Cool. That is encouraging. Thx.

Thanks for watching.

Pimped up Best Quality 🤣 That could mean that at full retail pricing the current Dovo Master’s is a $50 whore in a $20 market. 😉 I suspected that I was not going to be receiving the SS version discontinued in 2014 even though the seller said he purchased them about 8 years ago.

I would suspect them to be the same blank. I’m not disappointed in this purchase.

I sent a contact card to the razor realms email. Did you get it? Junk mail? Eric & Devan have my phone#, I’d rather not post personal info on YT.

@@billm.2677 Perfect! Found the email, no idea why it was sent to the spam folder. Looking forward to chatting with you Bill! I agree, I wouldn't post personal info either my friend. Cheers!

@@seanstapelfeld2192Did you get my cell number, Sean?

They are hard NOT to like. Thanks for watching. I did shave with one of my injectors this week….shush, don’t let that get out. 😎

Thank you Gary. It is near the top of my faves.

Many thanks to you Driver.

I guess if they pump enough Adderall into a vegetable……he can make it up a few steps, once in a while….especially if there is a double dip chocolate chip cone waiting.

Thanks Sean. I love whining about exclusive ‘good ole boy’ clubs. 😎

I have 3 TI shavers on this forged blank profile at 7/8”. This one, one round point, one barber’s notch. Out on the track they are fractions of a second apart at the checkered flag. Sitting in the parking lot, this is the fastest one. 😉 😎

@@billm.2677 I am thinking of the 7/8 Spartacus next

@@BigEShaves I have zero regret on any TI purchase.

Can confirm not threatened by the convex hones, at all... Sorry to burst your bubble. All of you who think maintaining a functioning edge on a personal hygiene item is a competition for a position in some sort of imaginary competence hierarchy is actually hilarious. You take yourselves so damn seriously I could almost pity you, key word being "almost." It is fun critiquing you because I know you losers take yourselves so seriously, and your overly sensitive emotional effeminate nature will illicit a wildly funny and entertaining response. Then I get to roast the ever living crap out of you.

Thanks Jarrod. Sometimes it is hard to resist pointing out how stupid some of these folks look. 😎

@@brandonsaunders6580 The effeminate types get more girls, Bee.

@@billm.2677 Brandon's protests are doth too much.

@@thesuperiorshave We all hope you had a great trip to France & that you gave TI the best regards from here in Murica. We are anxious to see your presentation. Over the years I have heard mentions of your Dovo expedition vids many times.

Been watching your videos Sir, you are doing a damn fine job 👍

Thanks for your support. Welcome to straight shaving. I subscribed and will be watching. 😀

Thanks Leon. I do try to make your travels a little more interesting.

Thanks for your support Sean. I do have some experience with the battles on this topic. One guy found out I was invited to a shave buddies house and sent him private messages to be cautious around me because I’d try to convert him. When one guy defended my right to discuss and present my experiences publicly, he got nasty messages calling him a Judas. I think I still have copies of those messages but never made them public out of respect for my friend. All the signals were there for the malicious intents of this guy.

Thanks for watching. I gotta try that 3p stuff sometime.

Thanks for watching. I often find a greater tendency to see blood if I am not shaving right after a shower. The hot towel treatment helps there…if I do it. I don’t have much in the way of smiling razors. If the right Sheffield item comes up one day, maybe. I do have a couple GoDallah models with smiles, A real hassle to hone due to the “unsmiling” spine. The vanilla was a bit stronger than I liked on Pharoh’s Dreamcicle, so I never went past a sample size.

Mr. B.S. Boy responded almost immediately to this vid, then his responses disappeared. I read them on my Apple Watch, so I could not get a screenshot for show and tell. 🤣

I did read his response which is why I posted this second reply but it’s gone now he must have deleted it so hopefully he’s crawled back into his hole 🕳️ 😂

www.chefknivestogo.com/yasttr.html

@@billm.2677thank you! Been on a honing and shaping roll recently. This will come in very handy for me.

