Thread: Y/G Escher is as fine as...

Originally Posted by zib

One thing I do not do, is use a microscope. I go by feel. I'm not concerned with scratch patterns, etc...sometimes I use a loupe to check out the bevel, My eyes have some milage on them. I'm getting up there in years. I think Glen posted earlier in this thread about old time Barbers. They probably had a Barber's hone, maybe a Coticule or an Escher. They would just touch up the blade, probably did a few swipes on the stone prior to the shave. Anything more than that, They'd send the blade out to a "Cutler"

1+++...I agree completely Zib! I've always thought that a microscope was a redundant piece of equipment...Just IMHO! I wonder how the SR shavers and Barbers from the last few hundred years ever managed to get along without them...

To me anything other than a nice smooth shave is all 'Hobby'. I'm way more interested in the aesthetic part of this endeavor rather than the scientific. I've got 'RAD, HAD, and Every Other Acronym' that relates to this hobby. Boxes of razors and hones etc. But as with Glen and Lynn have suggested, more often than not I find myself using the one hone method and a series of slurry stones (Naguras) to get the 'velvet squeegee' feel as you so eloquently describe it. Be it an Escher or a JNAT. Yes...it's not as fast...but I just like to hone. For me...it's the most relaxing part of my day. Everything else in life seems to melt away when it's just me, my hone, and a blade.

Each to their own...