Thread: shaving arm hair?

The goal of honing a razor is to make a straight smooth edge, as opposed to most knife/tool edges, where a micro serrated edge is preferred.

Stria end in a chip or serration at the edge, so the smaller you can make the stria, the straighter/smoother the edge.

At bevel set, the goal is to set the bevel angle, from the edge to the back of the bevel even with the spine, flatten the bevel completely from heel to toe and get the bevels to meet in one plane, a straight edge. A set bevel is a sharp edge.

Where most get into trouble is moving to higher grit stone before all 3 objectives have been met.

Anything after that is polishing the bevel to straighten the edge, but if you don’t have an edge it does not matter.

Water on the stone does provide some lubrication but more importantly floats the swarf to help prevent the swarf from clogging the stone abrasives. So it may be more aggressive for a short time but will load up faster.

I use lots of water in a squirt bottle and flush the stone face often.

Here is a good thread on bevel setting (Second try at Honing) and honing with excellent photo of bevels and edges. Post 42 show what an edge down view looks like, once it starts to come together and post 51, a fully set bevel.

Have to laugh about "Razor Mange" had it and was starting on my legs, well, after a short time I did not like the hairless arm look and let All grow back, If a razor will not tree top arm hair, to me it is Not sharp or keen enough to shave with or even strop into a better condition, this comes in under the Imperfect Bevel set once again.

Example, a chisel grind, think of it on a razor: shaves good from one angle only, , now is this caused by a wire edge hanging over ONE side?? OR is it from an Odd angle on one side as in more strokes or circles on One side side of the razor than the other, even under 800 power it is Not always evident what is happening, a scanning Electron Microscope would be great to testing what is happening, But I do not have one. Could I be a perfectionist?????