First time honing - questions...

Hi! I have a Union Cutlery Spike 9/16 1/4 hollow that was my second straight and had some contact wear. Two about 1mm wide and a large one about 6-7mm long. Here's the large one very close up, farther away, and two of the others:

Attachment 205269Attachment 205271Attachment 205272

Today, I decided to try the first steps at honing. I took my Norton 1K and did sets of 40 circles with edge toward and edge away. I could see the deepest point of the larger ding, and kept doing this many times, alternating between towards and away (probably 30 mins or so). I then did 30 X strokes. I could still see the ding, so I did (many) more of the circles. Finally followed up with 30 more X strokes.

Note: I had the heel forward on all circles so that the stabilizer wouldn't hit. I went clockwise with the edge away, and counter-clockwise with the edge towards me.

Here are shots at this point:

Attachment 205280Attachment 205281

These show the 6-7mm ding from each side. Note that it is only 2-3mm wide now. The other dings are totally gone.


Questions...

On the edge, when it is toward me, the bevel seems very consistent. :beer1: However, on the edge that is away from me, it seems to be tapered, with a larger bevel at the heel than at the toe. :gaah: Unfortunately, I'm not sure what it was like before I started (I only took shots of the bad areas). Next time I do this, I'll take shots of both sides with less magnification.

If I did cause the uneven wear, and only on one side, what could I be doing wrong with my technique (moving towards me with circles) that would cause this wear pattern?

What can I do, to try to even up the wear, or should I not worry about it?

I'm not sure if the blade was previously honed with tape or not, but I'm not using tape here.

I've been doing fewer circles, with much lighter pressure, when going away from me, as that side looks so much better, and for the last set of circles, I tried placing my finger on top, a third of the way from the toe of the blade, hoping that would even out the wear. I'm not sure that it is helping (seems a little better).

Here is a picture of the heel bevel (almost 2mm), and then a picture of the middle (around 1mm). The toe is the same as the middle now.

Attachment 205282Attachment 205283

I clearly need to do more with the 1K, to totally get rid of the wear, but I wanted to bounce this off the group, before going farther (and getting too far off course).

I did try to shave arm hairs, and it only does a few, nothing like my Boker (4/8 extra hollow), which has 20-30 shaves on it and cuts them easily. I lightly tried the TPT (on the Spike) and it seems to grab some (I've never done this before, so I can't judge, and don't want to do it on "good" blades).

Once I get the nicks gone, do I need to do X strokes with no pressure, or should I move up to the 4K/8K Norton, which I was going to try the progressions that Lynn mentioned on his video?

Maybe it's blind optimism, but other than being uneven on one side, the bevel seems to look OK. Here is the Boker and then Spike, at the same magnification:

Attachment 205285Attachment 205286

I'd appreciate any tips/comments/suggestions/critiques you may have!

On closer looking, the one side has about a 1mm bevel, and the other side goes from about .75mm to 1.5mm on the one side. It is almost 1mm on the other side. I set the plastic ruler on top of the blade to see the width.

Set the razor on a flat surface and see if it is warped. If so, that is why the bevel is uneven. An un-even bevel means nothing in terms of shaving.

But tape the spine. You have caused needless wear on the spine and if you wear the spine too much, you will have to use tape, to get a usable chip free edge.

Use tape to learn to hone, typically new honers use too much pressure and do too many laps and just wear the spine. Once you master honing… then decide if you want to use tape or not. You will learn to use less pressure and laps to get an edge by then.

You have to completely remove the chip, so just remove the chip by doing 45 degree laps with the spine off the hone or breadknife, until the chip is completely removed. Colored ink will easily tell you when that is. No matter how you do it, the steel has to be removed even with the bottom of the chip.

Then do circles until the bevels are meeting. Do not move up in grits until the chip is completely removed and the bevel is completely set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Set the razor on a flat surface and see if it is warped. If so, that is why the bevel is uneven. An un-even bevel means nothing in terms of shaving.

But tape the spine. You have caused needless wear on the spine and if you wear the spine too much, you will have to use tape, to get a usable chip free edge.

Use tape to learn to hone, typically new honers use too much pressure and do too many laps and just wear the spine. Once you master honing… then decide if you want to use tape or not. You will learn to use less pressure and laps to get an edge by then.

You have to completely remove the chip, so just remove the chip by doing 45 degree laps with the spine off the hone or breadknife, until the chip is completely removed. Colored ink will easily tell you when that is. No matter how you do it, the steel has to be removed even with the bottom of the chip.

