Thread: What Grit / Micron Size Is Required to Enjoy a Good Shave?

If you already have a nice finish stone you really don't need a barber hone. I just use the Swaty on rare occasions when a slight touch up seems appropriate. It's small and convenient. Good stropping will keep a razor running a long time. I have an old tough beard and this works for me. Facial prep is also key.

Not the best, but one of the most commonly made and better than average in performance and therefore a great representative for barber hones is the Swaty hone. It is the only barber hone that I know of that was copied by other companies in the hope of taking advantage of its popularity. If you get a geniune Swaty, whether the two or three line version, and it is in decent condition, then you will have a good opportunity to learn what a barber hone can do.

there is an easy answer to this and that is all of the microns

Originally Posted by jmabuse

I've been using a Shapton 15K and a 30K in my honing progression, but lately I've had such good results from stropping on a crox-pasted leather-on-wood paddle strop that next time I do a razor restore, I am going to stop on the Norton 8K and see if I can get a good edge going straight from there to the pasted strop.

The crox I use is jeweler's abrasive powder, supposedly guaranteed to be 0.49 micron, and I put it in some paste wax. I don't know if it's really 0.49 micron but I'm getting the best shaves I've ever had..

I'll report back on whether I perceive any difference between 8K -> pasted strop -> leather and 8K -> 15K -> 30K -> leather.

Here's my report. I killed an edge on a Solingen blade (and it was killed dead, trust me) from the 1930s -- an American import I'd taken through my usual progression and I'd gotten great shaves from.

I honed again on the Norton 4K/8K. Set a new bevel with the 4K, which took a little while because I usually set bevels on a Shapton 1K glass stone. Then went to the 8K as I usually do. After that I usually go to a Shapton 15K and then the Shapton 30K glass stone, but this time I went to a crox pasted paddle strop and did 50 strokes on each side, and tried it out.

Popped arm hairs really easily, but in shaving it was uncomfortable, pulling and tugging. I actually stopped and used another razor to finish.

A couple of days later I went back to the 4K/8K and honed again. But then when I went to the pasted paddle strop I did 100 strokes on each side.

I then shaved one side of my face with that blade, and the other side with a blade I'd taken through my usual progression up to the Shapton 30K. Both felt the same. That is, with enough strokes on the crox pasted paddle strop, I got to a level of sharpness that I perceived to be the same as what I get with a Shapton 30K.

I'm glad to have the Shapton 15K and 30K. If I'm already honing, it's much quicker to finish with a few strokes on those than with 200 on the crox-pasted paddle strop. But for me they don't seem to make the razor any sharper. So if I were beginning, I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars on those stones when I can get great shaves without them.

As always, I appreciate that other people's mileage may vary!

I'm not sure sharpness is what you have after a 30k honed edge is then stropped 50 laps on ChromOx.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I'm not sure sharpness is what you have after a 30k honed edge is then stropped 50 laps on ChromOx.

I don't think it would hurt, but in any case that's not what I did!

Yup, sorry for the mistake. I read it too quickly on my small phone.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yup, sorry for the mistake. I read it too quickly on my small phone.

I do that all the time! It's nice to be able to carry around an internet connection and a computer. But the screens are so small and the keyboard rots.

Originally Posted by Jnatcat

Below is just a small excerpt from an article I read earlier and it gave me a lot to think about, I know we all want those laser edges ( Me included ) that makes the hair just melt away but at what point do we say enough is enough ?
......
Can you get a shave ready edge with most, or perhaps even all of these honing options? Yup! But here’s the thing; if our forefathers enjoyed comfortable shaves with only a 6000 grit (4 micron) barber’s hone, do we actually need to go down to 0.10 microns (160,000 grit) CBN on nano cloth (or kangaroo) today, examined under a 600+ power microscope, simply because the technology now exists to offer that service? Will it shave appreciably better than what granddad had? Hmm…

No we do not want to go down to 0.000001 microns ...

We want a blade that has no trouble with whiskers and at the same time
does not slice skin (even a little bit).

To that end a contest begins and must include the critical component of Latherin.

I have found that at about 10K grit the edge is sharp enough and can be stropped
to bring it to a nice shaving state.

I happen to have whiskers that have been described as useful for scrubbing burnt
oatmeal from a pan. To that end I find that a sharp edge that snips whiskers is also
harsh and angers my skin so an alum block stings.

I am finding that after honing to 10K grit or even 30K grit the edge needs to be
calmed down without increasing drag etc. The better I get at honing the more
I depend on a strop to make my face happy.

There are some discussions about old school microtome sharpening on vibrating glass
with a very nice suspension of chalk (diatoms). They make the point that for a microtome
the edge must push slice where a shaving edge should not be as 'sharp'. These old
guys understood 'too sharp' without a way to quantify it.

The modern hones seem to be ideal for wood planes yet miss the magic of classic finisher
hone for shaving. Technique and practice gets the hone master or the shaver that
nice edge...

In my case a dark grey dirty lightly pasted strop gets me that edge.
My favorite 'dirty trick' is 0.25micron CBN and then use the strop
a lot. The bits of steel oxidize and make the strop look dirty but that dirt
does the polishing that makes the edge nice for my face. CrOx and CeOx
do a fine job too. CeOx might be better than CBN.

The Nanawa 12K products seem to be my shaving limit. My finer
grit Shapton are likely ill spent money but I HAD to get them.
I will figure them out and will likely want to gloat if I do. ;-)

So at about 10K-12K spend less on hones and practice honing and
stropping. As for practice it is perfect practices makes perfect.
Slow down and be exact.