Well today I decided re hone the 209 and after spending some more time this is indeed it. I can't keep wasting time on this razor. Today's honing session was indeed an "eye opener". So let me inform you of what I did and why I feel that this specific razor was a waste of time:
Today I went with my Soft Arkansas oil stone and I stuck with my old routine that I use to use all of the time. As you can see, I worked up a really good slurry but it wasn't enough. After I did several sessions on it, the razor failed my thumbnail test. Normally after that kind of honing session on my other stones, the razor would somewhat bite into my thumbnail and struggle to go across it. But not the 209. So I must retire the razor:
After spending all that time and getting disappointed, I went back to my Professional 600 grit. I did my old routine and it still wouldn't dig into my thumbnail like I would want or need it to:
I went ahead and stropped in on the smooth leather:
This razor was a disappointment to me and even harder to hone than my Gold Monkey was. There won't be another shave with this razor and I'm deadly serious about it this time around because there's no way I will shave off of just a 600 grit edge. Out of all the straight razors I've owned this specific one wouldn't take an edge or hold one hardly at all. Even my old Gold Monkey Triple 6 took and held an edge better than the 209 did and it took a really long time to hone it. My 208 and both of the 66's I owned had no issues of taking or holding an edge either.
