Quote Originally Posted by bluesman7 View Post
I'm still seeing a white line along the edge, but it may be an artifact of the camera etc.
I see what you see, and I think if you look back at the 3u pic, you will maybe have an ah-hah moment if you study it a bit. The razor didn't see enough action on the 3u film to flatten the bevel and eradicate previous scratches all the way out to the apex. There might have been excessive pressure. The 1u film was simply not up to the task of doing what the 3u should have done. I would take this back to the 3u film. It should shave as it is, but it will be a lot better with a bevel that is smooth and flat all the way out.

@Smell, you are getting very close. Look at your 3u pic. Notice how the bevel is nice and smooth at the root, and gets progressively scratchier once it gets close to the edge? You need to keep going on the 3u and get it all looking the same. Watch the pressure. By the 3u stage you should be using about the weight of the razor plus a finger's weight and you should definitely be honing in hand. It may take a lot of laps. Don't compensate with more pressure. The steel flexes too much when the edge starts getting fine. At the 1u stage you should end up with just the weight of the razor. Don't forget to add some pull strokes in there, and finish each stage with very short x strokes.This will keep the apex tight without leaving behind any wire or fin edge.

When you get done with the 1u stage, have a shave. If it feels a bit harsh, first of all lower your shave angle. Don't scrape. Second, take some regular copier paper, cut slightly smaller than your film, dampen it with just a mist of water, apply to your plate, apply your 1u film on top of that, and go another half dozen laps with extreme light pressure, then give it a go. Should be very kind to your face but still pretty darn sharp.Do not be tempted into more laps over the "pico-paper".

The way onward from the 1u film is the pasted balsa progression. I posted at length on that on another forum. I will get around to a comprehensive tutorial on here one of these days. But it does no guud until you are getting good quality 1u edges from the film or extremely good 12k or better synthetic edges. The balsa cannot make a dull edge sharp, but it can make a very sharp edge sharper and smoother.

That's not such a bad looking edge but film can do a lot better.

I could be wrong. Just going by what my eyeball on the laptop screen is telling me.