the sharpest edge I've achieved yet. It's just wiping away the hairs on my arm coming off the 1K. I like that. And won't that be fun? The razor that almost killed me becoming my best edge? Very dramatic...