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Post by PJGH on Jun 10, 2014 15:27:55 GMT -6
Check that out! What a neat device, Dick.
I bet Marcus' brain is clicking away about how he can fashion a couple of those in different sizes to create a multi-faceted edge.
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Post by fram773 on Jun 15, 2014 18:12:35 GMT -6
I have a couple of stuff coming. I got this LE Larson Sure Edge holder. The knob at the bottom turns to clamp down tight on a blade. I got this because I wanted to use a regular new strop though I am sure it will be slower than the automatic ER stropper. Next I got this Goodrich Hone that is for "all blades" Flat side is for SE blades. + whipped dog poor man strop kit interested to see how this turns out.
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Post by mjclark on Jun 15, 2014 23:03:56 GMT -6
Excellent kit, especially a dedicated SE hone! The third shave from a GEM Double Life blade stropped on feox was as good as the first last night in my ER 1924
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Post by fram773 on Jun 18, 2014 14:45:21 GMT -6
I had bad results using the hone... I grabbed a brand new blade and put it in the stropper tool. I wanted to make the Treet blade sharper as they seem a bit tuggy to me.I honed it for 13 times each side then stropped it for 30 times. The blade felt serrated... The instructions say to refresh the blade by moving it across for 3-5 times each side. I don't know if this would make a positive difference but I'm not sure I want to try it again. Next I'll just try the unpasted leather strop in combination with the ferric oxide pasted balsa strop.
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Post by mjclark on Jul 1, 2014 3:16:18 GMT -6
With stropping I pushed a vintage GEM Double Life blade to 5 shaves.
It's now clear that stropping can increase the smoothness of the GEM blades but does little to improve their sharpness or longevity.
Stropping gives superb results with the wedge blades of Rolls and Wilkinson and the super sharp Valet blades, so perhaps ASR just included a stropping device so as not to appear inferior.<br /> For the GEM blades it's only a minor tweak, but a good one nonetheless!
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RocketMan
Gem Star
RazorAddict
Welcome To The Sharp Side!
Posts: 4,167
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Post by RocketMan on Jul 2, 2014 0:52:17 GMT -6
With stropping I pushed a vintage GEM Double Life blade to 5 shaves. It's now clear that stropping can increase the smoothness of the GEM blades but does little to improve their sharpness or longevity. Stropping gives superb results with the wedge blades of Rolls and Wilkinson and the super sharp Valet blades, so perhaps ASR just included a stropping device so as not to appear inferior.<br /> For the GEM blades it's only a minor tweak, but a good one nonetheless! I'm impressed to see you having such positive results with everything you try. I have not had the successes you have and I know others struggle to achieve acceptable use from aged blades. I have yet to get a superb reconditioned edge but I have had some shaves where I came out enjoying the results. Nothing like you describe.
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Post by mjclark on Jul 2, 2014 1:09:45 GMT -6
Interesting isn't it? I know Dick is not getting any smoothness from stropping, and I'm still not sure why.
But as Paul will tell you, those Wilkinson blades for the Pall Mall take a fantastic edge and recondition beautiully, as did the Roger blade in my French lather catcher.
And I read everywhere that Valet blades were no good, but I'm getting astonishing better-than-Feather shaves from my NOS pack.
And it's not simply YMMV since a lot of this stuff is about objective values. Go figure...
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norfolkdick
Master Shaver
Captain of the Razor Blades
Posts: 1,601
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Post by norfolkdick on Jul 17, 2014 2:34:47 GMT -6
Greetings I felt I should post the results of my SE carbon blade stropping experiments as my experimenting has come to an end simply because I can think of nothing else to try. The results can be summarised very easily; all and every method that I tried failed to make a carbon SE blade (new or vintage) smoother or sharper than simply taking the blade from it's wrapper and shaving with it. I have used twenty five new Treet blades and five Gem Blue Star blades plus a selection of various NOS SE carbon blades that I had. I have used an Ever Ready stropper from my Streamline set and a home made stropping handle, there was no noticable difference in the result using either method ie they both seemed to degrade the blades equally. I have stropped on the following materials:- Hose Hide Shell Cordavan Horse Hide Vegetable tanned Cow Hide Chrome Tanned Cow Hide Cotton Balsa I have used as well as untreated strops, strops that have been pasted with Chromox, Feox and Solvol Autosol metal polish. Although I have failed on each and every occasion to improve a SE blade I have used all three of the above pastes on my Henckels kitchen knives a Mora outdoor knife and even my Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knife and I can say unequivocally that I have put edges on them better than I have ever achieved in the past, this leads me to the obvious conclusion that each of these pastes are quite capable of refining/sharpening/smoothing a blades edge. The only conclusion I can come to is that there is something; perhaps grind angle, possibly type of steel, possibly thinness of blade that renders a SE blade incapable of being improved upon, they were made as disposable blades and that is just what they are. This brings me round to the subject of Valet Autostrop blades which were made(according to the advertising at the time) to be sharpened/honed or at least 'refreshed' to the point that they are useable. I have stropped several Valet blades on all the same mediums and whilst I was unable to make one either sharper or smoother the blade was not made worse, so perhaps if it was very dull it might just be rendered barely useable. I think we also have to bare in mind that when Valet razors and blades were made there were no laws governing advertising standards and any spurious claims could and were routinely made; adverts did not have to be true just believable, ie six months shaving from one Valet blade! As for wedge or hollow ground SE blades these were made specifically to be honed and stropped so a totally different criteria applies to these, exactly the same as straight razors in fact. Regards Dick.
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Post by mjclark on Jul 17, 2014 12:02:15 GMT -6
You've put so much time and effort into this Dick and it's great to get a summary of your findings. As you know, my stropping of GEM blades went a lot better, but even with a well prepared pasted strop the blades were just smoothed. Their sharpness and longevity remained the same.
So basically there's not much doing...
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