So my response to the OP was a little different....I liked these threads....but the difference is that the person shaving would do the stropping on razors honed by a known professional on different hones.
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I too like the Escher post 8 or 12k, but my favorite is a black or translucent ark edge.
Not much that stropping cannot improve. I have also noticed stropping on canvas sail cloth between stones seems to bring an edge togeather a bit quicker, may be my imagination, but I like it.
What is future re-finishing?
And if in the future, you are going to return to your canvas because it improves an edge.....I'm sort of baffled by this post....so guessing here, you are moving towards having one of everything. I've almost done that, it wasn't on purpose though.
I likely don't possess keen enough senses but i get comparable shaves from coticule and trans Arkansas - I doubt i could tell between them in a blind test.
Going with the 1961 barber manual excerpt on stropping and honing, I never shave off of a stone without stropping, not even for an experiment. Sorry if I seem like a poor sport guys but ...... Anyway, 8k norton or 10k chosera, I follow with my Escher y/g or sometimes the suehiro gokomyo 20k (splng?) Once in a blue moon a coticule.
I uderstand the concept of testing finishers by shaving off them but as said before minimal stropping is an improvement.
I can shave pretty comfortably off my Nakayama Asagi but above applies.
Well, I didn't intend to cause a backlash amongst the SRP community, lol, nor did I think the premise of my experiment to be so difficult to understand. Perhaps I didn't explain it clearly.
Stropping improves the edge, therefore, I'd like to find which of my finishers gives the nicest edge before stropping.
I've had a nice collection of finishers for a while; and I've used them all quite a bit; but I've never had the time to do a comparison test with the same razor using a different finisher each day. I just started the thread to see if anyone else had reached similar conclusions to me.
OK, I think I get it now....in a related experiment I have thought of lathering up for a shave but not actually shaving, just leaving the soap/cream to dry for 24 hours, then re-lathering, shaving and see if there is a difference;)
My last two honing sessions I have gotten so excited to shave that I forgot to strop first :gaah:
However, both shaves were excellent :shrug:
I finished on 0.3 um lapping film with a page or two of copy paper underneath.
I guess there are stages that we go through. For awhile I would routinely use CroMox, even bought a very very nice mounted leather strop for the green stuff. Now, I never use it and cannot imagine using anything more exotic than my finish hone and my strop. Maybe my sense of adventure is gone.