Then do circles until the bevels are meeting. Do not move up in grits until the chip is completely removed and the bevel is completely set.

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Thanks for the tips! I checked the blade and it does seem flat, although the height of the blade (edge to spine) is about 0.5mm less at the tail.

I'll try the breadknifing and bevel set using the procedures here: Honing a damaged blade - Straight Razor Place Library

Will use tape, as I do see some wear at the spine. :(

Attempt #2 tonight...

I have had better luck with the razor resting on the spine, edge up and with a diamond hone or Diamond file, “file the edge” with the plate long heel to toe strokes.

Or with the plate on the counter, hold the blade with both hands and hold the razor just a bit off 90 degree a bit, tilted towards the direction of travel, pull or push the razor with the blade edge flat on the plate or stone.

Do 3-4 laps in one direction then change direction changing the tilt. Go until you have almost removed the chip, leave a bit of the bottom of the chip,

then angle the blade 45 degrees in the direction of travel and pull and push to and away, in smooth even strokes to knock off the corners of the blunt edge, This will save you a ton of time and honing strokes.

Do not bring the edges to meeting, just get close to meeting. Now tape the spine with 2-3 layers of tape and do circles on a 1k, to bring the bevels to meeting, finish with long X strokes with 1 or 2 layers of tape, lighten up on pressure on the final strokes. If you get a lot of chipping, lightly drag the edge on a corner or end of the stone to remove the ragged edge, and reset the edge with a few strokes, then move up to a 3 or 4k.

I did the bread-knifing and the edge was flat using a 220 Norton. Did about 3 long strokes (lightly) on the edge of the blade. I then did 10 angled strokes in each direction, and then 3 straight strokes, followed by 2 X strokes, I repeated with 2 more long strokes as there seemed to be a bit of a nick, and then the 3 straight and 2 X strokes. All with 3 layers of tape.

Next I moved to 1K with 1 layer of tape. I've done circles 20+20 six times, and then 15 X strokes twice. I checked edge. I did another 20 + 20 circles and then 10 X strokes and checked. Did this process three more times. Checking in between.

It "seems" like the edge meets well for 2/3 of the length, to the heel. The toe doesn't seem to meet quite yet. It's really hard to tell.

Here is a shot of the 1/3 towards heel and then 1/3 towards toe:

Attachment 205381Attachment 205382

It's really hard for me to get focused well on the edge.

I'll stop for tonight, but any suggestions on how to proceed? Continue with circles only? Alternate with circles and X strokes? More or less counts of each?

I'm liking how 2/3 of the edge look (to a very untrained eye, of course :))

Oh, and I tried the TPT and this time I feel a difference between the back half and front half of the edge. It really seems to grip/snag in the back half.

Sort of an ah-ha moment on the TPT.

Yup, more circles, until the bevels come together like the heel half. Then X strokes to blend the bevel and refine the edge.

You may want to add a bit of pressure by putting your index finger on the blade as you do your circles, to keep the toe flat on the stone. Not a lot, just the weight of your finger.

I did ten sets of 40 circles in each direction, before I got to a point where I thought the toe was similar to the heel with the bevel meeting (checking every 4 sets, and then the last two). Here's what it looks like at three points along the edge:

Attachment 205479Attachment 205480Attachment 205481

The finger pressure on the toe end really helped Euclid440!

Then, I did two sets of 15 X strokes with very light, blade only pressure. Here is what the edge looks like at two places on each side:

Attachment 205482Attachment 205483
Attachment 205484Attachment 205485

It does seem to cut arm hair pretty well, near the base, and sometimes part way up the hairs.

Does this look good enough to now got to 4K/8K?

Suggestions on what I should do at that level? Circles? Pyramid? Both?

Just make sure it's taking off hair or gripping your thumb pad or whatever your "sharpness" test is the entire length of the edge before you move on. Any "sort of " sharp areas will be undeniable when you go to shave test it. You are creating your edge with bevel setter and only polishing and refining with the rest of your progression.

Looking back at your pics the edge looks a little chippy, but that may be just because your pictures are far higher mag than I'm used to. Try using some more super light passes on your bevel setter and looking at your edge. If it appears more refined then you know you needed more, if it's the same as before then you're already there. Just make sure it appears consistent the entire edge.

The last picture makes it obvious that you need a few more strokes. You can see scratch that runs parallel to the edge from when you were doing circles with some pressure that haven't quite been completely removed by your lighter finishing strokes.

