My First Bevel Setting:

Well earlier tonight, I completely killed the edge of my Gold Dollar 208 to see how well the 3M Lapping Film works in terms of honing. Unfortunately it did NOT work and I had a razor that was duller than a spoon is. So the only thing you can do at this point is to reset the bevel and the ONLY honing stone that I have here is my Norton 4/8K combo stone. But I'm all for turning a negative into a positive and to my surprise, it didn't take as long as I thought it would:

So I went ahead and got started using a couple of friend's method which I will explain. The first thing I did was 100 round trips on the 4K side followed up by my usual 40 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds, and then 5 seconds on each side of the razor using "half circles" followed by 20 more round trips to clean up the edge. Next I eye glassed it, did the "wet thumb nail test", followed by the shaving arm hair test and that blade removed a lot of forearm hair. This is what I'm most proud of. I have NEVER completely killed the edge of a razor before to the point where it would NOT shave and then do the technique I mentioned above and it shaved my left forearm nearly bald in some spots:

Next I did the same thing on the 8k side with an exception to the fact that I did 50 seconds on each side of the razor instead of 40 after doing 100 round trips. Other than that, I followed it up the same amount listed above followed by 20 round trips to clean up the razor. Next I stropped my razor with 5 round trips of the scrub leather followed by 15 round trips on the smooth leather:

I got a pretty good amount of slurry on the 8K side of the stone as you see below:

Here's proof that you can set a bevel on the Norton 4/8K stone and what surprised me was the fact that this entire process took about 30 minutes when I was expecting it to take much longer. The arm hair shaving test NEVER lies ladies and gentlemen:

I couldn't be more happier with the fact that I set this bevel. And the ONLY lessons I've had was watching a few friend's honing videos on YouTube and getting a few questions answered on Face Book. Thanks to all of those who helped me out with any and all questions regarding honing. I can't you guys enough and a very special thank you to the Gold Dollar Shave Club Face Book group. You guys have been the absolute best and most helpful group in terms of honing bar none. Now the amount of time I listed above can be drastically reduced by at least half if not more if I had a lower grit stone and a proper finishing stone. So as far as I'm concerned, the water stones win in terms of honing hands down.

Lapping Film = Wasted Time:

Well I tried it and after doing the arm hair test, I can offically say that it was a waste of time and money with 3M's lapping film. At first I thought it would be great and I did approach it with an open mind. After all I did buy it and I use what I buy. Whether it works or not is an entirely different story. So lets get started.

Step #1: Kill the edge:

The very first thing I did was completely kill the edge to where it wouldn't shave anything all:

Step #2: Cut lapping film:

The lowest my kit went in terms of grit was 1800 grit at 9 microns which is the blue sheet you see below and I never got past this particular color. The lowest grit you can get in 3M's lapping film is the yellow which is 1,200 grit which I thought would be great for setting bevels. If you don't set the bevel, you have NOTHING. That is the meat and potatoes of honing PERIOD. Once you set a bevel, you should be able to shave off it. If you can't then the bevel is NOT set:

Step #3: spray surface with water:

When using lapping film, you can use any flat and smooth surface you wish which includes honing stones. So since I have nothing but a Norton 4/8K combo stone, I decided to use it:

Step #4: Remove adhesive backing and apply:

Basically what you do is remove the adhesive backing of the lapping film and apply it to your surface smooth side down. This keeps the film in place which while honing so you don't ruin your edge:

Step #5: Flatten lapping film:

using your straight razor, perform 1 round trip using a stropping motion. Your razor will act like a window squeegee and flatten the film and it also removes the air bubbles which supposedly can ruin your edge:

Step #6: Begin Honing:

This was as far as I got. My kit only went as low as 1,800 grit which I thought would be great for setting a bevel and I got zero results after using my tried and true method. Like I said earlier, if you can't shave off of a bevel you just set then you've wasted your time because you MUST set the bevel. There's NO other way around this. Now below is the progression they list on the 3M lapping film along with the micro listings:

Yellow = 1,200 grit at 12 microns

Blue = 1,800 grit at 9 microns

Brown = 4,000 grit at 5 microns

Pink = 8,000 grit at 3 mircons

Green = 14,000 grit at 1 micron

White = 50,000 grit at .1 microns

^ That's what their chart says on their website, but I got nothing on the blade after shaving my forearm with it after using the same method that I've been using since my Norton 4/8K combo stone arrived and I've had that stone for several months now easy so I know it was NOT due to user error period. There's no way it could be. So after seeing the lack of results, I can call this method a waste of time and money because quite frankly what paid for this film, I could've bought a Norton 1K stone for setting bevels.

