Thread: From Finisher to Face

Originally Posted by RezDog

I did this a lot when I first started honing. It was because I was never sure if my edge was finished yet so I would skip the strop for a little test shave. Over time the question of am I done got to knowing better that I was done and I did it less...

I'd imagine this would be a rather standard path for most honing beginners. It was true for me also.

Experiments finished; and the results were very interesting, if only for determining a stropping routine after the finisher.

I tried Glen's and Jimmy's suggestions as well, but found even minimal laps cause too much interference in the results.

So without getting too wordy about it, you can really notice a big difference in the edge on the face during the shave, and then hours after it (in terms of skin); and the way the edge cuts during the shave, and the feel of the regrowth some hours later.
Both cotis would really benefit from pastes and linen and maybe thicker leather; Thurry seemed smoothest but not as sharp; Escher seemed most balanced and mature, really only needing latigo or light leather strop.

YMMV, of course; and this was just a personal experiment to measure and compare my own tools, but thanks for the replies.

On the Escher,, Did you finish it using a very light slurry and slowly into almost clean water ????

Originally Posted by gssixgun

On the Escher,, Did you finish it using a very light slurry and slowly into almost clean water ????

Same method with all of them. About 45 from light slurry to just water. And a very light touch.

I'm sure I remember when I joined this site, many members were using cotis as finishers, and were doing a lot more than 30 laps before stropping. I was after a comparison though.