Originally Posted by
sheajohnw
My Friodurs shave well, although each one can feel a little different, even the ones that have the same model number and should be identical.
I wonder whether you may be over honing on the high grit hones and diamond pasted strop. Some report that too many strokes on synthetic high grit hones will microchip the edge leading to a very harsh shave. If the bevel is set well at the 8K level, a lot of strokes should not be needed on aggressive high grit finishing hones. It is important to know when to stop.
I hone on a 1K King, 6K King, and then transition to an 8K Norton. The Kings were originally acquired for my kitchen knives. After the 8K hone, I finish on a TM 4 sided paddle strop pasted with 3, 1, and 0.5 micron diamonds before stropping on unpasted linen and latigo leather.
I try only 5 - 10 strokes on the pasted strops and then about 40 linen/60 Latigo on my unpasted hanging strop. If a shave test tells me that I am not where I want to be, I repeat on the 8K Norton, pasted strops, and unpasted hanging strop. This usually gets me a good shave. I often find that the edge will become more gentle over a few shave/stropping cycles before reaching a stable plateau of keenness for many weeks of shaving.
I do not have a line-up of expensive synthetic and natural hones to research what could work even better, but this has been working well enough for me on both stainless and carbon steel razors. However, I am tempted to acquire and try a 20K Gokumyo hone to see whether I can reach a higher degree of comfort, but I cannot yet get by its $200++ price.
Worst case scenario would be to send the stainless to a pro for a new bevel set. If it is a good blade, it should then shave comfortably and be easy to strop and refresh well after that.