Originally Posted by
rickytimothy
Hey, I did get a bevel set! I am making major progress, and that last video I was linked was very helpful indeed. I think a big part of the problem was that I was just not spending enough time on the bevel setting hone with one technique. With my latest attempt, it took approximately 70-80 strokes total, including dulling it against my thumbnail a couple times when it was uneven, to get it to a decent set where it would cut all the way down both sides of the blade, where previously I was only using maybe 30 strokes.
My blade seems to be in decent shape now, for sure shaveable at least. Now, as a matter of improvement, it's mostly figuring out: Where do I go from here? Getting the 1 micron film and a block to hold it is priority for this week, that should help.
After that I am very curious to see how close in sharpness my Dovo will be to Paul's razor. At that point the remaining difficult question to answer will be, I expect: "What is the biggest contributor to the difference in sharpness? Is it that he set a much better bevel? More finesse on the finishing stones? Better stropping?" Time will tell.
I am following established techniques now. I spent a decent amount of time trying to use the scienceofsharp method (mostly, missing some of his gear,) and couldn't get a good edge with it, so default to tradition it is.