Almost, I would remove the circle stria in the last photo. Removing it now will save you a lot of time on higher stones. There is probably more circle stria so a few more strokes on the 1k, will make your life easier, on the higher grit stones.

The 220 is pretty course, so you may get some chipping at higher grits. If you do you will have to remove a bit of the edge to get to good steel. You just want to get the bevels close with low or aggressive stones, then seal the deal with a 1k. See what happens.

At 1k you just want the edge to grab hair, check the toe, middle and heel.

Make sure to check the tip of the toe and the heel, that the bevel goes all the way to the edge.

You are close, clean up the horizontal stria with lite pressure and move up. The edge will begin to straighten out on a 3 or 4k and really get straight with an 8K.

Ok, with the 1K Norton, I did 35 sets of 15 X strokes. The last 5 sets were just the weight of the blade, as light as I could do it. Looking at the edge straight on, the bevel meets perfectly all along the length of the edge. I cannot see any grooves parallel with the edge, only one or two diagonal (like the one shown below). Here are shots from either side:

Attachment 205584Attachment 205585

It cuts arm hairs pretty easy, across the whole length of the blade. :)

Seems like I'm ready for the Norton 4K/8K. Any suggestions there? Do I do a pyramid, like Lynn's video mentioned? Any detailed suggestions would be appreciated.

I do light pressure circles, then x strokes, weight of the blade circles, weight of the blade x strokes then look at the bevels. They should have a consistent hazy look to them on the 4k, under magnification the scratches should look consistent, no deep striations from the 1k left. Don't leave any of the parallel scratch marks from the circle strokes. Again don't move on until its perfect.

I would do a few more passes on the 1k. Get the whole bevel consistent. The fact that the cuts from the circle strokes can still be seen is reason enough to assume that the edge isn't as good as it could be on the 1k. Looking at the depth and width of that scratch makes me think its from your previous hone. You may want to do another round of light strokes to get rid of those scratches. When those are gone do your super light strokes and check again under magnification.

I also think the deep scratches are from the 220 grit and you may have some chipping as a result.

220 and even lower grits are common for knife sharpening, but not for razors, because they cause too much trouble on the back end, the finish. Just remember it is not just about sharp, a straight edge is comfortable, micro chipping on a knife does not matter as much or often at all.

Any time that you save, is paid back in spades, on the high grits and often you end up going all the way back to, at least the 1k to remove deep stria and possibly a new edge.

Try the 4k and see what the stria pattern and the edge look like. An easy way is to ink the bevels with colored ink and any missed stria shows up quickly. Ink will fill the stria and remain until you hone it out. Or hone heel forward and you will have a completely different 4k stria pattern.

With this razor because of the 220 grit stria, I would start with, 2 sets of 20 circles to remove as much of the stria as possible, if it looks good, go heel forward X strokes, until all the old stria is removed. You will still see some chipping on the edge at 4K but it should start to straighten up.

If you still see a lot of deep stria, or you can trace a deep groove to a chip on the edge, go back to the 1k and completely remove the stria with circles in sets of 20, more than 20 will build a large burr which will break off and possibly cause more problems and remove more steel.

Do it now or it will make you crazy…later.

Thanks folks for the suggestions. I'll stick with the 1K longer and see if I can get the groves removed. Will try more X strokes and if it doesn't improve will try sets of 20 circles.

Too late today, but I'll try tomorrow.

Did seven sets of 20 light circles, and then 40 sets of 15 X strokes. It's looking better, and most of the edge looks like this:

Attachment 205744Attachment 205745

There is barely any horizontal marks. I'll keep playing with it a bit more.

Ignore the last two images. There were old, and I tried to edit with the new pictures and now it has both.

Looks good, strop 15-20 laps on linen or canvas and move to the 4k.

Do 2 sets of 20 circles, then X strokes to remove the 1k stria.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks good, strop 15-20 laps on linen or canvas and move to the 4k.

Do 2 sets of 20 circles, then X strokes to remove the 1k stria.

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Interesting. I didn't know about stropping in between 1k and 4k. Can you elaborate on how that helps improve the edge (just trying to understand what I should see before and after stropping)?

Thanks for the guidance!

Don’t recall where I first read this, I know Iwasaki talks about it in his essay, to strop on a Wool, Chromium Oxide, pasted strop, (Raxa Hone), to remove the false edge,(small burr) in before going to the water only finish stone.

