What did I do? A dilucot but not? Progressive?

[rattlerviper]

After trying dilucot razor after razor and always ending up having to put the unicot edge on it I did something different tonight. I set the bevel on the slurried coti, I stayed setting the bevel far longer than normal probably 20 minutes (is this where I was going wrong before?). Having read a post by Sir Bart stating that the keenness level was higher on a BBW I rinsed my gear created a slurry on that side and began the dilucot dilutions, it took around 40 minutes till I was at a stage where it looked like water. I rinsed my gear again and flipped back to the coti side and did one pass to raise a slurry and did 45 x-strokes. Rinsed it all and did 100 strokes with just water. 60 passes on the linen and 60 on the leather. HHT4 after stropping, this is the first time I have honed that it passed HHT.

I have just shaved with the sharpest razor of my life, and yes I have had a pro sharpen my razors. I think I made too many variables for myself to figure out what I did right: When I attempt this with just the coti it almost seems like it produces slurry way faster than I can dilute it and I get a jump back and forth between thinner, thicker thinner yet thicker. I don't think it's from evaporation (but I do live in a desert)because it happens within 15 or 20 passes. Maybe Ray will know if it is shear evaporation since he lives in the same area.

Whatever I did I had a blast when the hair went pop pop pop time and time again:w00t: Getting a razor to that point is pretty neat stuff.

 

[danjared]

Congrats! I imagine the key was going slow with the dilutions. Once you get a hang of it, you'll be able to do it in less time.

I know I've struggled a bit with evaporation since moving back to the Southwest. I find that it makes it a bit harder and the process a bit slower, at least right now while I'm still figuring out how to deal with the dryness. But I thinking I'm getting back up to speed, though.

 

[Disburden]

It doesn't matter what to call it. What matters is you found yourself a way to use your stone to get razor shave ready.:thumbup:

 

[Bart]

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+1 on that.

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That is where my advice to dull the edge on glass comes from. 20 minutes on a slurried Coticule is a very long time. It can happen on a heavily rounded Ebay-edge, but for a razor, dulled through normal service, the bevel stage doesn't need to take so long. Of course it all depends a lot on the speed of you honing. If you are taking this slow, but precise: my congratulations!:thumbup: Speed comes automatically with practice.
If you pre-dulled on glass, the bevel is set, without any doubt, once the razor starts shaving arm hair.
Most razor that have been touched up with pasted strops, or finished on them, have an unknown amount of convexity at the bevel.
As long as you keep them going with said pasted strop, there is no problem. The problem arises when we take such an edge to the hone. It still shaves arm hair, but pulls during the shave. If you put it on a flat hone, the very edge is not touching, due to that convex shape of the bevel. As long as that bevel is not rendered flat once again, the very edge cannot respond to any honing. Hence the need for bevel correction. But how are you going to know when those bevel faces are flat? The pre-dulling trick on glass takes the guess work out of that. Your edge no longer shaves anything. It can't pick up any sharpness before the bevel faces are flat. So, as soon as it starts shaving arm hair again, no doubt, your bevel is straightened out.
Every bevel work past that point is a waste of steel.

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That's an excellent technique. The BBW can be much easier to deliver keenness than a Coticule. There is nothing wrong with your approach. You'll probably learn to go a bit faster in the future, till the point where overconfidence invites you to go too fast. That happens to me about every 2 months...

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Concerning slurry and dilution, here are some additional tips:

1. Raise enough slurry. It don't have to look like someone's water broke, but having very little slurry on top of your Coticule, makes dilution much more error prone. Such a small puddle will also dry out more easily.

2. Normally you add water every full cycle, meaning that you do 15 halfstrokes, flip the razor, copy those halfstrokes on the other side, add water, and repeat. But it isn't forbidden to add water at every flipping point.

3. If your slurry consistency gives you trouble, lower your strokes count per set of halfstrokes. 15 is a good starting point, but you might have to reduce this to 10. If you're confident, it can be augmented to 20, but only if the stone allows it.

4. If your slurry consistency gives you trouble, try to err on the thin side. It's better to spend set of halfstrokes extra at a thiner level, than to let the slurry become thicker than it was.

5. Don't raise a fresh slurry after the bevel stage, if you don't have to. It seems that the steel in the mixture helps the slurry consistency somehow. (this is a totally non-scientific observation, but it works for me).

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

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I do 20 on my LV, it works very well for me.

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The way I see it that if you have used a slurry that is good to set the bevel, you know it will only improve the edge as you use it during the next stages, if it was too thick the edge wouldnt have passed the arm hair test, and too thin would have the same result, granted if you stick with it long enough a thin slurry will eventually set the bevel, however we are looking at just a few sets of half strokes after dulling on glass (unless we are dealing with a convex bevel for the reasons above) the arm hair test for me is a very crucial and valuable marker, not just telling me when the bevel is set, also that my slurry is about right too.

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)