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Different stones= different results.

i don't think you will get a great hht of this vintage you will get hht but not as high in the scale. i need to shave again with the razor after my second honing i'm expecting a smooth forgiving shave but a tadge more keeness. i'm testing on two days growth tomorrow, i'll post the result. it was fine before but i just needed to hone again just incase . the hht is slightly better this time . i 'm sure extra stropping helped. still does'nt mean the shave will be any better , i'll let you no tomorrow night
 
wdwrx said:
Well, I can't wait to try it again. Especially now that I've heard your review of it, Gary.
It's kinda gratifying to also hear that it's a tougher stone. I thought I was losing it. I was beginning to despair of ever getting a good edge from it. The first thing I'm going to do is try it as a finisher after honing a razor well with the La Dressante. (which is working marvelously for me BTW:thumbup: )
Oh, and the razor with my best HHT results: shaved like a dream!:w00t:
Click to expand...

well criss i could'nt wait. just shaved with agood prep on just over a days growth. And seriously that was one of the most forgiving smoothest shaves i have had of a coticule , criss i think you will love this edge . One thing for sure this hone is tricky but it does leave a super smooth edge, it is also keen enough i'm sur you will like. the edge is way smoother than any cro.ox and i realy mean that. i will post back so just email me your address.

cheers gary
 
garyhaywood said:
well criss i could'nt wait. just shaved with agood prep on just over a days growth. And seriously that was one of the most forgiving smoothest shaves i have had of a coticule , criss i think you will love this edge . One thing for sure this hone is tricky but it does leave a super smooth edge, it is also keen enough i'm sur you will like. the edge is way smoother than any cro.ox and i realy mean that. i will post back so just email me your address.

cheers gary
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I always find the Coticules that leave the mellow edges the most challenging ones when it comes to keenness.
I also agree with Gary that they're less HHT-responsive than "brisk" or "engaging" finishers. Like you said, possibly due to the absence of much "bite".

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Well lads, I got that razor and stone back from Gary the other day.... And I must say I'm very surprised with the outcome.

Let me just say up front, don't take the following as any kind of criticism of Gary's honing job. On the contrary.... he's helped me out tremendously and has helped to put my mind at ease.

Gary honed up my Edelweiss, one of my favorite razors, for me, using the vintage stone as I asked him to do.. (Thanks mate!) Now, as you may know, Gary's done up a razor for me once before, and that thing shaved like a hot damn! I was absolutely blown away by the seriously smooth and sharp edge he put on that blade. This one though... this one was different. Waaaayyyyyy different.
Before I shaved, I took my King Cuter, which has a beautiful edge on it now, and did a set of half strokes and some x strokes with just water, using my vintage, and stropped it on clean linen and leather, ready for a shave, lined up next to the Edelweiss Gary did...

The shave was a little weird.... it seemed to invite lots of pressure, and felt almost dull against my face. Didn't leave a tremendously close shave. half 'n half, one side with each razor. I couldn't tell the difference from one to the other, and it felt just as I remembered from the edges I was getting from the stone before I sent it off - just lacking in "shavicity" (If I can borrow a phrase coined by ProfLawson:D )
But, very surprisingly, absolutely no irritation at all., in spite of all the pressure I used. The process seemed a little uncomfortable at the time, but the end result was strangely irritation free.

Now... my first, somewhat hasty, conclusion was: "Wow! that sucked." But then I got to thinking about it.... and I've yet to experiment with it, but I'm wondering how it would fair against a serious growth, straight up against the grain, 1 pass shaves (Like Willi of the Mad Swiss Method of Shaving). Or for daily shaving against light stubble where one is doing just a "maintenance" type daily shave where absolute closeness isn't required. If you're prone to ingrown's like me, it might just be the thing.

