Thread: Are You A Real Man? Do You Think You Can Hone? Shave Off Of Your 1k Hone

A full week since my last post here and I've finally had the opportunity to get back to the hones. Life's been busy so while I've probably had time to play with my hones I really wanted a chance to do it when I had enough peace and quiet to allow me to give it my full attention.

So I took everyone's advice and took another look at the Thistle Cut through the loupe and between that and the prior TPT I felt pretty confident that I had a good set of bevels to work with. I then took the razor back to the 1k Shapton for about 15 X-strokes with little to no pressure. Then I moved up the progression to the 4k Norton for a set of 20 circles and 15 X-strokes with moderate pressure followed up by about 20 x-strokes with little to no pressure.

While I was at it I set to work with the ShurEdge that had some previous attention but was judged to be well below par. Back on the 1k the ShurEdge got 40 circles with firm pressure followed up by 15 x-strokes. Then another set of 20 circles and 20 X-strokes with little to no pressure.

Both razors looked good under the loupe, felt good on the TPT and would remove arm hairs at skin level. I'm definitely the most confident with the TPT but I'm developing a bit more confidence with the loupe. The AHT is a great check but I feel that it is purely a pass/fail approach for me and that the TPT gives me better overall feedback. Developing my experience with these tests is probably of even higher importance to me right now than raising my confidence in my honing.

The results were very good. The ShurEdge provided a better, smoother shave than the Thistle Cut did after its time on the 1k. I'll be honest, my estate sale find just might end up being one of my favorite razors in my rotation if it continues to improve as I think it will as it moves up the hone progression.

The Thistle Cut, after time on the 4k, gave a very nice shave that was better than some of the razors that I've bought off ebay that were advertised as "shave ready." There is definitely room for improvement but I can honestly say that I could shave off this 4k edge everyday with only a minimal amount of complaining.

So, I shaved the right side of my face with the ShurEdge and the left with the Thistle Cut with no real burn from the witch hazel or AS. I did go back and do a cleanup pass with my trusty Shumate Tungsteel but it did not remove much in the way of stubble and I think, upon reflection, that I probably could have skipped it.

I'm very happy that I've chosen to take the 1K challenge! It is definitely making me more confident in my abilities and is making me more cognizant of what each of my hones can do. I would heartily recommend that anyone new to honing give this a try and I myself will probably continue shaving between each stone for a while until I'm truly confident in my technique.

Well I posted on another thread I would try it with a NOS Japanese western razor. It seems that the bevel on that was is set or at least it's close since it cut the hair on my forearm. To keep it real I grabbed a brand new gold dollar Took down the stabilizers and put it on chosera 1K. Once it was passing my tests, loupe, cut hair and felt sticky on TPT I jointed the edge and went back with much less pressure this time. Razor is a bit crooked so I had to switch between rolling x-strokes and honing on the side of the stone. Stropped on flax linen and leather and shaved.
WTG followed by XTG. Applied alum and no burn. No skin redness. I am very surprised. I kind of expected all kind of burning and stuff.

I have been following along. I have shaved in the past at every stage of my synthetic progression. 1k, 4k, 8k and 12k the shaves up to 4k were ok a bit harsh. Tonite I set the bevel on a Joseph Rodgers 6/8ths with the green Chosera. I used about 40 light finishing strokes and then cleaned the stone and did 20 finishing strokes with glycerin. 40 laps linen 50 leather then the shave. 2 passes against the grain. It was very surprising, I got a close shave with a little harshness. I would not want to do it everyday but not bad. I can't wait to finish this blade and shave. Good call Utopian.

It's kind of amazing, ain't it?

Finally had a chance to do the challenge.

Hart/Baxter 6/8 "Not a Replica" that had some micro-chips (I'm thinking Diamond spray touch up is not for me)
1 layer tape, Naniwa SS1000, DMT to lap, kill, circle, X, TNT, Loupe, blah blah blah down to dilute and wt. of the razor, change the tape...it was quick.
Torolof-Scupleworks Linen and SRD 30/60 - tree-topping arm hair and I'm thinking this might we going somewhere...

Shave was amazing, as in "what to I do now?"

Yes, it could be nicer/smoother, but what I thought was going to be a slog to get through my standard shave was instead very nice.

I am torn between:

The standard walk up (Norton 4/8, N12, SG20)
Jump to the 12K or the SG20?

Thanks for motivating me (and the rest of us) to try this - it does change how you look at that drawer full of rocks...

Can the Norton 4/8 challenge be far behind?

Or "all the way with your 12K?"

(Jeopardy theme playing in the background as I await the responses...)

Originally Posted by MJC

it does change how you look at that drawer full of rocks...

Yes! This is exactly why so many have said so many times that the bevel set is 90% of honing.

And that number might be low!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yes! This is exactly why so many have said so many times that the bevel set is 90% of honing.

And that number might be low!

I've come to believe that the bevel might be as much as 95-97% of honing.

At his TomoNagura website, in one of his honing posts, Kieth talks about the bevel set as being more of a process that takes lace between that 1k and mid-range stone than a discrete event that takes place all of a sudden-which makes sense to me intuitively.

Well, it is all a matter of semantics. Once the two bevel planes meet along the entire length of the blade, the bevels are set and define the edge, but even on the 1k that is followed by lighter strokes to refine that edge. Everything above the 1k also just refines that edge.

I mentioned I used my "green brick" a 2K hone.

My habit is to use an old grey canvas strop that has a lot of submicron spray on it.

I was playing with my stropping technique and the drag abruptly changed.
It felt as if the pasted strop at about 50 licks worked its way through the coarse
2K surface and then began to slide on the strop. The green brick has a lot of abrasive
and sharpens differently than my 1K hones.

Test shave then... strop lightly as you normally would and feel for a change in drag.
Test shave again...
My old grey strop now has a lot of oxidized steel in the surface.

Does the "fine" side of a Gator Grit brand model 6063 "coarse/fine" stone count? I have no idea what the grit actually is; it seems to be about 1000 grit-ish. Finishing on that and then stropping on canvas and then leather (Illinois #361 strop) gave a pretty good shave. Not great, but not bad at all. Kind of surprising, actually. I'm guessing that decent stropping can make up for a lot of roughness off the hone.