Quote Originally Posted by RayClem View Post
Like you, I tend to prefer the edges off natural stones better than synthetics, which can be harsh.

1. Wnen a heat treated razor is quenched following heat treatment, the thin edge cools far more quickly than the spine. Thus, the edge is harder than the spine. If you apply too much pressure on the spine when honing, you will cause more wear than necessary. While you must always keep the spine on the hone, torque the razor slightly so the edge receives more pressure.

2. Shapton uses a different grit rating than some other makers of synthetic hones. The 30K Shapton is similar to a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K. The 16K Shapton is similar to a Naniwa 12K. The 12K Shapton is somewhere betweeen a Naniwa 8K and 10K. Thus, your Shapton 12K might not be quite as high in grit as you believe. If you have a good Chinese Guangxi stone, it should be close to a 12K Naniwa (16K Shapton) in scratch pattern, but provide a less harsh edge.

3. Dovo claims that all of their razors come "shave ready" from the factory. In fact, they state that having your razor honed by someone who is not factory certified will void the warranty. I only have one Dovo razor, but it was nowhere close to being shave ready by my standards.

4. It is not uncommon to have some degree of warpage in a razor. Generally, you can compensate for the warp by varying your honing strokes to insure all of the blade receives adequate attention.

5. Always strop your blade before testing it. If you like your blades super smooth, you might want to consider getting some pasted strops. Ultra fine abrasives like Chromium Oxide, Polycrystaline Diamond, and Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) can be used to polish the edge to a mirror finish. The wavelength of visible light averages 0.5 micron, so to achieve a true mirror polish, the blade has to be polished with abrasives finer than 0.5 micron. I polish my edges with 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 micron CBN on microfiber strops. Due to the octahedral shape of diamond crystals, they can be rather abrasive. Thus, it is common to apply diamond pastes and sprays to lapped balsa. The soft grain of the balsa allows the diamond crystals to partially embed in the surface. This reduces the aggressiveness of the abrasive. CBN is not quite as harsh as diamond, so it can be used with other substrates. The 0.5 micron abrasive is equivalent to 60 K. Even using this level should improve your edge. You can often find green polishing compounds in your local hardware store. While they contain some Chromium Oxide, they also contain other abrasives such as silica and are not hearly as fine as 0.5 micron Chromium Oxide. Thus, if you want to use CrOx be sure to get it from a reputable source selling it for razor stropping.
Thanks for the super looooooooooong writing.

1. I wasn't pressing the spine but rather the edge to make it fully touching the stone. So far I don't see any obvious worn to the spine. Actually I already deemed it as a total loss when I found the edge was warped. I'm going to try your method on next sharpening to see if that going to be easier than what I was doing.

2. You were most likely right about Shapton. I have a Taidea 15K according to other members, it's pretty close to 30K Shapton is similar to a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K, but I cannot really tell the difference between the Shapton and Taidea. The edges off both can handle my chin area without any problems but I just don't like the feel. I'm tempted to get a set of Naniwa, but not really sure if I should get a 3rd set of stones. I have 4 different CNATs from different sources but none of them is Guangxi stone I believe. I just closely inspected the CNATs and it turned out that the stria from my 1K diamond plate wasn't completely removed. So I used a progression of sandpapers and 10k synthetic stone to smooth out the surface again. Still not sure if that is going to help though.

3. I have no doubt of that. Though My Dovo came more or less shave ready really as I used it directly, 2 or 3 times per weeks for around 3 months before I feel a little bit dragging when shaving my chin. But when I tried to hone it, I immediately noticed that the edge was warped, the bevel was super uneven, and I felt there was no quality control at all. Most importantly, the edges I get are for sure much better than the one from the factory. I did not know that was going to void the warranty but I would still do it if I knew it.

4. I'm not sure if we were talking about the same thing. What I meant was that if you look directly toward the edge, the center of the edge is closer to one side of the spine than the other. It's not the edge was like a smile of frown.

5. This one I'm not sure. I played with lots diamond pastes, diamond emulsions from 5 micron to 0.1 micron, CrOx paste etc, now I have so much that can probably be passed down several generations. Along the way, I have learnt lots of subtle differences between different standards. Haven't tried CBN yet as I could not get any. I did all those diamond paste progressions etc, but I found that the edges were full of micro chips after stropping on diamond pasted leather strops a couple of times by inspect the reflections under strong light. The edge off diamond pasted strop are more keen but more harsh too. Haven' tried diamond pasted balsa yet. To me touching up on naturals every month or two actually works very well for me. Now I only strop on plain leather paddle strop. I feel like to try a good hanging strop with both linen and leather though.

It's a really really long journey and it's equally fun to find out either something really works for me or something does not work at all.