The goal of everything that you do, after the 1k has joined the two bevels, to meet in a sharp edge, is polishing the bevels, to make a straighter edge, a more comfortable shaving edge. If you leave a burr you can end up polishing the burr that will later break off leaving a ragged edge or chip. So remove any burr now and ensure you are polishing good steel at the edge.

Stropping on linen or canvas will straighten the edge, removing the burr and also remove any remaining 1k grit that your rinsing and wiping did not get. Failing to properly clean the razor and work station, I believe is a common cause of much of novice honer’s frustration with deep scratch removal. If you leave just one piece of grit on the razor it will produce a 1k scratch on your 3 or 4k stone. So clean it well before moving up in grits.

I use a plain canvas strop for stropping post 1K and a Chrome Oxide pasted canvas to strop, post 8k and 12k. You could use a Chrome Oxide pasted strop as well.

Stropping post 1K does seem to make the edge straighter a bit quicker, I have also noticed less micro chipping in the higher grits. I have seen some guys strop on plain leather, between stones, but I like the results on canvas or linen better. Leather works well, between the higher grits, but Chrome Oxide is a bit faster at polishing an edge at the higher grits.

Thanks for the explanation! Makes good sense. I did the stropping, circles an then 17 sets of 15 x strokes. It looks better, thought still a few remnants of horizontal marks from circles at lower grit. For grins, it tried a progression with the 4k/8k Nortons, doing 10/10, 5/5, 3/3, 1/1, 1/3, 1/5.

It really seems to cut arm hair easily. I don't seem to see any burr on either end. I was thinking of trying to strip and test shave, just to see how it feels. I do need to figure out if I should go back to 1k to get the rest of the horizontal marks, or proceed with 4k, 8k, and 12k.

Give this a try. Cut a piece of cardboard, about 12 X 3 like a cereal box inside, paste a series of 3 inch X’s with a good metal polish, Mothers, Maas, or Semi Chrome.

Now strop 25-50 laps on the edge of a table or bench. See if the scratches are removed, it will leave a harsh edge, so re-set the bevel on the 12K, probably 15-20 laps.

Check the edge, by looking straight down on the edge, looking for light shining back at you, (a chip). If it is good, strop, if not drop down to the 8K and re-set the edge and finish on the 12K. If the scratches are too deep you may have to go back to the 1k and work up. Thanks to the 220 grit, a double edge sword.

Maas on a canvas hanging strop will quickly remove bevel scratches, but as said leaves a harsh edge and a bit of a convex bevel and will need to be finished honed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Give this a try. Cut a piece of cardboard, about 12 X 3 like a cereal box inside, paste a series of 3 inch X’s with a good metal polish, Mothers, Maas, or Semi Chrome.

Now strop 25-50 laps on the edge of a table or bench. See if the scratches are removed, it will leave a harsh edge, so re-set the bevel on the 12K, probably 15-20 laps.

Check the edge, by looking straight down on the edge, looking for light shining back at you, (a chip). If it is good, strop, if not drop down to the 8K and re-set the edge and finish on the 12K. If the scratches are too deep you may have to go back to the 1k and work up. Thanks to the 220 grit, a double edge sword.

Maas on a canvas hanging strop will quickly remove bevel scratches, but as said leaves a harsh edge and a bit of a convex bevel and will need to be finished honed.

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Will give that a try. The one web page about bread-knifing suggested to do some strokes on the 220 as well. In hindsight, I shouldn't have done that. For the most part, the edge looks like this right now:

Attachment 205879

There are still some spots near the toe that have some horizontal or curved marks, like this:

Attachment 205880

The ruler in the background is with 1mm marks.

Here is a lower rez shot (I seem to only have two resolutions available):

Attachment 205881

Give the metal polish strop a try, at least you will see which if any, stria you need to remove. Then decide how low a stone you need, nothing lower than a 1k.

There does appear to be some straight stria deeper that the diagonal stria you are worried about.

Strop it and you will know which will be problematic.

I know some use 220, but unless you are removing a very large chip, a 1k will get it out without the issues you are facing now.

The question you have to ask yourself is, looking back… how much time did you save? So the right answer is, you learned something, you are not alone.

Well, I was away from this for a while, and finally got back to trying to work on the blade. I think I made Inge worse unfortunately. I didn't have any metal polish, so I decided to do circles and X strokes to get out some of the marks.

Well, part way through, I realized I forgot to tape the blade. I checked and it had a second bevel forming. I put on tape, and then continued until I had restored the bevel to a single bevel.

