Thread: The Tool vs. The Technique

I am having a bit of a problem advancing in my methods and my shaves. Presently, I finish up one of my dovo's with a norton 8k and right off of the 8k it really isn't too sharp, at least nothing to write home about anyway. I use my stropping to really bring the blade to life and I end up getting a pretty decent shave but nothing spectacular. Now, as I am a believer in the technique over the tool, I put nothing on my strops and I finish with nothing more than the 8K. However, nothing is getting better. I would like to know, from your experience, is there a fine line where the technique comes off and one is forced to upgrade to a finer tool, or with proper technique, could the job be done with almost any tool? Could you get a shave ready edge with something like a colonol ichabod conk? Do you need your shapton 12000 to do the job? Looking forward to hearing what yinz have to say.

It's not the 8k

The only thing that you are going to get after the 8k is smoother the sharpness should be there...

You can try the "20 laps to dry" on the Norton to get the absolute most outta that stone...

When yer done honing...

Rinse the 8k
Take yer finger and wipe off the excess water
Very Slowly and as perfect as possible start doing X strokes on the 8k
Light, light, lighter touch...
Now let the stone slowly dry off as you hone..
It should take 15-20 laps for this to happen the stone is actually damp not really dry

That will get ya the most outta the Norton 8k

What Glen said!

I do that on my finishing stone and it works great!

The other thing to consider is if you're coming off the 8k and are distinctly underwhelmed by the edge, its possible you havent gotten the best out of your lower grit stones as well.

You should be able to shave arm hair right off your 1k stone so you need to make sure you have a properly formed and sharp bevel before moving onto higher grits. Otherwise all you're doing is polishing a dull edge!

Good luck and keep us posted!

no success, gave it a try but with little improvement. I liked the 20 laps to dry because it really took advantage of the surface tension on the hone and made the blade almost "stick" to the stone a little better. Other than that, I am having little luck. To be honest, right now the only thing that gets my honing by is what I can do on the strop. I can't even come close to passing a hanging hair test until I hit the strop.

Originally Posted by abiank350

I can't even come close to passing a hanging hair test until I hit the strop.

LMAO yeah so, I have about every stone you read about here and I darn well know how to use them, and with the wife's hair it won't pop till after stropping either...

HHT doesn't work like that ..


Now the shave results are different, again if it isn't sharp enough more stone won't help.... If it shaves well, but feels a bit rough on the skin then perhaps you need more stone...

Best thing in the world to do is send a Norton expert your razor and have them sharpen it on the Norton set and see what the outcome is... that could very well save you the cost of an un-needed finisher...

Of course if ya just want another stone, heck man we all have HAD... just buy what ya want

After norton 4k side razor should cut arm and leg hair easily.
After 8k norton side razor should cut hair on arm and legs midlength and silently (depends on hair), but it will not resist to cut.

If that isn't happening a higher stone won't do squat.

Duly noted. It just seems to me, by the talk on this forum, I should be getting a little bit more out of my honing.

On the one hand, having fairly recently joined this forum, I gather that I have learned well over the years, but on the other, this forum makes me second guess everything that I thought I knew.

My final consensus is that although I am getting by, with respect to my honing, there is definitely something more to be had. Now, as to whether that is my technique or not, I am now successfully confused. I am now wondering if I could in fact be getting some more out of my mid grit pre polishing stones such as my norton or my arkansas, anywhere 3-6k i'd say.

As far as testing to see if it is shaving the arm hair or leg hair, etc...Never the problem, will shave anything right off the 8k. That is however, only up to the heavy parts of the beard. That it will shave also, but not like I'd like, always still pulling a bit. So, I take it you are saying that I am definitely not getting enough out of my pre polishing stages?

Originally Posted by abiank350

I finish with nothing more than the 8K. However, nothing is getting better.

For a cheap and easy finisher, you could make a DIY balsa paddle strop and add some CrO2 paste to it. I did it, and spent less than $15 and 20 minutes worth of easy work. That cost includes the CrO2 crayon, as well.

I'm no expert, but it's good enough for me and I'm the only person I shave.

For touch ups, I bought a Swaty off of E-Bay for less than $25. Works like a champ.

Here's the link for the balsa paddle, a generous member (Backpacker) provided easy to follow instructions in the Wiki...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...ed_balsa_strop

So get this. I'm reading through the forums and someone just put one up about taping the spine. So this gets me thinking, is it possible to have too shallow of an edge to be worth anything? So I think about it some more, I've been at this a few years now on and off and still have the same couple razors that I started with and I'm thinking, look at that spine. I've got a lot of practice on that spine. Maybe, by the time that I got the hang of it, it was too late for these razors and they were never able to obtain a proper edge.

So, taped em up, went through my usual and I couldn't believe it. I cut the width of the bevel about in half and reset it entirely, kept the tape on the whole time and kept it fresh and I swear, twice as sharp as before, smokin sharp. They silently pass the HHT. Unreal... any thoughts?

Theoretically as you wear down the blade the spine gets worn down also and maintains the proper angle (untaped). That's not to say the theory is foolproof.
How old is the blade, how long have you had it (since new?)