Thread: Pressure (or lack of) is truly important!

Hey all,

So last night I shaved and it went alright, but the razor wasn't quite as sharp as I would like and needed more work. So today I did a conservative pyramid on it with my norton, then did 50 laps with water on my hard coticule then 50 on my yellow/green escher.

I've gotten great shaves off self-honed razors but this time I paid extra attention to the amount of pressure I used and I tried to use litterally as little pressure as I possibly could. I made slow strokes and paid extra attention to keeping it LIGHT, almost lifting the razor to keep pressure at a minimum. I had no trouble with the honing and keeping the blade flat on the stone (even since I use narrow stones), but it did take longer than it normally would since I was trying to pay extra attention to the pressure.

Well before I did this mini honing/touch-up session I checked out the edge under 30x magnification and the scratch pattern was uniform and pretty good. Well after I did this honing session using as light as possible strokes, the scratch pattern was WAY smoother than I have EVER seen on a razor I've honed, even on a freshly honed razor with the same progression. I stropped it 30 times on linen and 100 times on leather and I was straining to see any sort of scratches at the 30x level, and it was significantly smoother than ever seen before. Very even bevel, and a very uniform scratch pattern.

The lesson is? USE LIGHT PRESSURE! I have yet to shave with this razor, but I can see first hand that using light pressure produces the smoothest results on the edge.

Just thought I would share this experience, especially to those that believe using no pressure is not usefull .

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

The lesson is? USE LIGHT PRESSURE! I have yet to shave with this razor, but I can see first hand that using light pressure produces the smoothest results on the edge.

Just thought I would share this experience, especially to those that believe using no pressure is not usefull .

Yup, and the sky is blue and the grass is green; but somehow, ya just gotta figure it out for yourself!!!

Welcome to the club of the enlightened!

I'm finding that, too!

I'm wondering how this can apply to other kinds of knives. Do you think a kitchen knife will work better is less pressure is used while sharpening?

I was settimng bevel yester day and checking on my microscope. and i noticed when i i did circles with more pressure i could easily see deeper scratch pattern i had to use more pressure i was taking a chip out od a big wedge with dmt 1200 took me 3 hours they are hard work i even wonderd if my dmt was orking but it was. i always go 4k with light normal pressure then 8k as light as pos bbw lighter yellow extremly light i nuster be heavy handed and it does'nt work.

It took you 3 hours with the DMT #1200? The chip was either substantial, or it sounds like your stone has worn down a bit past it's prime (or you're a slow sharpener!). Even with little pressure, the #1200 should work pretty fast.

I think you can put more pressure on the lowest stone, especially to remove the chip, but by the next stone, you should ease off the pressure and remove any visible scratches left by the #1200. -That means you should spend the most amount of time on the second stone. If you jumped straight form the #1200 to the 4K, it is acceptable, but I think a non-diamond 2K would be a great intermediate stone that evens out the roughness a little better.

Just a thought...

Originally Posted by jendeindustries

If you jumped straight form the #1200 to the 4K, it is acceptable, but I think a non-diamond 2K would be a great intermediate stone that evens out the roughness a little better.

Thanks for the interesting and informative post Dave. As for hitting the 2k following the 1200, on his DVD Harrelson says that Shapton feels that roughly doubling the grit as you move up in the progression is the way to go. Seems that Norton follows that policy too as well as Naniwa and others if you look at their grit progressions. I have the pro shaptons and they go 1k, 2k, 5k, 8k, 15k, 30k. I do like to go to my 2k following the 1k or the DMT E 1200. Seems to work really well as a prelude to the 5k.

After watching the DVD I spoke with Harrelson on the phone and asked him how much pressure he used. He said that it was hard to quantify but it was more in the early bevel setting stages than in the later sharpening and finishing stages.

A former forum member and IMO honemiester taught me quite a bit up close and in person. The Topher was his screen name and he used a fair amount of pressure in the bevel setting and then lightened up as he went along. As Harrelson said how much pressure is hard to quantify in words or on the page but if you saw it you'd know what I am saying. He lightened up as he went up the grit progression as Harrelson did.

The grind of the razor comes into it too. The full hollow is so flexible at the edge that excess pressure would deform the blade as it was coming in contact with the stone. On a heavier grind it would cause excessive wear on the bevel and the shoulder. So as I have seen Glen post, just enough to keep the blade flat on the stone is the desired pressure.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

As for hitting the 2k following the 1200, on his DVD Harrelson says that Shapton feels that roughly doubling the grit as you move up in the progression is the way to go. Seems that Norton follows that policy too as well as Naniwa and others if you look at their grit progressions. I have the pro shaptons and they go 1k, 2k, 5k, 8k, 15k, 30k. I do like to go to my 2k following the 1k or the DMT E 1200. Seems to work really well as a prelude to the 5k.

This is exactly what I have learned too: doubling grits size is preferable, but it's possible to make a gritjump 4 times the starting grit ie 500 to 2K, but 2 times is best.