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It sounds to me as if you did too many strokes. I have don' this with soap, candle wax, but not Emmanuel's recipe. (and an ongoing experiment with gum arabic). What I noticed is that in all cases, it takes an already good edge off water. From that point it takes about 30 laps to boost the results. I can only do it 3 or 4 times on the same surface. After that, the exposed garnets seem to get tired and no longer effective. It requires the removal of the coating (that's why I'm searching for the best water soluble coating), a reworking with a slurry stone and the reapplication of the coating. If you did 150 strokes, you might have taken it over the top. I have done this a couple of times as well. The edge reverts back to a less sharp stage.
Not everything about this has fully revealed itself. The difference in HHT result is very clear. Clear enough to know when you're there. But the process is not as consistent as I would like it. I usually need to make a couple attempts.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
That's just how it is for me too, sets of 30 at a time, and if 3 sets havent done it, it's not going to work, I still use Erasmic soap, and polish it smooth with a wet thumb after rubbing it on, 3 or 4 razors and it's time to reapply, which tbh is cool, I don't use it everytime I hone, and I only hone a few razors a week at the moment.

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
This is interesting. Edge improvement has evaporated - no change regardless of how many strokes. The 'tired garnet' concept bears much in common with the life of a rotary grinding wheel - where as it is used, the surface glazes over, stops cutting, and causes more heat and friction, rather than giving a fresh surface to the steel being ground. The more raw/jagged edges of the abrasive media have been rounded over and no longer cut. To revive the wheel, the surface is scraped with a harder tool that basically breaks up/off the outer surface, exposing fresh, raw, jagged edged cutting media - sorta like a slurry stone exposing more/new garnet surface. Sounds like it's time for cleaning w/ turpentine & a good rubbing w/ the slurry stone. It'll give me the opportunity to enjoy again, the full range of the Dressante goodness :)

Emmanuel: The razor was freshly honed from dull. 'Was honed on LPB to HHT 2-3. The dedicated bout is the Dressante - which normally gives the same results (2-3). I'm sure that says more about my skill than the rocks. The method was the same - hone on LPB until 2-3, minimum of 50 laps on waxed Dressante. Hearing this is likely overkill sure supports the tired garnet idea. HHT before waxed Dressante was 2-3. first use of waxed stone gave mostly 4s. I tried adding a drop of Turp, thinking perhaps the wax was too thick. 'Smoothed out the remaining wax. No change. I'm strongly suspecting the garnets need a nap.

Will try cleaning Dressante, refacing the surface by a normal use, then re-waxing & limiting strokes to sets of 30. 'Will report back, but will have to be Friday.

Thank You again, Gentlemen. 'Very good thinking which describes the result like other abrasive media behave when overused.
 
Mixed results of refreshing the stone surface and re-coating w/ turp/wax.

I would have posted Friday, but had a difficult blade that seemed to not respond. 'Sections of keen and dull. I would suspect an inadequately set bevel.

I tried another blade and the results seemed discernable, but not clear. Rather than report on those two, I thought I needed to work with a known blade, which I did tonight. To make sure I had fresh abrasive surface, wax was removed from a Dressante, and dilucot performed w/ 10 dilutions from a dulled bevel. As usual, I get hht 2-3 across most. Some 1s, one 4+

Before finishing on just water, the stone was cleaned, dried, and wax applied at a thickness where some edge contact with the stone surface could be heard. A few sections would encounter wax thick enough to impede easy progress, but those sections quickly smoothed out. Water only finishing was done on an LPB while the wax dried on the dressante. HHT values on both stones with water are comparable.

Wax finishing was done with 30 sets of x-strokes, and test. First set of 30 seemed to yield no improvement. Another set was done, and it seemed there was another section where a 3 went to a 4, the 1 went to a 2, and so on. Improvement, but the edge keenness itself was not consistent enough to confidently assert significant improvement. A 3rd set of 30 was done with no improvement.

This doesn't seem to help much in discovering the tired garnet syndrome. I think perhaps my coti mojo is not yet strong. I do not think it refutes the method or solution, but requires either more skill in my part, or more refinement of the technique.
 
