Quote Originally Posted by JCitron View Post
You're right Jimmy. Perhaps pulling is not the best word to use. I always imagined pulling in a negative sense to be something where you almost had to force the razor through the hair and were almost tearing the hairs.

I was referring more to excessive feed back so to speak. In my head I imagine that the ultimate edge is one where you don't feel anything at all as you do the initial pass. One step below that and you have a little bit of feed back. As you work down that spectrum you get more and more feed back until you hit the point where the razor is doing as I described above.

"Shave readiness" is unique to each of us and is a range that begins at some point along that spectrum. We all agree that the top of the spectrum is shave ready but where we draw the line is a personal thing.
Agreed, I use the gradual stubble removal I learned in DE shaving. Not trying to get bbs smooth in one pass. Some parts of my face/neck will get smooth in one pass. Some in two and certain areas (on either side of the windpipe) may need further attention.

What I look for is almost no resistance and a smoothness in the cutting of the whiskers. For me the chin and mustache areas tell the tale. If those areas are resistance free and cut smoothly my razor is shave ready enough for me but as you say it is an individual thing.

Randydance told me early on that after coming off of the hones test shave and you may have to go back to the hones a few times to refine and improve the edge. He also told me to try shaving off of the 8k instead of moving on to the higher grits right off the bat. Gives a good indication of how sharp you're getting the razor. I like doing that and find it is a good barometer of how my honing skill is progressing.