Thread: Honing - move the blade or the stone?

Hey Guys.

Had almost a year of practice on both stropping and shaving. Rough at the start but with persistence, have really come along. Not a pat on the back, but after well over 150 shaves in I'm able to get a confident, effective shave...better than my DE. Still improving daily, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure you've all been there.

When it comes to touch ups, I've considered myself lucky - followed the wiki, lapped my naniwa 12000 and did about 20 laps. Stropped, and enjoyed a sharper blade and a smooth shave. How hard can this be, right?

Anyway, after a few more months I've collected and used a couple more blades and was ready to touch them up again. This time I lapped my naniwa 8000 and did only 3 gentle laps, back to the 12000 and did 15-20 more. Light as a feather. Stropped and shaved. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as my first attempt. The blade felt pretty ragged and I got 2 small cuts for my troubles. My shaving technique was fine . It almost felt like a burr had formed, or the striations were too aggressive - neither I would have suspected with only a few trips on the 8000/12000. Skin was a little tender, but better after my post shave rinse and balm. By the end of the day my face hadn't developed any burn. A relief.

The blade seemed sharp and shave ready, just not comfortable.

Here's my question. I decided to take the razor back to the hone to polish it up...just the 12000 mind you. My naniwa has a stand and although I maintain good contact on my down stroke, after I flipped the "push" stroke seemed to have much poorer contact. Just didn't feel right. After 10 laps, I still wasn't confident in that push stroke. I've seen a few of you holding the hone in your left palm and honing with the right so I decided to try the same. MUCH more comfortable, and much better contact...both down and up.

Strangely, one thing I noticed is that the best contact was when I moved my hone hand back and forth through the laps while keeping my blade hand relatively still, not the other way around. Not sure if it was more effective, will try the razor out for tomorrows shave.

Do you think this is just a comfortable "YMMV" way to hone, or do you think it'll be detrimental in the long run - and I should try to keep the hone firm and sharpen by moving my blade hand only? I guess I'm feeling that when I move the light blade with my right hand I almost get the "shakes" trying to keep it right, but I'm much more stable and in control when I leave it alone and let the heaver hone hand do the work.

Any feedback's appreciated!

Mike