Lapping Film has Arrived:

Today's other mail call was my 3M lapping film from Best Sharpening Stones' website which couldn't have arrived at a better time because yesterday, I made too many passes with my straight razor on my neck area mainly because I dulled the blade a few weeks back when I made a false move while stropping. So up until now, I've not had anything here to reset the bevel with and to be honest, the 8K side of my Norton 4/8K combo stone is simply not enough for my tough beard. Using this stuff to re hone a straight razor is pretty simple from what I've seen on YouTube. You can use anything to temporarily attach the lapping film to including existing honing stones. What you do is cut the lapping film to the appropriate size. Then take the surface that you will be using and spray it down with water. Next take your lapping film and apply it smooth side down to the surface you're using which can be anything as long as it's smooth. I'm thinking about getting either a piece of smooth 4 by 10 inch marble floor tile or a piece of glass the same size. Next you spray the lapping film with water and using the spine of the razor perform 1 round trip ONLY using a "stropping motion" to make sure the lapping film is flat and there's no air bubbles present and voila you have a honing stone:

I got their sheet kit #2 which goes from 1,800 grit all the way up to 50K grit which will mean an evil edge in terms of being sharp and keen:

I've been hearing about this method and have wanted to try it for quite some time now. Some people swear by it while others question it's capabilities in terms of producing a nice and comfortable edge to shave off of. I'll soon find out. I personally prefer the true honing stones myself because unlike the 3M lapping film, it's good for more than 1 or 2 uses and if you do a lot of honing, the stones will also be a much better choice.

Jack Frost & Aqua Velva:

Today's is Steam Bath Factory Wednesdays and this is the first time that I have used this incredible soap. The scent is called jack frost which is a sweet sugar scent with a little hint of peppermint. This soap is softer than her other vegan based soaps and the slickness is epic. This soap also has plenty of cushioning ability as well. The post shave feel is extremely good with a nice menthol chill which is very soothing and needed because I made too many passes yesterday and have a little irritation left over because of it. So I'll be using my DE safety razor for a couple of days until it clears up. This is one of the most comfortable shaves I've ever gotten with a DE safety razor which I contribute to the soap. It's tied with my top soap which is Soap Commander's "Vision" scented soap. Aqua Velva's ice blue is a perfect choice for this soap:

The shave itself wasn't quite a true BBS, but as I previously stated it was extremely comfortable and close. If you have highly irritated skin, grab this soap because unlike the others this one here is very soothing and perfect for irritated skin.

Mail Call:

Today's mail call is from "Tiki Bar Soaps" and both are incredible. The Steam Bath Factory is their "Jack Frost" scent which is a sweet sugar scent with a hint of peppermint. It's also extremely soft so that means NO BLOOMING with this one because it'll basically ruin it if you do:

I put a label of my own on there so I could tell what the scent is which is equally incredible. This is her newest L.E. Soap which was released today. She happened to run out of labels and put a different one on there but it's a vegan based soap. It's an apple pie with butter scent that has a slight hint of sweetness to it:

And as usual it came sealed for nuclear war which is a good thing:

I'm very pleased with this mail call and now that she has a few more Limited Edition soaps added to her line up, this can and already does mean trouble for my wallet. I now have 9 of her soaps.

The Captain & Clubman:

Today is "Tiki Bar Tuesdays" and man I really needed that. I started off with a hot shower which ALWAYS makes the shave and the entire experience better. And the scent that was up in the rotation was "The Captain" which is a fresh cherry pipe tobacco scent and for some reason I was also craving another classic, Pinaud's Clubman aftershave in the original scent. Today's shave was also a true BBS shave, but not quite the ice rink type of shave I have been getting. So when my lapping film arrives, I'm going to put it to the test in terms of finishing a razor:

No Mail Calls Today:

Due to a national holiday, there was no mail delivered today in my box at the post office which is a tad bit weird because they normally put the mail out in my P.O. Box ONLY at my local branch unless it's a major holiday. So I can still go in and pick up any mail that I didn't get to that was previously delivered or if the mail sorter just happened to come in and work that day and get double pay like they normally do at my local branch. Apparently he needed to be off today so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to pick any mail calls up that arrived today from the contractor that transports the mail. It's shame because I have 2 more mail calls coming in:

This is a bit weird because the mail sorter at my local post office branch normally doesn't take Columbus Day off. This is the first time in nearly 5 years that he has taken this holiday off actually.