A Barber Hone in your progression?

[mrsell63]

A barber hone is not necessarily just for the occassional edge touch-up.

I have found that a barber hone fits well in certain honing progressions. I am constantly experimenting. Lately I have found that when I sharpen a blade to basically shave ready through the 8k, I then do 6 laps on a Swaty, then 15 to 20 on a Salm Coti, then 20 to 25 on a Nakayama Maruichi, then 60 plain leather strop. Shaves are quite close and smooth.

Any barber hone followed by higher grit naturals should yield a better edge than just a touch-up on a barber hone alone. My theory is that using a barber hone in your finish progression adds a higher level of sharpness, especially a hone such as an aggressive Frictionite 00 for example, certainly does add too much sharpness if you do more than about 5 laps.

The idea is to take your 8k edge and add just enough sharpness so that the subsequent natural stones tame that sharpness while adding a comfortable level of smoothness.

With the Swaty/Salm Coti/Nakayama combo, I am experiencing just the right amount of sharp/smooth to get a great shave.

I am getting one-pass stubbleless shaves on a regular basis and am enjoying these shaves on a daily basis.

Give it a try if you like..............

JERRY
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