I'm a little lost on this post.

The translucent is one of the more difficult stones to get a decent shave off of and even more difficult to consistently get a good shave off of.

I personally believe that most people are looking for the ultimate edge and the best shave for themselves.

As always there is a lot of personal preference involved in most aspects of this art and the opportunity to always learn something new.

Have fun.

Quote Originally Posted by DaveW View Post
I would agree with this. I have spent thousands of dollars on stones, but after trying the 30k glasstone that someone else had, I figured I'd rather spend money on leather, powders, pastes or natural stones if I want that level of fineness.

The SP 13K is the finest stone I have, and it's nice to have that stuff, but I have gotten a nice shave right off of an 8x2 translucent arkansas stone that cost $35 from the sierra trading post. I didn't even play with it and thicken the oil. It wasn't as sharp as my high $$ stones, but it was sharp enough and it was comfortable, and with a thicker oil (i used WD 40), i could've easily gotten it to pretend to be finer than I used it on shaving.

I'm pretty sure that all of the superfine doddling that everyone does (and I'm included in that from time to time) is necessary for satisfaction of curiosity, but not remotely necessary for a nice comfortable daily shave from a straight razor, or even quick indefinite maintenance (which a plain old cheap arkansas stone is plenty capable of, as are lots of other inexpensive methods).

many ways to skin the cat, anyone not wanting to spend money can easily work around spending lots of it on stones and maintenance.

There's 8-9 ounce vegetable tanned cowhide on ebay quite often for $12 a square foot, and horse butt for that often, too. Gobs of 0.5 micron chromium oxide powder is about $12 or something.

Pushing the envelope with high cost stuff (which I have done from time to time), I think, is for the satisfaction of the shaver, but not necessarily the shave, if you know what I mean.