I found the issue. Thank you.
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I found the issue. Thank you.
I see so many people in the same situation, they buy every natural hone going and still not get the results they want.
My advice would to be to get a known synthetic, Norton 4/8, Naniwa 5/10 etc and learn how to hone, they are nice and consistent. Learning how to hone is hard enough without all the guesswork of a natural. Once you get great shaves every time with the synthetics then worry about naturals, as there's no point having all these naturals and not get a good shave.
Bingo. I stopped caring about the HHT when I realized that hair on my arm is thicker than hair from my head, and the stuff on my face runs the gamut. If I pluck a hair from my head, which is quite fine, a razor will never pass the HHT. Tree-topping arm hair is good, but in my experience that's no guarantee of a good shave. So for my purposes, the HHT does me little to no good. And of course I have no idea how my razor would cut anyone else's hair. Someone telling me about their blade passing their HHT also does me little to no good.
This is why I skip that test, and move directly to the shave test. HHT can be good, but lacks precision and control. Shave test is definitive - it cuts hair smooth with no tugging, or it does not.
Ya, just honed a razor on my lunch break. Same deal. HHT 4 on one hair, HHT2-3 on a slightly thinner hair that didn't look too dissimilar. I'm done with it — on a coticule it matters a bit tho, as sharp took me ages to get.
I think the issue was not "I don't know my coticule" but rather — how does the Norton 4/8 compare, if both are ~8k edges, what can the Norton do the coticule cannot?
Extreme consistency with the Norton, once I get it to the 8K my routine is very repeatable. One set of 20 circles and 30 rolling x-strokes all with very light pressure, sometimes I might need a few more x-strokes but most of the time I move to the PHIG after the above
This. And to take it one step further - not JUST his Norton 8k, but ANY Norton 8k. There will be little/no variation through the life of the stone, and one stone to another.
Naturals on the other hand can vary between layers of the very rock you have in your hand. And I surmise that you're already familiar with variation from one stone to another since you seem to have a few coticules.
THIS is a good reason to recommend the Norton 4/8, even after all it's recent years as a razor stone.
Lots of other things have come along since, including rediscovering older hones.
It is not so obsolete, really. As was said, it is a benchmark to teach with.
It is also a great mid-range hone to continue to use, no matter how bad HAD get it's grip on you! :)