Thread: honing and stropping a Puma 52

Spent a good part of the evening honing and stropping a vintage Puma straight. Worked up a good slurry with a Nagura stone on an 8000 grit waterstone. Took it to the linen (200 passes) then the leather (200 passes). After looking at the edge with a 10x loupe it still looks a little rough. Do you seasoned straight razor users get a mirror finish on your edges? Don't know if my expectations are too high or what. Should i go back to the linen or just keep going on the leather for a few hundred more passes? Guess i could just shave with it and see how she does. I've been curious about those that use balsa wood hones in conjunction with diamond paste and also the ultra high grit Shapton stones. Should the edge have a mirror finish? Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

I know to the naked high the bevel ought to look like sliver of mirror. At 60-100x it certainly doesn't look like a mirror anymore but I don't know about 10x.

I'd say more time on the strop isn't the answer. If 200 laps haven't shined her up another 200 won't either.

Try going back to the 8k stone with no slurry, and use absolutely NO pressure. Then do half as many laps on the strops (you can always do more) and see if that helps.


Hones are a highly...HIGHLY personal thing. I had the Shapton Glasstones up to 16K and now have the Naniwa Super Stones up to 12K. The numbers are misleading. I've counted at least 5 different grit systems. I think everyone here would agree that the 12K SS and 16K GS are effectively the same level of "fineness". If knives and razors are the only things being considered I'd recommend the 8k and 12K Naniwa Super Stones over the 8K and 16K Glasstones even if they were the same price...and the Super Stones are considerably cheaper! Again, this is really subjective preference. There are other stones out there too, many many other stones! lol

Welcome to SRP if I've not already said so in an early thread!!!

Don't worry too much about a couple of visible scratches. Try shaving with it and see what happens. Sometimes I'll get a few deeper scratches on the 1k that I don't spend the time taking out with the 4k. They don't seem to cause problems with the shave.

Originally Posted by michaelcassani

Spent a good part of the evening honing and stropping a vintage Puma straight. Worked up a good slurry with a Nagura stone on an 8000 grit waterstone. Took it to the linen (200 passes) then the leather (200 passes). After looking at the edge with a 10x loupe it still looks a little rough. Do you seasoned straight razor users get a mirror finish on your edges? Don't know if my expectations are too high or what. Should i go back to the linen or just keep going on the leather for a few hundred more passes? Guess i could just shave with it and see how she does. I've been curious about those that use balsa wood hones in conjunction with diamond paste and also the ultra high grit Shapton stones. Should the edge have a mirror finish? Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

If the actual edge looks rough or toothy at 10x chances are it will shave rough too but the finish you see on the bevel will have little bearing on the edge's performance.
A mirror finished bevel may shave just as well as a matte finished bevel or as a striated finished bevel.

Originally Posted by michaelcassani

Spent a good part of the evening honing and stropping a vintage Puma straight. Worked up a good slurry with a Nagura stone on an 8000 grit waterstone. Took it to the linen (200 passes) then the leather (200 passes). After looking at the edge with a 10x loupe it still looks a little rough. Do you seasoned straight razor users get a mirror finish on your edges? Don't know if my expectations are too high or what. Should i go back to the linen or just keep going on the leather for a few hundred more passes? Guess i could just shave with it and see how she does. I've been curious about those that use balsa wood hones in conjunction with diamond paste and also the ultra high grit Shapton stones. Should the edge have a mirror finish? Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

An 8K hone will be rather slow.

Try the magic marker test. Run a black or red
waterproof magic marker on the edge. Let it dry..

Take one smooth bidirectional (up and down) hone stroke
and inspect with your 10x loupe. If you still see ink
on the sharp edge side of the blade your bevel is not
up to snuff. Red marker may prove easier to see
a thin red line where the bevel is not closed.

And yes at about 8000 with clear water the edge
looks flat and mirror like with minor scratches to me.
8K with slurry can be slightly frosty...