Stuck... but the bevel's shiny

So after successfully getting quite a few blades shaving sharp with a modest norton-free setup, I've hit a wall. I've been working on two nice big sheffield blades and I can't seem to get either one of them popping arm hairs. I have an old carborundum hone that I use to set bevels, but even with the least pressure leaves a scratch pattern. I have a wotjec MST hone, a coticule, and a wojtec slate hone that sits somewhere around 5000 grit. I've set nice wide bevels on both razors, and had one popping hairs, but had to take it back down to remove a chip.


The bevels look great on both razors, and both get just shiny and sharp enough to scrape hairs off barely, but they won't pop them or shave worth squat!

Barring the obvious lack of another stone, any tips out there on a logical next step?

Cheers,
Landis

20 passes on the slate hone would be my next step.

You have a microscope?

Your striation/pressure connection is valid, they are not exclusive. If you use a stone, there will be striations.

You could try a marker test.

If the bevel is even as per marker test, it could be that the razors were honed with spines taped previously, and so a bit of a higher angle may be necessary, or you may need to hone the current one out quite a bit until you make sure the marker is gone from the very edge as well.

HTH

Are the stones recently lapped? Sounds like what happens to me when my middle stone is out of true. It just screws up the bevel from the first stone and isn't correctable by the fine one.

Sheffields with big, wide bevels can be a real bear sometimes. That wide bevel means that you have to remove a lot more metal to make the same amount of progress.

It could be that you just need to spend more time on your medium and fine hones to polish the edge. Sometimes I have to resort to pasted hanging strops to really get these razors where I want them.

Josh

I seem to be having the same problem, but not with wide razors. Let me just say that I feel your pain and annoyance. I wish a honemeister lived near me. I'd pay for lessons:rant:

I find I use my Radio Shack microscope quite often as I switch between stones to see if I have microchipping or if I have wire edges spalling off. For $10; its a steal.

You may need to do some version of a pyramid.....even as simple as dropping back for 3-4 strokes and then returning to the highter grit stone. If you cannot get a nice sticky thumbnail test at 4000, all the polishing may be for nought.