I just had the best shave ever. Really. The hair parted effortless. They just scrubbed off like foam on a windscreen by a wiper. And I did it with a solingen razor I never could get a really good edge on, no matter what I tried. The reason I never got a satisfactory edge was that the honing angle is a bit too shallow.
Today I tried something different, resulting in literally the best shave I ever had. It was shaving bliss. So, 'what magic did you do, oh wise one' do I hear you say? 'Share your knowledge with us, so that we may experience this shaving bliss?', I hear you ask. Very well. I will share my story.
Did I finish the razor on the famous yellow green escher, the holy grail of all garage sale scavengers? No.
Did I come to finally find the magical touch for that razor on the Nakayama asagi I have? No.
Did I perhaps cave and bought one of those riciculously expensive oozoku that is so hard that for all intents and purposes you're honing with just nagura slurry? No.
The perhaps I finally bought a synthetic 32K shapton? No again.
No, the truth is much, much simpler.
I took the cheap roo strop I never use anymore, and coated it with the cheap red dovo paste I still had lying around. When that had dried out, I just did 20 laps on the pasted strop. I made sure I kept it pulled tout. And I used zero pressure, just slowly sliding the razor over the strop without forcing anything. That's it. After that I did 50 laps on plain leather.
The moral of the story? Expensive finishing hones are nice, but you don't need them to get the perfect shave. 20$ worth of stuff can get you the same results, or even better. Granted, it's not special. Or exclusive. Or mystical, Or unobtainable to all but a happy few. Or anything else usually associated with the hunt for the perfect edge.
You still need to learn how to create an edge that will shave reasonably well before pasted strop becomes a tool instead of a crutch. If you can do that, then you don't need to break the bank to get excellent results. As with most hobbies, there are plenty of opportunities for runaway spending. When you strip away all the trappings, or preferences, or fairy tales, it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
