First, I apologize for the anticipated length of this post, and the fact that I'll be doing it in installments. I'm a physician raising a child and trying to keep SWMBO reasonably content and away from my Mastercard statements, so it'll probably take a good part of the July 4th weekend to get this done as I would like.

I recently deposited a goodly sum in Old_School's bank account for two Japanese naturals -- a Nakayama Maruichi Asagi and a Nakayama Maruichi Kiita-Asagi mix. I wasn't unhappy with my coticules, and I'd recently (re)discovered the basic goodness that my Guangxi, plus patience, could bring to a razor. But, as I wrote O_S, , I was looking for maybe a 2% imrpovement in my polishing stones which, by my calculation, would deliver edges as close to perfection as my skills would allow.

Other than my love of straights, and an obvious (if diminishing) excess of disposible income, the only other fact of interest about me in this context is that before med school I earned a Ph.D with an emphasis on statistics and experimental design. So, I decided to figure out, as objectively as possible, if I had achieved that 2% improvement.

The Stones I have several coticules, among them a "La Veinette" hand selected for me by Bart, which he told me had a reputation (the vein, that is) for fast cutting and preliminary work, and a 6X2 I usually use for finishing. Since we all know coticules can vary, I thought this would represent the relative extremes of their capabilities, although in truth I wasn't very pleased with the "La Veinette's" aptitude for rough work. I included the 2 Japanese naturals, obviously. I also included my Guangxi. I would have loved to include an Escher, but I do not have one.

The Razors Certain razors love certain stones? Not so sure about that, but I chose razors that represented a range of types: a 6/8 Grelot 1/4 grind, a full-hollow tortoise 5/8 Dovo (the lab rat of honing experiments), a near-wedge Wostenholm, and a singing blade Genco Master Barber. What all these blades have in common is that they are easily honed and require no special considerations.

Soaps In a way, this was the most difficult part of the thing for me. For consistency's sake, I wanted to keep one soap through an entire rotation of the razors, and I love to use different soaps from one day to the next. So I chose several I like well enough to keep me happy for several days running, and that always work well for me: MWF, Williams, Tabac, Speick (shave stick milled in a bowl) and Prarie Creations. (As an aside, whenever I read a thread wherein individuals are trying to outdo each other criticizing Williams, it always registers in my brain as a conversation between "players" each proclaiming that HE is the most awkward around, and least adequate at entertaining, a beautiful woman. A weird, yet always amusing, argument. At any rate, the Williams provided me with an abundance of well-hydrated, thick lather, as always.

OK, my son wants me to come down and watch Hot Tub Time Machine, so I'll sign off. Next I'll describe the procedures I used. Last, I'll give the results and conclusions. Hope this is of some interest.