So, I have 2 straight razors which give quite comfortable shaves. I dared to say they gave me shaves as comfortable as the ones I get with a Derby blade. Last Saturday I shaved with my DE because it had been somewhere around 3 months since I last did it and I felt like doing it (I have always enjoyed it) and to my surprise, the shave was smoother than with my straight.

Why am I telling you this? Well, this made me wonder a couple of things that I think only experienced SR shavers can answer (No, I will not ask which one is sharper, don't worry)

  1. I can't reach the mirror finish on my blades with my Chinese 12K stone. In fact (after looking with a 40x magnifier) the surface shows several micro scratches, all in the same direction and all diagonal. Does that mean the stone is not doing the work appropriately?
  2. Is the mirror finish a "must have" ?
  3. I flattened my 12K stone using a 2K sandpaper. Could it be that instead of only making it flat I made it coarser too?
  4. I have a 10-12K slurry stone I bought from an UK seller on ebay. Should I rub the stone (water in the middle obviously) in order to make the 12K stone smoother?
  5. .


I do feel the shave is very comfortable with minor tugging (no pain, no irritation and no pulling... just some tug that I manage to avoid with a guillotine stroke) but I can't stop wondering if maybe this micro scratches mean the blade is not optimal. I have a vague memory of reaching the mirror finish several years ago (tho the bade was unusable) so now I'm not sure if I messed the stone or not.