Thread: too sharp

when honing on a stone ( at least on synthetics ) there seems to be a risk of the edge being too sharp at a certain moment
I always go to 8k and than 12k or natural finisher

when I want to go back to a lower stone , is it then sufficient to go on a natural with slurry
or can I go over the thumbnail with the razor without having to set the bevel again
I suppose to kill the edge over the stone is too much

I ask this because sometimes after honing the shave is perfect , but only one time
so then I want to go back to around 8k or so and try again
finishing on 12k or Coticule or Kiita or whatever

My opinion, you can't get too sharp, you can get to harsh, but the smooth is what your looking for and that my friend is experience. If your bevel is set, and you work up to your finisher removing previous stria, and using light laps, your edge should be straight without little teeth that make for a harsh shave. And if your stropping is good you should be able to strop to make it smoother. you just have to keep working on it and it will come together.

Some guy take unto a year to really get consistent results, maybe cause they don't take time to learn a hone and jump around to all kinds of them. Look up a thread called the 8k shave. If you can't get a comfortable edge to shave off of then your not ready to go further, as a matter of a fact you should be able to shave from the 1k up. See if you can find someone close by to help you. Tc

but that is what I do
first make it good on 8k
but after that I go for example to Coticule or Welsh Slate , get a perfect and nice shave one or two times and than it gets much worse

I don't know what is happening to your finished edge, but you can go back to the 8k without doing anything.

Is this happening on more than one razor? All of your razors?

I had it several times with different razors
but I am not an experienced honer ( yet )
I can get a real good shave from the Naniwa 8k
so the bevel must be o.k.

As TC said "you can't get too sharp, you can get to harsh".
When you say that the edge feels great for a shave or two then no longer feels as smooth anymore makes me thing that your stropping might be an issue. If this is happening on most of your razors. An edge will degrade after some shaves but unless your doing something improper, I'd say it shouldnt go bad that fast. And as was said, you can step back down if it works for you without resetting the bevel. Going back to an 8k after 12K is just putting more scratches in the bevel and in therory just making it less smooth.

But, if it works for you then thats what matters. It has taken me almost a year to finally get smooth edges on my razors and the stropping lately has gotten to the point that I'm finding it making a difference. Before I didn't understand why I was doing it as I didn't notice it doing anything. Work on your stropping abilities and just do what makes you happy. BTW, If you do kill the edge on your thumbnail it doesn't take but 8 to 10 laps on a stone to fix what you did.

Hope this helps. From one new honer.

yeah
I am sometimes doubting my stropping too
but nice to know a bit about whats needed to go back or forth in grid
I try to strop with little pressure , spine leading and concentrate on keeping it flat , but there is for sure improvement possible

All good points so far. Personally Id stay away from the natural finishers, stick with the 8k and see whether your razors degrade after a few shaves. If it does, as said, its improper stropping or the bevels not set.
Once you can get consistently good shaves off the 8k then its time to go to your naturals.

it is hard to say, but the above points are the most likely.
Have you had a razor honed by someone with a lot of experience?
Are you using good quality razors?
There are a few members in the Netherlands, perhaps a quick PM with one of them will help, perhaps you can meet or send them a razor for evaluation and honing.

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

All good points so far. Personally Id stay away from the natural finishers, stick with the 8k and see whether your razors degrade after a few shaves. If it does, as said, its improper stropping or the bevels not set.
Once you can get consistently good shaves off the 8k then its time to go to your naturals.

This ^ is good advice.

I suspect that you are producing a fin with your higher grit finishers that subsequently breaks down. This is easy to do with slow naturals or by using too much pressure with synthetic finishers.