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

Thanks, that's more for my list. I don't think I ever have shaved off of the Shapton Pro 1k or 1.5k, but I will soon.

I might take a known good shaving razor and try again with that hone. No dulling just a 1K 'touch up.' But I made 3 trips back to the 1K and I just could not get more than a half inch stroke without putting the blade down. I'm willing to admit I may have dropped the ball on that one, but I'd like to think I did my due diligence.

Edit: Used the Gold Dollar as my test bed. Results were better, but I couldn't do a full shave with it. Maybe someone with a lighter touch can coax a shaving edge off it.

I've been using a sacrificial Gold Dollar for my tests too, so challenge accepted!

OK gentlemen- I am SO GLAD that I accepted this challenge! I think I learned more this morning than I have in the (almost) year I have been honing! Today I did a 3-pass shave with cleanup off of my Wostenholm celebrated IXL 5/8 barber notch near wedge. Always an enjoyable razor, but nothing spectacular about it it is in nice shape but not perfect. Had to set that up first because what came next was amazing!

Last night I killed the edge on glass- used my 30x lighted loupe and saw sparkles along the entire edge- so I knew it was dead. Confirmed this with AHT no hair shaved. I set the bevel on a new stone for me- a low grit synthetic roughly 6-8k (cheap as heck- cost all of $7 brand new) but it was recommended to me by another member so always looking to learn and try new things. After about 15 x strokes the bevel looked pretty good under the loupe and it was doing pretty well on the TNT so shaved a little arm hair- not as good as I would like. Under the microscope I could see a toothy edge so I jointed the edge on the corner of my Kuromaku 1.5k and did circles in sets of 20 until the bevel disappeared under the loupe. At this point it was wiping arm hair off (always have to be careful not to shave too much

This morning I lathered and shaved my right cheek without stropping and to my amazement it did pretty well WTG but not very comfortable- and I would say it was more of a "beard reduction" but it DID shave. So on to the linen- stropped about 40 passes and shaved part of the left cheek- shave was more comfortable! AND a bit more beard reduction as compared to the right cheek. Now I'm getting excited so a few more on linen to dry it then about 50 passes on leather- this is where things got really interesting! The next shave was equal to or better than my first edges that I worked HOURS on when I first started! And that was a "full progression" up to 8k!

I thought I might see what palm stropping would do since I have been having good results lately (to my shock and amazement) on my other razors with this technique. After palm stropping I lathered up and decided to go for a full shave since there was still some stubble left from my efforts. THE RAZOR WAS BUTTER SMOOTH and COMFORTABLE as I did the WTG pass! I mean it was as close as makes not difference to my best edges so far! No irritation, no weepers, and after rinsing I was at CCS! WOW!! I palm stropped again and did XTG- again smooth as silk. Rinse, dry off the blade, palm strop- ATG pass (I expected pain) and it was very comfortable as well! I ended up with a DFS it just took a little longer!

For good measure I decided to do HHT. I did this after the 1.5k last night and of course it didn't pass, but I did notice it "vibrating" which was unexpected. After the palm stropping it PASSED HHT with my wife's thin hair from her hairbrush! I had to do this several times to confirm, but...click, click, click all along the blade!

Than you @utopian for encouraging us to try this. I am just blown away by the results and will never look at my finishers quite the same way- now I truly believe that after bevel set all else is polish! Will I sell my rock pile? well, no, but I won't feel so compelled to chase after the edge.

Now here are my questions- does this mean I have a good understanding of the basics of honing? Is it a combination of honing, stropping, shaving technique that leads to a good shave (all work together) or is there one element that is more important than another?

After today I am convinced that it is the shave that matters- that is the one and only criteria of a good edge.

Your experience kind of mirrors the epiphany I had a couple of pages back doing this experiment with my Chosera-I literally could not believe what a great smooth shave it was. To your questions about the most important factors, I believe a little of all of the above played into it.

But my opinion, at least for me, I believe that just spending a little more time and care in inspecting and refining the edge on that 1k bevel setter (or whichever one you use) makes most of the difference, and lays the foundation for going up the grits. With that experiment and since, I have started doing maybe 20-25 ultralight "finishing strokes" and then stropping before moving up-makes all the difference.

Roy/Cudarunner often recommends test-shaving off of the hone, stropping on your linen component and testing again, and then testing a final time after the leather to get an education in what each stage is doing. This makes perfect sense to me. Congrats on your results!

Originally Posted by Sdm84

Now here are my questions- does this mean I have a good understanding of the basics of honing?

Yes, right up until you run into a problem with another blade! They always are out there, making you humble again!

Originally Posted by Sdm84

Is it a combination of honing, stropping, shaving technique that leads to a good shave (all work together) or is there one element that is more important than another?

After today I am convinced that it is the shave that matters- that is the one and only criteria of a good edge.

Of course the entire goal of this process is a great shave, but I believe that all three elements must come into play for that shave.