Nice little mail call. These three waterstones expand me options. I only had 3k and 10k waterstones so far and i was curious about how a little more range and resolution would feel.

Also, this dull-like-a-butter-knife Thiers Issard frameback. It’s my first frameback, and it was a bitch to hone (I did that two days ago). It just would not pass the packing peanut test off the stone. A real mystery to me. In my limited experience, I always manage to get the edge sharp on the stone without stropping, if I used a light enough touch and alternate the sides frequently, ending on leading edge strokes. But not with this guy. It wouldn’t even shave arm hair without stropping.

In my mental model, this means that the steel is ductile and forms a burr, but I’ll gladly be corrected by any Honemeister who actually knows what they’re doing😅

Either way, I have up after it somewhat push cut into the packing peanut, but was a bit disheartened when I compared it to the pushing-into-a-cloud sharpness of other straights. We’ll see how it goes. Either I’ll figure it out or maybe the steel has lost its temper and is a paper weight now?

  • djundjila@sub.wetshaving.socialOPM
    2·
    21 days ago

    Thanks to for the detailed answer!

    The binder in the Advance loads up easily,

    Not sure I understand what that means. Are you referring to the little spots of black steel gunk that someone build up?

    An easy way to tell is to go back to the 1K stone and don’t come off of it until it push-cuts a packing peanut.

    I did that. And I get to push-cut sharpness, the weird thing is that it doesn’t get much better on finer hones, unless I strop.

    Here is a video that talks about feeling the burr.

    I’ll try that next. But what’s the solution if I confirm there’s a burr? hone-strop-hone-strop?

    • gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social
      2·
      20 days ago

      I did that. And I get to push-cut sharpness, the weird thing is that it doesn’t get much better on finer hones, unless I strop.

      Generally, if you can’t get an edge to refine as you move to smaller-sized abrasive, that’s an issue with temper. Literally, the steel is too brittle and won’t support refinement beyond that point. You can force it to be sharper, but there’s no edge retention. I’ve seen this with knives many times.

      In some cases, you can remove steel from the edge and get back to “better” steel. I’m talking about removing a fair amount of steel, though. Personally, I’d try that with your TI. I would use a 140 grit or 200 grit stone when I do it. If you have a diamond flattening plate, you could use that. For your TI, I’d start by removing ~0.5mm from the edge, perhaps. You can freehand it, but if you place the spine on the stone, make sure you tape it. In the meantime, I’d suggest looking for a Japanese frameback that uses Swedish steel. These are probably amazing shavers - close to the Weck. This type of razor is on my radar, but in the distance atm.

      Are you referring to the little spots of black steel gunk that someone build up?

      Yes.

      • djundjila@sub.wetshaving.socialOPM
        2·
        20 days ago

        Generally, if you can’t get an edge to refine as you move to smaller-sized abrasive, that’s an issue with temper. Literally, the steel is too brittle and won’t support refinement beyond that point.

        Except that stropping makes it sharper, though! This points towards ductile steel forming a burr, rather than brittle steel chipping when refined, no?

        I’ll explore both directions, starting with thinking about better burr removal

        • gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social
          2·
          19 days ago

          This points towards ductile steel forming a burr

          Could be. A steel that’s too soft to take a good edge is still one with heat treatment issues. If you’re stropping for sharpness, removing burr and/or shaping burr in that way, the resulting apex won’t be very well-formed and uniform from heel to toe.