I don't think it matters much. The oil should help get a finer edge from a not so fine stone. The grits used and how much pressure is applied is what matters. In theory you could use nothing but leather strops and various compounds. When I was a regular straight razor shaver the only reason I used waterstones was because that is what I had for my Japanese carbon steel cooking knives.

Prying the razor from your finger and then finishing the shave…epic! Sorry you had that injury. Commonly novaculite stones use oil. I use Ballastol on my Arks due to the miscible properties with water dilutions.

Ha! At least I’m not alone, my instincts tried to pick a falling razor and had to get some stitches as well.

@@seanstapelfeld2192thank you for sharing that I feel a little better 😂

Thanks for watching and sharing your worthless opinion. I am kind of wondering now though. Are you one of these experts on things you have never tried, or did you actually try it and fail for incompetence. I found volumes of A$$holes who are experts in the use of convex hones, but never tried them at the B&B forum, you should join up over there. They might even have a Moderatoretta slot for someone with your charm and eloquence. For the record there Mr. B.S. Boy (Brandon Saunders) I do have my share of Stupid Mean & Sharp flat oilstones. Since you are here on YT, I’d love to see one of your honing videos just to prove to those interested that you are not just here flapping your lip. Also, just for the record, YOU will never hone as well as I can regardless of what you use. So glad we can both use the high road and take things we say with a grain of salt. Have a nice day.

@@billm.2677 Woah Billy boy I ain't reading all that, sorry ol' chap. I think you got more issues than just diabetes, seems you need to see a psychologist for all those emotions as well. I am sure your concave bevels work just fine, no need to puke up your bi-polar meds over it Billy boy.

​@@billm.2677 Woah Billy boy, don't puke up your bi-polar meds! I mean't no offence. I ain't reading all of that temper tantrum you've thought up in that insulin resistant rotted brain of yours. All I know is you've wasted and ruined more atoma plates in 6 months than I will use in a lifetime, just to get hair off your face. I've used the same atoma to flatten my stones for a couple years now, the hair comes off my face just fine! How long did you take to write out this reply? It must have took many hours to backspace all the "UHHHHHHHHH's" out of it.

@@billm.2677 Woah Billy boy, don't puke up your bi-polar meds! I mean't no offence. I ain't reading all of that temper tantrum you've thought up in that insulin resistant rotted brain of yours. All I know is you've wasted and ruined more atoma plates in 6 months than I will use in a lifetime, just to get hair off your face. I've used the same atoma to flatten my stones for a couple years now, the hair comes off my face just fine! How long did you take to write out this reply? It must have took many hours to backspace all the "UHHHHHHHHH's" out of it.

Woah Billy boy, don't puke up your bi-polar meds! I mean't no offence. I ain't reading all of that temper tantrum you've thought up in that insulin resistant rotted brain of yours. All I know is you've wasted and ruined more atoma plates in 6 months than I will use in a lifetime, just to get hair off your face. I've used the same atoma to flatten my stones for a couple years now, the hair comes off my face just fine! How long did you take to write out this reply? It must have took many hours to backspace all the "UHHHHHHHHH's" out of it.

Thanks Christopher. I’m just out here trying to have some fun with things.

Thanks Mick. I just got done with a little rework on that edge. I’ll take it for a whirl again soon.

Thanks for tuning in. It does take a little time to learn. Many find it worth it. Many find razor maintenance too much. Here is the video I did not too long ago for those who may want to consider giving it a shot without the worrying about the complexities on edge maintenance. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--3pt2q9QLYE.htmlsi=OtZ_-wrLymB78-d7

Thanks for watching and your kind words. I have never really been happy shaving directly off of any stone. I also like to go from my Trans Ark (cuts faster) to my Black Ark (smoother) but I have always dressed the black to be less aggressive (1500 grit wet/dry). Very early I started using the stropping pastes made be the strop maker Herold and expanded the abrasives from there. I started on balsa cause you can sand off something you do not like. I tried some diamond abrasives, but eventually sanded them off.

