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Well, I have my new Dovo and I'm going to need to hone it soon. I already have a 5k Naniwa superstone. My question is can I get away with honing on a 5k stone and stropping ALOT to finish off the edge, or will I be wasting my time. Should I just bite the bullet and go spend some more cash on another stone? Any advise is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Matt
As I understand it, a strop can only do so much. Doing several hundred laps of the strop just increases the chance that you'll get one wrong and roll the edge or cut your strop. If it's not there after the first hundred, it ain't gonna get there. If you happen to have "magic fingers" you might have the touch to get a smooth edge on a 5k, I suppose. You're more likely to need at least an 8k to finish on, or some kind of grit or paste for your strop to make up the difference.
That's just my understanding, so your experience might be different.
Well if i understand correctly you have a new shave ready rasor needing re-touching, im no expert but 5k wont do it,
personally i use a barber hone and a pasted strop to touch up the edge without any problems.
You need at least an 8k really, could you shave off a 4k probably if your an experianced honemaster but it would most likely feel like someone is ripping the hair from your face.
If you had some 5um 3um 1um 0.5um stropping compounds you could then probably finish it on the strop (this is actually a technique to hone) but that is way too much effort and a whole new topic.
Get an 8k before you touch it
I tested it out a while ago, and I got a comfortabls shave off my naniea ss 5k. No excessive stropping required. But once I know I could, I didn't keep doing it, because I prefer an edge off a finer stone. Its a question of what you are happy with, and whether or not you want to buy another stone.
WOW, Fast responses!
Thanks for the input. I think I already knew the answer, I was just looking for some validation to be cheap :)
I'm going to grab an 8k stone and carry on. I'll let you know how it goes, It'll be my first time attempting to hone my razor so it should be, at very least, amusing.
Thanks again guys.
Matt
I was just going to say, since you already have the 5K I would work with that until I was able to extract the max from it and see how you like the shaves. Then you can go higher if you so wish.
There was a member here sometime ago who posted a Japanese grit chart, (here)as opposed to the USA grit chart ( I forget what it is called in reality) and it showed the naniwa 5k and norton 8k were close to equivalent grits. This , since at the time I had the hones, led me to do pyramids with the naniwa 3 and 5k as if they were a norton 4/8. I found I got good results and could get good shaves off of the naniwa 5k. As good as off of the norton 8k. YMMV. :gl:
This is why I hate those grit charts,,, I read that when questioned directly about the Norton 8k, that Norton explained that it is rated on the Japanese scale, and that many people mistakenly think it is rated on the American scale :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
But to the OP try it and see what you like...
Yeah, I just gave it a shot and it worked for me. Matter of fact when I did pyramids with the Shapton pro 5k/8k (in the pro line there is no 4k) it was pure misery. Took forever. I went by the grit chart and started doing 2k (no 3k in the pro line) and 5k pro and i was great. Finished on the 8k .... as I did with the naniwa after the 3k/5k and golden. Going even higher was an option but not necessary for my particular skin/whiskers. As you say, the charts can be misleading but they led me to try and the results paid off in my particular case. As in most things with this sport YMMV. :)
You can do whatever you want. It is simply a matter of whether you can live with the results. The only way you will ever know if you can get away with that sharpening regime is to try it for yourself and see if you like it.
James.