Quick finish honing method
Please regard the second paragraph as a prelude to the rest of the post.
Some of you might remember several years ago when Ron H [UTOPIAN] posted his idea of cutting the side out of a cereal box and using the INSIDE surface of the cardboard as a dry pasted bench strop. I took him seriously and attached the cardboard to an 8x3x3/8 glass with finished edges all 4 sides and treated the surface of the cardboard with .1 micron iron oxide.
That having been said, I have found that a quick finish procedure for a blade fresh off the 8k goes like this:
5 to 8 laps on a barber hone w/lather [ I use Aloxite Barber Hone, Swaty will do nicely ]
20 to 25 laps on slurried Thuringian
30 laps on GY20k plain water
50+ laps on said cardboard with .1 micron fe/ox
Strop 80 to 100 laps leather and shave
The shaves I am getting from this procedure are some of the best shaves of my shaving life. That amounts to just over 45 years. I am a progression nut. I try any progression the pops into my head and once in awhile I hit the bullseye. This is one of those times.
Just thought I would share another progression with you guys.
Thx for another arrow in the quiver
MrSell, Thank You. When I naively asked about sprays & pastes, the majority responded as though I ripped a big fart in church.
I was grateful the the honorable Sixgunner for some balance in that perspective. The nutshell version was that there was a bit of an anti-spray/paste bias amongst us - but it was not shared by some of the most Sr. guys. One of the more memorable lines was that there was no edge from any stone that could not be improved by *proper* use of a spray or paste.
I personally want any & all methods - including their strengths and weaknesses. I adopted one that I still share about stropping on newsprint backed by a hard smooth surface, which helps the guys not able to afford finishers above their 8k stones. The technique wouldn't do a thing for guys w/ skills and nice finisher, but was very good for guys limited to the lower grit stones. 'Kept one w/ a beard of steel from having to send his blades out every month for touch up. It wasn't stropping - I let him use a personal blade and it came back looking like a cross-cut sawblade. . I remember hearing about Ron's work there, and my results from newsprint made me think there's no reason to suspect his results weren't valid.
My own bias is that newer guys at honing seem to view the spray/paste as a substitute for sound stone work. That makes me emphasize that the comfy shave from an 8k finish is the gateway to both higher grit stones and any other techniques that take an edge beyond that. I have the CrOx and can get the cerial box (which I recalled Ron used). I will try this just to see what its like.
Thanks again for putting this out there. Pls. don't stop posting any method that gives a great shave. Petrofiles aren't going to change, but a good part of the health/growth of this hobby rides on our being friendly to noobs - especially w/ methods that are not as costly as the gucci rocks.
