Thread: King Stones

The HHT is only marginally useful *after* you finish polishing your edge. On a 1K or 4K edge, the hair can wedge into v-shaped notches/scratches in the edge from the coarser grit hones and depending on the particular hair you are using, they may catch easily and break, giving the impression that the edge is sharp, when in fact it's just rough.

I never use the HHT as my hair simply won't work for that purpose. I do find using my "moustache" test, lets me know when the edge catches hair instantly and the amount of tugging lets me know how polished the edge is. I just lightly brush my moustache with the edge in a shaving motion. If the edge is really keen, it catches no matter the angle. When I cut a few of the moustache hairs, I can feel how easy the edge cuts through the hair. It's still not a perfect test, only the shave test matters.

All these types of tests need to be calibrated by the individual and in the end just give you an idea of where the edge is at. As you noticed, you got faulty information from the HHT off the 1K and 4K, so that shows it's not a valid test for you. Perhaps some other test will work better, such as the thumb pad test or...... I can't tell you what to use, only you can figure out what does work for you. If your hones are reasonable flat and your honing is reasonable consistent, there is no way your razor will get duller when you move up in grit, but it will show that you have not done sufficient work on the previous coarser hone.

You might want to have a look at the 1K shave thread..... Once you can shave off the 1K hone, moving up the grit ladder is quite simple, just remove the scratches from the previous hone and you're done.

Regards

Christian

Kaptain Zero I appreciate the reply I do, but I can confidently say that I know what tests work for me when it comes to edge tests .I am a skilled coticule user who never got the hang of the synthetics which led me to sell my sets of naniwa, norton, shapton all because I never took the time to learn and found coticule a lot easier and repeatable for me. Earlier I said that the edge felt off on the thumb pad and also wouldn't pass the HHT after 8k which fails both my tests before I try a shave test. If it passes at 1 and 4 there isn't a reason it would fail at 8k?

I just want to learn synthetics to have another arrow in the quiver so to speak.

If you YouTube the watercot method it's a little video I made on an easy way to get a nice shave. 1k to water only on a coticule. I've done the 1k shave test and I had little to complain about. I rather liked it.

I will make sure next time to remove all the previous scratches because I forgot that synthetic users are always looking at the scratch pattern. Usually I go for polish without worrying if previous scratches are removed since they come from the same hone.

I've got a long way to go to learn these stones but luckily I've got a solid base on what I want an edge to be and the tests that go along with it.

Scott