Are all sins forgiven with a pasted balsa progression?

[sd_baker]

After a couple of successful shaves with PIF11 razor, I noticed some microchips and the edge wasn't as comfortable as before.

I decided to hone it starting with SP1.5k, it went well and I made the light disappear along the entire edge, got very good bite with the thumbnail test. But for the life of me, I could not get the edge to pass any HHT.

The bevel was not set. But I spent so much time and frustration that I just decided to move on and see what happens.

I moved to SP5k and made all previous scratches disappear, confirmed with loupe. I checked that the undercut was good. Still no HHT.

Moved to 15k Proyan glass (bye bye super stone 12k). The bevel is mirror polished at this point, but very very poor HHT. Only HHT2 occasionally.

I pushed through with a pasted balsa progression, stropped 80 passes on clean leather. And to my surprise, I got a very keen edge, maybe a hair (heh) worse than when I got it from @rbscebu . But certainly shave able.

I bet if I shaved with it and did another full pasted balsa progression, edge would be very good.

It just seems like, if you do the bare minimum on stones (make the apex fully stop reflecting light maybe), the pasted balsas would just do its magic. Am I wrong?

 

[rbscebu]

Maybe some other honers can chime in here.

Sounds like you are starting to develop a good honing technique that works for you.

I have no real experience with edge longevity as I maintain my edges after every shave on its finishing stone or 0.1μm balsa strop. I like a fresh crisp edge with every shave.

I cannot comment on "exotic" pre-finish whetstones as they are beyond my financial means. What I can say is that a 3X (maximum) increasing progression is rather popular. I use 1k to 3k to 8k to 3μm to 1μm progression before finishing on diamond pasted balsa strops. That works well for me with my honing style.

Once your are consistently getting ultimate edges off pasted balsa, you can then try some of the "exotic" naturals to experience the difference (not necessarily better).

 

[silverlifter]

I wouldn't bother with a HHT off the bevel setter: if it shaves hair, it is ready for the next stone for me.

Also worth remembering that a HHT, or thumbpad, or treetop tests are only heuristics; they do not always correlate exactly to the quality, or otherwise, of the shave.

If you were concerned about HHT off the lower grit stones, then I would definitely strop on linen first. I'll often do that between mids and finishers (5/8/Natural) anyway...

If the apex is not reflecting light, and is shaving, the bevel is set. That is always the bare minimum. Everything after that, whether balsa, or synthetic stones, or naturals, is just refinement.