Some success

[justin]

Bart, refresh my memory. Somewhere I read the reason for the stropping strokes on BBW, but I don't remember the reason.

Justin

 

[justin]

Bart it does seem like the slurry-paste breaks down. This time I started with a 'wet' paste and as I was honing I let it dry out so that the stone was merely damp and the paste was thick. I started with half strokes and did maybe three sets of 20 and it was shaving arm hair very well. Then I did around 50 of the stropping x-strokes. Once or twice the stone was getting too dry so I added a drop.

At this point the razor was giving me the violin. Then when I went back to the stone it was nearly completely dry so I added a good splash of water so that it was around halfway thinned and did 50 stropping x-strokes and the razor was popping hairs. I'm sure I can improve it, so I'll try just water and if that doesn't work I'm going to a misty slurry.

Lots of good information here! :thumbup: It's a shame I wrote this stone off without even trying it. I read, 'slower than a Coticule', 'less garnets', etc. and simply stuck with my Coticule. I'm glad you guys opened my eyes. This is a neat stone.

Justin

 

[Bart]

Bart, refresh my memory. Somewhere I read the reason for the stropping strokes on BBW, but I don't remember the reason.

Justin

During the preparatory research for this study, it was discovered that this hint of slurry yielded better results on the BBW with this particular procedure than the use of pure water. It is speculated that, with water only, the BBW is too slow to undo the slight bevel tip deterioration that any passage over the microscopically uneven surface of a hone will cause. The ability to make up for that deterioration and add refinement to a point where it can do no more is the difference between a “whet”stone and a just a stone. It seems that the BBW, when used with water only, on hardened razor steel, flirts with that distinction.
While it can be considered an advantage for edge finishing when a hone sneaks up very slowly to its maximized keenness limit, it remains important that it offers enough abrasion to undo its own – however slight – deteriorating effect on the tip of the edge.
Otherwise, one ends up with beautifully polished bevel sides that meet at a disappointing edge radius. To avoid all possible problems in this regard, it was decided to finish on the BBW with the thinnest possible slurry, as this clearly improves the abrasive properties of the hone without introducing the disadvantages of a dense slurry.
To further avoid any possible influence of the bevel tip collision with the garnets in the slurry, the finishing strokes were performed in an edge trailing direction. More research is required to investigate the exact influence of various slurry densities on the BBW and the difference between edge leading/edge trailing passes during the final stages of sharpening.

Full text can be found here: http://www.coticule.be/heritage.html?file=tl_files/PDF articles/BBW-study.pdf

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[dnullify]

It must be my dovo.

that slightly warped razor i pictured earlier in this thread is now a mid HHT4 after (lots of) stropping.
shave was smooth no nicks or cuts. slight tug, but it was relatively comfortable.

all the time i've put into the dovo it should be a 5, but it's not even 2.

 

[wdwrx]

It must be my dovo....

FWIW, I had to do a lot of tweaking to get my one and only Dovo into shaving shape. It seemed to be a little stubborn.

 

[Paul]

hmmm... that's a bit odd. I've always been able to hone DOVO very easily. Strangeness.