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

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 ?

For the straight razor shaver, the honing options have become rather bewildering over the past few years. Eighty years ago, you bought a barber’s hone and used an old belt, strap from a pair of suspenders or buggy harness as a strop. My Opa’s Riemen hung in the bathroom for decades, and I understand it came in handy for home discipline as well. The standard barber’s hone size was 5″ x 2.5″ They were sometimes longer, but most were thin enough to fit in a man’s pocket. They were typically baked in a mold, with a brand name cast into one end. The grit sizes were usually 6000 or 8000. Millions of men enjoyed comfortable shaves from razors honed on a single pocket stone and finished up on a leather strop. Some purists still swear by these two simple tools.

If you search YouTube today, you’ll see tutorials on honing a razor with Norton 4000/8000 combination and Naniwa Japanese synthetic stones or a full Shapton glass stone progression, Belgian coticules, Japanese natural stones (Jnats), South African Zulu Greys, German Thuringians or legendary Eschers (Gnats), Chinese natural stones (Cnats), Arkansas oil stones, and chromium oxide pastes on balsa or linen, diamond sprays on felt or roo, and CBN sprays on nano cloth, to list but a few options. How are you supposed to know which honing service to hire, or the stone and strop solution to invest in for maintaining your blade at home?

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…

Shaver vs Hobbyist

Most of us that hang around on these forums are Hobbyists

Shavers come here learn what they need and happily shave at those levels for years and write very little more unless they have an issue

We "Hobbyists" chase the extreme and write about it all day

I was a shaver for years and kept my 2 SR's shaving sharp for 27 years easily on an Arkie and my old Illinois 835 strop then I found SRP 10 years ago and it was a different story

No, of course we don't need to. However, using a coarser stone to efficiently finish a razor takes a bit more work in terms of hoops to jump through. There also is the fact that we all have differing facial hair (in terms of thickness and lie of the hair) and skin sensitivity. All these factors play into what makes an acceptably comfortable edge for each individual face.

A coarser grit can be made to cut finer by flattening the peaks of the abrasive particles, but that's a fair bit of work. It's one reason you'll find lots of guys who say "Arks are no good for razors - they aren't fine enough." They haven't done the correct prep to flatten out those peaks, so they get an uncomfortable shave. The nice thing about those old barber hones was that when they were made they had most or all of that work already done for you, and the hone was mostly already optimized to give a more comfortable shave.

I think there is less too it than high grit. The rep of the coti is buttery smooth shave with the softest edge, but they are not high grit. I think part of the equation is the hone but the other part is certainly the hand. I have had beautiful shaves with edges from a 20k, but on the flip side, some really awful shaves from a 13K and some great shaves off of naturals in the range of 8K to12K. It is not just the grit size. Exactly what all of the factors and variables are I cannot say, because I don't know.

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.

I'll go along with Glen's answer, shaver vs hobbyist.

The same thing goes on with steels used to make straight razors today. People are using various modern steels when the steels that had been used for decades if not centuries are perfectly good enough for the purpose.

Hobbyists search for the Holy Grail and shavers use what is cost effective to get the job done.

Bob

Shaver works for me. After 50yrs of straights the simple Swaty, strop and prep works for me. I've got a load of sharpening stones, diamond powders, strops, etc... Nothing wrong with experimenting and I enjoy reading about the grail chase here.

My few razors are old and well cared for so they need little. Haven't damaged one in decades. Tried many of the methods used here and most of the reasonable methods work fine.

The few razors I've brought back to life needed some of the fine methods learned here. Great forum and love reading it. Greg

I tend to agree with what most have said, can we maintain and get along with minimum amount of stones and such. You bet, a very comfortable shave can be had from an 8k stone if one takes their time, that is all I had for awhile and now I have a 12k. I will not go backwards but I also have no point in going forward unless I get bored. I feel the edge I get from my 12k is perfect for my use and higher grit stones are crazy expensive. I have never messed with pastes and such so I can not comment there. Hobby for me is the key, but I will look like a hobo before going back to a cartridge "razor"

I don't hone and I don't want to learn. Honing (IMHO), just like wet shaving, is its own hobby. Folks start wet shaving with wide eyes, and then are told they need to learn to hone to keep their razors sharp; down that rabbit hole they fall. I just don't buy it. Razors don't need to be honed daily, weekly, monthly, etc. unless the edge has been compromised. If a proper bevel and edge are set on a razor, a strop should be sufficient to keep the edge right and sharp for a very, very long time. But just as wet shavers chase a BBS, the guys who hone chase the perfect edge. So, if you get a comfortable shave finishing on an 6000-8000 stone, great, stay with it. If you shave is uncomfortable, try a higher grit. As long as it is fun, do what you find comfortable. For me, keeping an edge with just a strop is my thing and I have fun with that.

hey Ron (Utopian) shaved with nothing but a barber hone and leather with great results. Glen nailed this on the head "hobbiest"if we only wanted to shave, it would not be with $1000 razors and 500 $ hones on $400 strops. I get great shaves at the 8k level and the 12k imparts a slightly smoother shave, but in the right hands great shaves can come from lower grit stones. this is why the Coticule can give great shaves and most of them aren't even 8k. some of us need all the high grits to get to where someone like Glen can get to with a brick.

that is also why the 1k shave challenge is an eye opener. Tc

and Doc I agree with you , honing is just another Hobby, cause if your honing all the time , either your honing or shaving technique sucks, I send my raazors out more than I should and its only once a year Tc