Thread: Just a little Shapton review

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

So how much pressure? Hmm.. Recently, someone posted a video showing them honing on a coticule bout. There was quite a bit of "wow, that's alot of pressure" feedback from the guys here on the forum. I can't find that video right now, but if you're familiar with it, I'd say that's about the same amount of pressure I start out with on each Shapton grit. Then I do laps with decreasing pressure until I'm done with that stone. The Shaptons give great feedback. They pretty much tell you when you are done with each stone. A quick verification with the microscope confirms this.

You pegged it there IMO. "Weight of the blade" "No or virtually no pressure". Those terms are often not taken in the right context. IME it's unnecessary and even counterproductive to use no pressure on lower and mid grit stones. You've found an effective formula to taper off pressure at the end of each grit. On some razors with problems, others would probably shriek at the amount of pressure I've had to use at low grits to set bevels on some problem razors that ended up being great shavers. Yeah yeah, rolling hone stroke, I know. Every razor is different and some IME require creative and in relation to the norm, somewhat drastic measures.

Chris L