It's kind of open up a whole realm of speculation for me in regards to which particular edge i feel like shaving with today.B)

Or is that too shave-geek?:D


Cheers,
-Chris
 
yes, it is a weird edge i have ever got of a coticule. i only tested it on one days growth. as criss says it does literaly feel like your shaving with a butter nife. i could use pressure and it did not hurt my skin. it shaved with a tadge of resistants but to me did not pinch or hurt.against the grain i could go over several times under my chin 3 4 times and not one bit of hurt under my tender spots , thats what i loved about it. when you shaved with the first one i honed for you on my hones. I remember you saying it was bloody sharp and you nicked your self. you said you have to ajust and you would get use to it. That was because you were use to the forgiving edge of your vintage which i can see why. the hone is very differant i never come across a edge like that not the sharpest by no means but so so forgiving it s hard to explain.
.
i can also see why criss as'nt got the sharpest of edges from this. the first blade he sent to me had some pull of this hone the second one you sent was absalutley perfect . i beleive that was honed on your la drassante au blue, there was a big differance:thumbup:

to me the edge did feel very smooth and i was happy with the 3 passes i did. due to how forgiving the edge was. i would of said this kind of edge would be ideal for sensative skin .
 
Thanks Gary,

Weird is right. :confused:
Just a quick update since I'm already late leaving for work....
Did a quick shave this AM, the Mad Swiss Method: I started on the bottom and worked my way up, ATG. (Backwards to my regular method)
It went fairly well. I found it seemed to help to stand the blade up a bit for a slightly more agressive angle.
Things got bogged down a bit on the fool's pass, so I stopped and ran it on a TI pasted strop for 12 laps, and carried on. The TI paste gave it a bit more keennes without affecting the smoothness. Though it was kind of difficult to get the most stubborn whiskers like the ones underneath my chin, and my upper lip.
So the end result... A moderatly smooth shave, and again, no irritation at all. A little tingle with the alum, but no sting.

I can't help but think this edge would be perfect with a week's growth... unfortunalty, I just can't stand the thought of going that long without a shave.

Cheers,
-Chris
 
Perhaps a bit off-topic,but recently I have quit using a balm after shaving. Just a good ol` alum block,followed by an alcohol based aftershave,most often "Old Spice".. The balm did give some pimple like spots,seems like the balm was soaked into the skin.After quiting the balm,there is rarely any skin problems.

Torbs
 
wdwrx said:
Thanks Gary,

Weird is right. :confused:
Just a quick update since I'm already late leaving for work....
Did a quick shave this AM, the Mad Swiss Method: I started on the bottom and worked my way up, ATG. (Backwards to my regular method)
It went fairly well. I found it seemed to help to stand the blade up a bit for a slightly more agressive angle.
Things got bogged down a bit on the fool's pass, so I stopped and ran it on a TI pasted strop for 12 laps, and carried on. The TI paste gave it a bit more keennes without affecting the smoothness. Though it was kind of difficult to get the most stubborn whiskers like the ones underneath my chin, and my upper lip.
So the end result... A moderatly smooth shave, and again, no irritation at all. A little tingle with the alum, but no sting.

criss i find a real flat or low angle atg is needed for me with short strokes. i always shave with a flater angle on customers too .

I can't help but think this edge would be perfect with a week's growth... unfortunalty, I just can't stand the thought of going that long without a shave.

Cheers,
-Chris
Click to expand...
 
wdwrx said:
The shave was a little weird.... it seemed to invite lots of pressure, and felt almost dull against my face. Didn't leave a tremendously close shave.
Click to expand...

Do not shave with pressure. It does not make sense. It took me 3 years to realize that myself, and even more time to let go of the reflexes that we've all learned during a lifetime of cutting stuff...

Think about it: whatever we're cutting, if the knife does not feel quite up to the task, what do we do? Right. We apply more pressure. We do that when peeling potatoes with a slightly duller paring knife. We do it when slicing vegetables. We press harder on a saw when the wood is harder, or when the teeth seem a bit dull. We press on less than perfect chisels. Etcetera, etcetera.

But there is one tremendous difference between all these cutting action and facial hair removal:
One cannot push harder on the hairs. You can only push harder on your skin. And that is exactly our reflex when we have the idea that a razor could be sharper. It serves nothing, except to peel off more skin cells.

