Thread: I can get razors very sharp but lately they have been harsh.

The last couple of full and half hollows I've honed have had this problem. They are extremely sharp. Enough to where they easily cut the tops off the fine hairs on my arm but when I go to shave with them they aren't very smooth. After the third or so shave they felt like a dream. The two razors of mine that had this problem recently are my Tennis and Dovo I just honed a week or so ago. All is well that ends well, right? Well I'm a bit curious about what causes such harshness off the hones. My progression is Norton 4k/8k, Naniwa 12k, and finally CrOx before stropping on linen and horse hide. I use Lynn's circle method on the Norton and about 10 strokes both ways on the Naniwa. After that I do about five strokes both way on the CrOx. Finally doing 20 strokes on linen and 60 on leather. Is there something that I'm doing wrong? Like I stated before, after multiple shaves they became very smooth. So I'm not too concerned about it. Just curious really if this is common and would like to absorb any knowledge you guys could lend me here. Thanks!

Have you checked it under mag. Make sure you don't have any micro chips. It can cause roughness.

I have a jewelers loupe. I think it's a 10x Bausch and Lomb. Maybe 20x. I can't remember but my bevels look fine under it. Before this comes up, I really make sure I use no pressure on the Naniwa and CrOx.

Try a few more more laps on the strop.

I have a razor here that I got in a group. Later tonight I was going hone it to 12k and see what the shave was like straight off of that. Before I got the Naniwa I was getting great shaves off just the Norton. At the same time I got the Naniwa though I started using CrOx so I never have tried to shave directly off of it. Will add more laps on the strop too. May do something like shave half my face immediately off the stone and then do something like 40 laps on linen and 100 on leather. Might be interesting to see the comparison.

Agree....give it 100 on the leather!

Originally Posted by JTmke

Try a few more more laps on the strop.

Straightoverload: The first thing I would try is skipping the linen and double your stroke count on clean leather.