I looked and the deeper striations seemed to be gone. It also seemed to had a good point on the bevel - no shines spots or wire edge that I could tell. However, I see two issues...

One, the bevel seems wider on one side than the other. More importantly, it didn't seem to shave hairs on my arm well at all, and not across the entire edge, like before.

I spent more time yesterday, with it at 1k, and it is better, but still not as good as before.

Did I end up wearing the spine more on one side than the other?
Should the uneven bevel width be fixed and, if so, how?

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow or Tuesday. Not quite sure how to proceed. I certainly took two steps back...

Regards,

Don’t worry about uneven bevels, a number of thing can cause this, uneven grind, a bit of warp or spine wear. All of those things cannot be corrected. That they don’t match or are even the same width at the heel and toe, does not matter. The edge is all that matters.

The bevels look nice and flat, with a good stria pattern, but the edge looks ragged, so you should be able to get the bevels to meet quickly. Put 2 layers of tape on the spine and hone the bevels on your 8K, the edge should come together quickly in about 20-30 laps.

Hear is an easy test to check you edge for a completely set bevel. Sharp Test Video.

I took some shots tonight, here is the edge, after the latest work with 1K (I haven't moved up to 4K or 8K yet)...

The edge, straight on:
Attachment 207750

For each side. Hard to keep in focus:
Attachment 207751Attachment 207752

These are at the max magnification on the microscope 200-300x.

Keep at it...I know your frustration, when I hone a razor, I've done about 15 now from bevel set up, I just realize that unless a miracle happens, and it has twice, it will take me at least one session (2-4hrs) to set the bevel, sometimes three. Once that is done, then I can relax and have "fun" with the other stones, because we all know honing is supposed to be relaxing....right!?!:hmmm:

Looks good, but there is some pitting on the bevel and above the bevel, did this razor have Cell Rot or heavy pitting? If so, you may have trouble getting it to hold an edge.

Move on the the 4k and refine the edge, use tape on the spine. Most of the pitting on the bevel and edge should hone away. At 8k you edge should get very straight and chip free.

H

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks good, but there is some pitting on the bevel and above the bevel, did this razor have Cell Rot or heavy pitting? If so, you may have trouble getting it to hold an edge.

Move on the the 4k and refine the edge, use tape on the spine. Most of the pitting on the bevel and edge should hone away. At 8k you edge should get very straight and chip free.

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Had to look up cell rot. No, there is no rust on the blade at all to indicate any celluloid rot. Should I increase to two layers of tape at 4k and 8k? If so, is the idea to have a double bevel, or something else? (trying to understand this)

Should I do X strokes at 4k and then on 8k, or should I do a pyramid? If former, how do I know when to advance from 4k to 8k?

Thanks for the guidance!

OK. I put on two layers of tape and did 60 circles at 4K, then 100 X strokes, and then did a 10/10, 5/5, 3/3, 1/3, 1/5 pyramid with the 4K and 8K. It is cutting arm hair pretty good. I'll strop and give it a try tomorrow, just to see what it feels like.

With this two layers of take there is a double bevel now. Should I be doing more strokes, until there is only one bevel?

When should I consider advancing to the 12K? How many strokes should I consider?

Here are some shots before doing the progression:

Attachment 207817Attachment 207818

and then after the progression:

Attachment 207819Attachment 207820

It's hard to get the edge in focus...any little movement blurs it a bit. I did do the sharpness tests from that video. No wire edge on any reflection from side or straight on.

Regards,

I did a shave test this morning, after stropping 25x on CR-OX webbing, 50x on cloth, 100x on leather. Did an entire shave, and it was great! Very little irritation. Seemed to cut well, with no pulling. Shave was very close. Very pleased!

Questions:

1) Should I hone more, to get the bevel to a single bevel (versus the double bevel I have now)? Using the 4k?

2) Should I proceed to use the 12K? If so, what type of stroke and how many?

3) In general, how does one know, when to go from 4K to 8K and 8K to 12K?

4) This blade (a 1/4 wedge) doesn't give as much feedback, and doesn't seem to pull (or have resistance) as much as my (new) full hollow Boker that has about 20 shaves on it. Is it because the Boker is starting to dull, because of the nature of a full hollow, combination of the two, or something else?

5) I have used CR-OX a few times on the Boker. Can't say I notice much difference. Is that due to number of strokes I do (25), the fact that the Cr-Ox is on webbing, or maybe the amount of Cr-Ox on the strop? I now have a 3" cloth strop - would it be worthwhile to put Cr-Ox on the back of that?