Today I saw my comrade Kris, the one that received a shave by Gary during the Coticule Weekend. He has been straight razor shaving for 3 years and considered himself good at it. And he is. Between the two of us, Kris is the better shaver. He has to be, because he has very sensitive skin. Today, Kris testified to me how much his shaving technique has benefited from the one shave Gary gave him. It really showed him that you can shave perfectly close with zero pressure of the razor on the skin. Not just a little pressure. Zero. What surprised Kris the most, is that he now is not only able to shave more frequently with absence of any skin irritation, but that Gary's style also allows him to shave closer than ever before.

I haven't shaved with the edge you guys are talking about, but it sounds to me like a "mellow" edge. Maybe it isn't the sharpest, maybe that's even part of being "mellow". I don't really know. If it were my Coticule, I would start to try some Unicot edges at this point, and find out if I could get that little tad of extra keenness to go with the mellowness.

By the way: would you mind showing a picture of that Coticule? (or point me to it, if you've done so already?)

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
All right. thanks guys.
I did shave with more determination than finesse, that's for sure.:sleep:

Gary, you should do a youtube video of good shaving technique:) All day I couldn't help but think that I just didn't know how to shave with this edge very well.

I'm at a loss. The whole idea of getting Gary to do up an edge on this stone was to see what the maximum keennes off this stone really is.
Even though I feel that unicot might be redundant, I'll do as you say, Bart.

I'm not sure if the full extent of my perplexity is coming through....:) I tried a regular shave with my idea of no pressure... and a flat angle, but couldn't seem to get anywhere. It seemed as if the edge wouldn't cut. Then I did that pressure thing with an agressive angle... just like my very first straight razor shave, now that I think of it, and that seemed to cut the hairs. Like scraping them off. But I'm baffled becuase if I'd done that with any other blade edge I've got, I'd have the worst case of irritation but I've been amazed all day at how smooth and irritation free I feel. Some sections are still incredredibly smooth even 9 hours later, but with none of that soreness that I sometimes get and I can already tell that I won't end up with single ingrown.

I'd love to be able to shave well with this edge because if it will let me get away with what i did this morning, if I could just do it well, it would be a phenominal shave!

so... unicot, and no pressure, flat angle. I'll try again.

BTW, Torbs, I have ditched the balm, and even most products that contain Sodium Laurel Sulphates. I've noticed that my skin seems much better for it. Good advice, thanks.

Here's the stone in question. She's got quite a pink blush. If you want better photo's, just holler.
IMG_1415.jpg
 
criss have you tryed a lower angle , just try a much lesser angle say nearly flat or 10 degress. i'm sure i used a very low angle, i no you probably do so but pull skin real taut and try a lower angle . you may have to guide the blade a long a little more so but don't dig in your face . i can say that i had a good shave . its shame your such along way from me i'd like to of just tryed again. i have razor that feel like they are scraping i just drop the angle and the blade shaves much nicer. my livi honed razor that crunched away on my face i dropped the angle real low and it was so much better .try and let us no. i would then try what bart says by unicoting that way you get the may be more keeness and still be able to see how edge feels.

gary

if yoiu check the picture of me shaving marec you will see how my blade is angled it is pritty low. if i get hold of a camera i'd love to do a demo of shaving a customer and my self. and put it on here or utube
 
garyhaywood said:
if i get hold of a camera i'd love to do a demo of shaving a customer and my self. and put it on here or utube
Click to expand...

Gary I was thinking of bringing Liam over to yours one wednesday so we could both get a shave, I could bring my camera and film it mate, that would be very cool
what do you reckon?
 
I will talk to Liam about it, and email you mate, so we can not get too off topic in this thread
Thanks mate

Ralfy
 
OK... that's it guys. Now we are all going to expect to see a really good educational video....:thumbup:
 
Well all I will be doing is pointing a camera :lol:
Best see what Gary can come up with when it comes too constructive commentary :thumbup:
 
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