@@billm.2677 I dress my stones as well. But I use dawn dish soap, kind of the same idea of running water, and dilute it until the edges is smooth and consistent. It gives me an edge to where a palm strop is all I need for a comfortable crisp shave.

@@nonamebear1136 I use water with Dawn all the time, it is particularly helpful on the Suehiro 20k in which water almost beads up. Someone once told me to add a few drops of Jet Dry for the surfactant properties. Maybe I’ll try that coticule again lubed with water/dawn. Might give me some smoothing out that I want.

Thanks Glenn. Finest Memorial Day wishes to you too.

Thanks Sean. I think full bottles of WH are around $10. They have sample sizes to try the different fragrances. If you want a real freeze kick in the face try Glacial Wintergreen. I like Bergamot Lavender and Orange Chill best.

All good points. In my normal process, I use 2 flat strops with a rigid base gently at the process end after the charged balsa set. Beyond that, my maintenance stropping is always done from a shaped surface of 2 curves on leather sandwiched by a short set on .1µ cBN with a long curve. I have no scientific gear to determine what is happening at micro levels near the cutting edge at any time. My discussion and displays are generally to illustrate my theories as to why I have not necessarily found the levels of edge retention on razors I possess that have been honed by others using flat gear. I respect the skills of individuals who sharpened this gear very much, and experienced marvelous shaving performance, freshly honed. I usually strop them on a paddle because I don’t think I know how to strop well enough on my hanging strops to not cause a degradation. It could be my technique failures causing the difference in my experience. I have seen enough published statements that razors honed in methods targeting a hollow bevel shape DO NOT even have EQUAL edge retention to those that are “properly honed”. It is pretty easy for me to see that it really doesn’t matter to someone like myself that considers sharpening his razor as part of a hobby.

Thanks. I just need to figure out how to hone it. 🤣

While I think I am hitting at the closest to the edge on my last stone (Suehiro 20k) with more pressure than one would think should ever be used on a finishing stone, I am just not sure that I hit edge until I am stropping flat. The grinders handbook calls for final use of a flat stone, I just have not gotten that to work well enough for me…yet. I have a coticule bout inbound that I want to try with. It will get a long dimension shape if it is a no go flat. I use different curves and abrasive setups to see where in the bevel I hit. For example, I will back bevel with a slurry sometimes to get a sandblasted look in contrast to the polished look from 20k or Ark. I can pretty easily see that I hit at around mid-bevel to the edge. I probably need MORE scope to see for sure. Hmm 🤔 … New scope, more stones, more razors? 🤣

@@billm.2677 convex sharpening is nearly identical to how safety razors are made. They’re ran through a series of grinding wheels set up in a double wheel configuration. Then I believe they ran across the flat side of the polishing wheel at an angle for the final micro-bevel.

Thx Sean. Hope you had a great weekend.

Thanks for watching and the kind words. 😀

Thank you Johan.

Thanks Greg. 😀 I still would like to have an Heirloom Strop from Tony Miller down in that State we love. They are just plain cool. I might try to sell flavored ice to eskimos. I’d probably would go for Cherry and Orange, and avoid Lemon for a specific reason. Then again, I do remember Jethro Bodine of Beverly Hillbillies fame making “Snow Ice Cream” in one episode, so I’m not sure of my likelyhood of seeking my fortune in that enterprise. 😎

Tony is a great guy. I contacted him about making a custom travel strop for me, and during that conversation asked about getting a piece of material for a bench strop. He's very careful with his choice of leather and the quality of his work is exceptional. I only have two hanging strops that I use for shaving; a Kanoyama and an Heirloom.

@@greggallant5058 I had gotten some horse hide from Tony in the past. At one point I think he had a source just a bit north in the Amish Country. He said he uses this stuff and gave me the info. Can’t beat the pricing. Works great. Leather cutting is a bit difficult. www.thetanneryrow.com/all-leather/horween-chromexcel-strips-leather

Thanks Martin. More than once, I considered using these small razors only for downward strokes under the nose. Of course even a very big shaver can accomplish much ATG in that area.

