First post here having come over from Badger and Blade where I've been learning all about my new DE for the last 3 weeks. I've been enjoying that so much that the lure of a straight proved irresistible and I bought one after a week of DE shaving. I tried it out a few times before deciding to send it for honing at the invisible edge here in the UK. Expecting it and a new strop back tomorrow!
My reasoning was that I had no idea what a shave ready blade would feel like so this is really a benchmarking exercise as I do plan to learn to hone my own blade eventually. Have watched Lynns videos on honing and quickly realised that my 30 years of experience sharpening various woodworking tools was not going to stand me in good stead with a razor but I've gone ahead and bought a DMT 8C to lap my hones and have a norton 4/8k combi on order. I want to get a stone for finishing and an old razor or two to practice with but have a question about the Belgian stones. Looking at the BBW and yellow coticule it seems that they are the natural equivalent of a norton 4/8? If this is the case would you need both, the blue to set the bevel and the yellow to polish and even then would it be necessary to get something finer to finish the job or could you take it from the yellow to the strop? If this is the case I'll cancel the backordered Norton and get the belgians as I prefer natural stones for my wood working tools.
Sorry for the long winded first post, lots to learn!
Chris