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Is it just me.

Laurens

Laurens

Member
Hello gentlemen,
Over the last few touchups of my blade I have found out something which I thought was at odds with what I have read of other people on the forums across the web. I have experimented with touching up on my naniwa 12k and my chromium oxide pasted strop and have found that the chromium oxide makes a huge difference. I can't shave of the 12k without paste at all. People usually comment on how paste just makes the shave smother and its not necessary and I have read some even dislike the paste after the naniwa 12k. Im curious if I have let my razor go too dull before refreshing the blade earlier on and I need to go back down to the 8k. Am I alone in relying on the paste this much? This being the only sharp enough blade to shave with I want some opinions before going down to the 8k and risking dulling. I am currently learning to hone on gold dollars so I'm still a learner.
 
@Laurens touching up a blade is actually more difficult than most people appreciate. Too much pressure at the final stage can dull an edge. Someone with @Mark's experience would know the correct feel of the blade and the needed pressure to refine and not hone the blade.

A tip would be to get @Mark to hone one of your blades and then you practice with other blades until you feel yours reach as close or as good as his. It helps to have a known standard.

Now paste. I love it, but I do have a full set of stones and and other shave ready razors so if I ruin the edge with paste I can reasonably quickly bring it back with the stones. I can now get a very good edge on a blade but it took significant practice.
This is me if I feel I need paste - very light passes with the blade and normally only about 6 -10 maximum on a pasted strop after say the 12k. Then anything up to 30 on unpasted linen as that tends to remove any remaining paste and up to 150 - 200 on leather. All with a gentle touch.
 
@Laurens I would suggest honing the razor from scratch after every single shave as it will greatly help with your learning until you develope a method that works for you. Put any pastes or compounds aside as they will slow you down, they are deceiving and will make you think it's improving the edge rather than masking the problem. For touch ups there really isn't enough cutting power in the 12k as the more you use the razors and strop it the more the edge rounds off and does not make contact with the hone, instead you are polishing the bevel. If you're not going to hone it from scratch then definitely go back to the 8k, you should feel a difference sensation when the very edge (not just the bevel) makes contact with the hone and there will be more resistance. Don't be scared to put a dozen strokes or two on the 8k with no pressure as it's near impossible to over hone on it, once you're done on the 8k I'd say somewhere between 10 and 20 super light and slow strokes on 12k just for that final edge refinement but no more than that. In order to learn and improve you will need to hone razors from bevel set and get stuck into it with confidence. Take this as a guideline and allow for variances depending on the type of razor and condition of the edge. You can be shown the path but only you can walk the walk. Good luck.
 
Thankyou, I went to the 8k and have felt a difference in my shave, even stropping felt different which surprised me. Im still chasing the keenness which I experienced when I had the blade honed by you Mark. Currently working on the gold dollars. wish me luck!
 
hey @Mark, Do you recommend I dull the blade before going back to the 1k? And whats the best way to know I need to move from the 4k and 8k stones?
 
I just finished shaving with a gold dollar razor I honed. I will have to go back to the stones as only the top third of the razor is sharp enough to shave with. What I found odd was that only the top half of the bevel has the polished finish all along the blade. The blade passed the thumbnail test after the 1k so I presume the bevel was set. Has anyone come across this? Does it affect the razor's keenness? Up to the 12k I couldn't see any issue its just after the 12k.
 
I bread knifed all my gold dollars and then beat them hard when setting the bevel. But they are now my best shavers. I'm to scared to beat my more expensive straights haha
 
Am I right in saying that micro bevels are always the result of a not properly set bevel or can honing on the later stones be at fault??
 
Some people use tape after setting the bevels. That's a deliberate micro bevel.

Setting the bevel and being true to it is the most efficient way to get the result, not the only way. On a higher stone you will get there but would take a horrible long time.
 
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