Thanks. I think I get better contact control with 2 hands.

Thank you. When I started open blade shaving, I found most errors were in “set down”. That more than anything prompted me to follow that style. The first time I saw a vid of someone “blade buffing” with a straight, I thought it to be very risky. I do it occasionally now and think it easier than ‘short choppy strokes.

You are welcome.

Hello. As a general rule I do not hone for personal gain. Over time I have sharpened a fair share of razors for others usually covered by a gentleman’s agreement that their satisfaction trigger a generous commensurate donation to a charity of their choice. I would only work on something that an individual considers ‘user grade’ Items of high value, heirloom or elite pristine display type categories would likely be declined. Similar to almost all professional honers, I would not bother with inexpensive Chinese razors that are not my own. I don’t publish my personal contact info here on YT, but you can contact me through a private message at TheShavingCadre.com. Membership there is required to do this, but free of charge. Alternately, The professional business entity I usually recommend is Jarrod Connerty, proprietor of TheSuperiorShave.com … He has an excellent reputation with 10’s of thousands of items completed. Thanks for your interest.

@@billm.2677 awesome, I greatly appreciate your honesty and response.

Thanks Leon. No right, no wrong; One must do what they deem as successful tool preparation.

On a long ellipse you are correct. On high curve stones with minimal or no cross crown it is the opposite. Try to think of a wheel without a cross crown. On a hollow razor held at 90º to the wheel with both edge and spine areas touching you would hit on the leading edge of the spine area and the trailing end of the bevel with a wide contact footprint. Holding that razor by the tang totally in the belt direction contact at the apex and rear most portion of the spine on a very small contact footprints.

@@billm.2677 I am going by flat hones:)

Thanks for listening and your input. I really know very little about traditional Japanese style sharp stuff or sushi prep. I found the referenced video interesting as it sounded like he was working to create a hollowing into the center of his bevel. It was my understanding that the knife design has a concave or hollowing on the non-bevel side and is typically sharpened with a flat bevel. I have read the planned use of this knife is to minimize possibility of tearing and bruising of raw sushi flesh. Cutting is an act of force in which thinner always wins over thicker in the lower force required department. It made sense to me that a hollowing also in the bevel side somewhere behind the edge would facilitate the planned knife use. I like Murray Carter, have watched most of his published content and have a high respect for his skill and accomplishments. I will have to revisit his stuff on the topic. Maybe I misinterpreted the sushi chef in what he was trying to accomplish in his knife sharpening. Something else I will need to revisit. One thing for sure, it is unlikely that you would find me in the middle if a disagreement exists between these two gents. I have used flat bevels, compound flat bevels, and convex bevels on my kitchen stuff. I prefer flat bevel for peak performance longevity. I prefer a convex bevel for quick and easy attainment of the top performance. It is way beyond my skill and patience to create a hollow bevel kitchen knife freehand although I would love to try one. I’d love to have a couple of Tormek sharpeners to play around with. I seem to recall decades ago an early lumberjack competition on TV where competition chopping axes were described as having custom thinned cutting hardware. I many times looked to find that presentation and always come up empty.

Here is Murray displaying and talking about a custom set of traditional Japanese knives he had just made. He discusses concavity on the back created on a very large waterstone. Later he tells of how he finished the bevel area. Hand stone work 1st, then 800 grit belt on 20” wheel. Seems that last step would produce flatness if the blade were held only in machine direction and concavity for any skew towards cross machine direction. I am sure he has the skill to produce a convexity on that bevel using a wheel like he has demonstrated using stones, but I fail to understand why he would not just get on a tensioned unsupported area and allow the natural deflection to take care of it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DHqcNzkNEao.htmlsi=1RLAc0BkpFerqsMg