I haven't really figured out yet, how to deal with blades that are starting to lose their sharpness. The Spike was the first blade that needed work, due to dings. The Boker is the first that I've used for a while and haven't sharpened (although I have one coupon for sharpening it). Any suggestions on how to handle maintenance would be appreciated!

Regards,

Your edge was not coming together, either the steel is bad, you are not doing enough laps, using too much pressure, used a low grit aggressive stone early on, or you need more angle. The easiest one to do is another layer of tape.

You can hone a new single bevel on a 1 or 4k or just keep the double bevel. All that counts is the edge. You could have set a whole new bevel with the 4k with a few more laps.

There does appear to be a lot of small pitting on the razor and that often leads to chippy edges, a steeper angle can solve that sometimes, and less pressure.

When the 8k removes all the 4k stria, move to the 12k, it looks pretty good now; any 1 or 4k stria will show up after the 12k.

What is the long horizontal stria in the 2nd photo from?

That is why folks like wedges, the extra weight makes a difference in the shave.

Chrome Oxide should smooth and add a bit of keenness to an edge, it could be the Chrome Oxide or your substrate, try pasting a piece of cardboard, like the inside of a cereal box and doing 10-15 laps with lite pressure. Is the Chrome Oxide, razor quality?

Use an X stroke on the 12k until all the 8k stria is removed, use light pressure, then finish, stropping on Chrome Oxide. Check the edge to make sure it is not chipping, if it does, you have to go down in grit or do more laps and try to remove all chipping.

Maintenance depends on what is wrong with the edge. If it is just dull from shaving and or stropping, (one missed stroke can kill an edge) sometimes just proper stropping or stropping on paste can revive it. .50 or .25 Diamond is good for that. If the edge is chipped from hitting something, usually it will need stone work.

Start on your 12k with some circles, and see if you can remove the chip and smooth with some X strokes. If 40 circles will not do it, drop down to an 8K. If it is a big chip, sometimes starting over and doing a complete bevel set, is time well spent.

Most razors I get in for honing, have chips, so I usually try to bevel set with a 4k, I if I cannot remove all the chip and reset the bevel in 21 laps, I go to a 1k and work it up. If the chips are large, or impact damaged, I go straight to reshaping the edge on a diamond plate or file and reset on a 1k.

There is no, one size fits all answer, you do what the edge needs. I always start with the least aggressive and drop down in grit to get the job done. For most, stropping is the cause of razor dulling, as your stropping improves, so too will your edges and they will last much longer.

It is really not that complicated, remember for hundreds of years many maintained razors with a, linen and leather strop, maybe some chalk or lamp black soot and a small, 6-8k ish stone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Your edge was not coming together, either the steel is bad, you are not doing enough laps, using too much pressure, used a low grit aggressive stone early on, or you need more angle. The easiest one to do is another layer of tape.

You can hone a new single bevel on a 1 or 4k or just keep the double bevel. All that counts is the edge. You could have set a whole new bevel with the 4k with a few more laps.

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As soon as I get a chance, I'll try to do more on the 4K to get a single bevel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

There does appear to be a lot of small pitting on the razor and that often leads to chippy edges, a steeper angle can solve that sometimes, and less pressure.

When the 8k removes all the 4k stria, move to the 12k, it looks pretty good now; any 1 or 4k stria will show up after the 12k.

What is the long horizontal stria in the 2nd photo from?

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Gotcha. Thanks. I'm not sure what that groove is on the third shot. I didn't notice that before, when checking the blade, but it is there and is about 5mm long. At the beginning of the last cycle, I did circles with the 4k. Could it have been something on the stone?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

That is why folks like wedges, the extra weight makes a difference in the shave.

Chrome Oxide should smooth and add a bit of keenness to an edge, it could be the Chrome Oxide or your substrate, try pasting a piece of cardboard, like the inside of a cereal box and doing 10-15 laps with lite pressure. Is the Chrome Oxide, razor quality?

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Yes, I think so. The one on that strop is from another member, who had extra. It says 0.5 micron, made by HandAmerican. I also have some 0.3 micron from Glenn, when I bought a bench strop, but I haven't applied it anywhere yet.


Regards,

Great Advice! Thank you!

Your chrome Oxide should be good then. I find a fine weave Nylon works better than a rough weave. Leather, Paper and canvas work well with Chrome Oxide, even wood, a 5 gal paint stir stick makes a quick strop.