So you're honig, and it cuts, but you want it to cut better

[Jantjeuh]

Hey guys,

After honing up my Bartmann yesterday (which was intended as a gift for my brother but I'm so keeping it after shaving with that..), which was incredibly smooth shaving and just well better than I ever imagined a SR to be... I want the same on all my razors.

Luckily for me that is only ONE razor

I have this razor, it's hard sheffield steel, and a pain to hone as they usually are I understood. Now, it shaves, very well, like very well, I shave with it quite often (I also have a Dovo but Bart worked his magic on that one, so I only have to maintain the edge, which is easy) and it shaves very well. But, it's in a different league from the Bartmann shave I had yesterday.

So, what should I do, to get it there, to the Bartmann level? Do more laps on a coticule with water? I mean it cuts, but it does not pass the HHT (neither does my Bartmann lol, none of my razors ever pass that test, but they shave :scared: ) so it's not samurai cut your hairs off by looking at it sharp, but they shave well.

The area where I noticed the difference is when covering the chin, this usualy 'pulls' a little with the sheffield, and the Bartmann just cut it down without asking any questions. I want that razor to behave the same. Of course, the bartman is huge compared to the sheffield razor and it's perhaps a better razor. I guess to put it a little more vague, the sheffield one shaves good, but the Bartmann shaves 'comfortable', know what I mean?

But, without further rambling, how do you take a razor that shaves well, to a razor that shaves extremely well? Just more laps on coticule with water? Going to coticule with slurry would make no sense imo because it really shaves good. But I don't know what to do to make it shave extremely good, or, like the Bartmann.

 

[Bart]

Have you ever tried the Unicot method?

 

[Jantjeuh]

All the time, and until now I thought I mastered the thing, but the Bartmann really was a big surprise.. I mean, now I can really say I have never had such a comfortable shave, I always felt a DE was a little more comfortable, but this... wow.

Just in case I have the names mixed up: I usually use the coticule, and go from slurry to water by slowly adding, it's the most fun honing you can have

But I have also honed the razors with coticule, bbw and coticule routine and achieved similar results.

So they shave very well, but... apparently it could be better, and I wonder what I should do more?

 

[tat2Ralfy]

Just in case I have the names mixed up: I usually use the coticule, and go from slurry to water by slowly adding, it's the most fun honing you can have

Thats Dilocut method, unicot is the one with tape added after working the bevel

 

[Bart]

Jan,

If I have read your posts well, then you have been mostly using Dilucot. (Dilu = Dilu-ting slurry)

Dilucot works well, but demands a lot of experience form the honer. It is easiest on full hollow razors that carry a small bevel by their very nature. Such bevels gain keenness easily. On wider bevels, the Dilucot procedure still works well if you give them more time to reach full keenness, but it does take more experience to do and there are additional issues that can be challenging to overcome. For that reason, Dilucot edges are sometime a bit less keen than they could have been. Something that can be fixed with CrO...

The Unicot method was not yet developed at the time you visited my home.
It is a far easier method that completely avoids the issue that Coticules on water exponentially slow down width increasing bevel width.

A perfect Dilucot will always match the sharpness of a Unicot, but it took me over a year of honing many razors, before I could hit a success rate of over 90% (by estimation). Except when I am showing someone the Unicot procedure, I always do Dilucot. If my HHT-probe doesn't fully please me at the end of the procedure, I just add a layer of tape to the spine and divert to the final stages of the Unicot procedure. (If you read the manual, you'll grasp why - it's available in Dutch as well).

I won't deny that there are smoothness differences between razors. Bartmanns are sweet razors, in my opinion (I'm not just saying that, because of the "Bart" part in their name ). But I expect that your razors will demonstrate your margin for improvement, if you treat them with a Unicot edge.
It still requires a good bevel and a decent honing stroke, but I don't think you have problems in that department.

Kind regards,
Bart.