@@billm.2677 This is very difficult to explain for an old man in text.. however.. (Hell it's difficult to execute in person) For one, the "flat" side (which is hollow in the center margin,as explained), hollow in the area of friction, not cutting.. Often Kataba are called "single bevel" because there is only one "traditional bevel"... And they are left or right handed (usually right, because people still reject the perfection of left handed person's 😉) However, as described the parameter of the blade is still flat ... The "bevel" side is convex... In the context of a fine sushi knife (yanagiba for example) it is slight....in the context of a sword it is more pronounced. The line where a flat slap of steel slopes down (such as in a "saber" grind or "hollow" grind in western terms ...is.called the shinogi line.. This is important, because in the video you referenced the first wave of "sharpening" (where the first series of small circles are drawn) is intended to raise the shinogi... Then you maintain the convexity down the blade.. It's completely different from how the western world thinks of blade profiling and even maintenance throughout the life of the blade.. But long story short the hollowing of the back side (which would face the piece being cut) is not a "hollow ground " profile the way the normal European/western world would define a hollow grind Mr Carter him self pointed out the "hair" line flat area around the hollow portion which was forged not ground ..

@@Kmurray9244 Thanks for your explanation. I would love to have had the opportunity to be in the same room with Murray Carter as he displayed his handiwork and have the opportunity to handle and ask questions about it. I can sometimes agree but am mostly with your information on those with Right Brain - Left Handed perfection. As someone who handwrites and fires long guns on the Left, while plays sports and handguns on the right preference, I remain mostly confuzzelated. At many points in my feeble attempts to break 100 in golf, I wondered if I should have taken up that game from the left.

@@billm.2677 😂 I will apologize.. It's hard to articulate on text at work... And my texting is lac luster at best ( gibberish Is the norm) .. In short, the video you provided was a beautiful demonstration of how to hone a very specific japanese style knife and has absolutely no bearing or benefit to your passion for a convex hone.. 🤷‍♂️ My polite way of saying "you completely misunderstood" the principal and use of the hone, and more importantly the methodology.

Thanks Greg. IMO, GoDallahs are helpful in the developing sensory feedback of steel on sharpening media. Even though I do have some of these ‘China Wonders’ that shave remarkably well it is unlikely that I would ever put them in the same class as even the worst of the old line European manufacturers. I had opportunity to sharpen one particularly egregious 5/8 TI example from the Art of Shaving heydays, it almost looked as if someone deliberately bowed out a small part of the edge with a small cylindrical object. The razor’s owner, who is a successful honer in his own right, gave me a shot at it after his and a number of other attempts and opinions came back as “unhone-able”. While no razor maker should take pride in something like that particular example, one can figure out how to sharpen it. The thin flexibility in the edge allowed it to bend around a slight curvature without forcing the apex shift from one side to the other. It had very nice blended color horn scales and traditional tight TI pinning. I would take it any day over anything I bought from China.

_GoDallahs are helpful in the developing sensory feedback of steel on sharpening media_ I agree. If the razor needs correction, though, a beginner who doesn't recognize this may get quite frustrated with the edge that results from an uncorrected razor.

I do feel the difference in the 2 constructions, but would be hard pressed to identify a harder less flexible product as less comfortable. I have heard many opine that the softer end products from Sheffield led them to be more comfortable.

@@billm.2677 yes exactly Bill the softer the steel the more confortable it feels on the skin unless that softer steel wasn’t heat treated properly and developed a thick grain structure. The worst would be a very hard steel with an improper grain structure.

The general nomenclature is that anything above 0.6 "ish" is "high carbon" I have a razor that it D 2 (as well as several knives) which is 1. 5.... And it's very brittle... But the grain structure of the steel as a result of stress reliving, annealing, work hardening environments matter... A c-135 has a very high level of carbon, very close to a D2 ...which is why so many people have issue with TI .. Also the interaction between some steels and.some stones is different..that is why there is NO singular process that is superior ..

Confirmation of my understanding from one of the World’s Finest Custom Razor Makers. Thanks Boris