The fact that your HHT-readings variate accross the edge from 1 to "4+" indicates that your blade is not quite ready for this technique, that aims to push an already completely maxed out edge on a Coticule with water, a bit further by filling the microscopic voids of the stone's surface.

With water only, I can never get passed what I call HHT-3 (the edge pops a thick hair at 10-15mm from the holding point). After surface treatment of the stone, the edge pops thick and thin hairs at over 40mm distance from the holding point (what I would call HHT-4). These edges rise to HHT-5 after stropping, and they are definitely demanding for a very light touch and a low shaving angle in order to provide a skin-friendly shave.


Kind regards,
Bart.
 
That seems right to me too, Bart. 'Frustrating.

Would I be correct in guessing that thick slurry bevel correction is what's in order? Would that be 90 deg (perpendicular to the length of the stone), or better with a 45 deg stroke?
 
My friend Not very thick slurry needed. Bart well advised.You have blade areas more keen and less.That means that blade is not uniformly honed. Having HHT 1 but across the blade and
then HHT 2, across the blade too and 3,then it is definitely that waxed surface will give
you a solid 4.The angle formed by the longitudinal axis of the hone and the blade is possible to be 90 or 45 deg dependent of the hone width.For the narrower like one inch hones, 45 deg is more secure regarding the proper contact.So for my opignion is better to hone your blades with light slurry,trying to have uniformly honed edge until you get the wanted result.
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
A couple of days ago, there was someone on Badger&Blade with a similar problem of unequal sharpness along the edge. We ended up talking about the balance of honing strokes and what could be done do make up for neglected parts of the edge.

I'm going to do some answer recycling :) :


First off, it is not more complicated than riding a bike. But to put in words how to exactly keep balance can make it sound very complicated. Not much I can do about that.

In my opinion, while honing a razor, there must be a gradual shift of attention along the edge during each stroke. (regardless the size of your hone and whether the razor has a smiling curve or not). During each stroke: you first hone the heel part, then the middle and finally the tip. If you pay attention to the wave of fluid in front of (and running up) the edge, this is not hard to accomplish. You just need a gradual shift of attention. This is often referred to as "roll", but for non-smiling razors it is more a shift of pressure than an actual roll. Just watch the fluid and your arm will do the motion automatically. After a few slow strokes, you can lock that motion into your muscle memory, and speed up the stroke. But never sacrifice precision for speed. Speed comes with practice. It happens that I meet people who struggle with their honing stroke simply because they started going too fast too soon. Once precision is sacrified for speed, it can never be won back. Not without slowing down first.

If you notice that a part of the edge needs more attention, it is easy to adjust your stroke to it. Let the wave of fluid guide you. If you want to focus a couple of strokes on the heel only, make the wave of fluid run up that part of the blade.

During what I call "halfstrokes", or while doing circles (It doesn't really matter, but the circles don't allow the same control as I explained above), you can put a finger on top of the part that needs extra attention. That finger just being there already makes a difference. If you need more, some pressure might help. Do NOT place the finger above the bevel, but keep it closer to the spine, where the blade is a bit stiffer and the pressure is better spread.

Sounds too complicated? At the end of it all, if you did a halfway decent dilution, all you need to do is rub your razor long enough over the Coticule with water only (refresh the water every 50 laps), while the razor makes correct contact (spine and edge both in contact, lifting the spine during as little as one stroke will set you back considerably). Eventually the razor will become perfectly sharp. If the contact wasn't good along the entire edge, it will only be sharp at about a third of the edge, but with what's explained above, you can fix that.

If you have any trust in the bevel, there is no need to start all over. .
Just work on the Coticule with water until it passes the HHT on a thick hair along the entire edge. (You need to dry the edge before you try the HHT).
At that point, 30 lighter than the weight of the blade laps might get you even further, but the razor will be good regardless.
If you really want to push the sharpness envelope or if the razor demands it, then at that point you can go with the wax-trick.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Emmanuel and Bart, thank you both for your kind help. 'Been working hours on a edge. The more I stroke on water, the more uniform it becomes. I'll get this, thanks to your help.
 
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