Thread: Definition of Pressure?

Back in the early '80s a barber sold me a Swaty and a coticule. He demonstrated how to hone and he taught me how to strop. He told me to use the Swaty dry and the coticule with lather or water and only the weight of the blade.

He was adamant that only three or four strokes should be used on the Swaty and not many more on the coticule. No pressure, only the weight of the blade. As a result of following my barber friends instructions I was never able to get a blade sharp or keep a sharp blade shaving well. So shortly thereafter I gave up straight razor shaving and went back to the Gillette 'Good News" for another twenty years.

Finding SRP I began to try again. I was lucky to have a forum member who lived thirty miles away and was willing to show me his honing methods. I brought a Goldedge I had gotten off of ebay and after taping the spine he started doing circles and back and forth strokes on a 1K Norton with pressure. Once the bevel was set he lightened up and moved to a 4K.

I would say that from there he used enough pressure to keep the blade flat on the hone. Lightning up as he moved up to the 8K and finally the 15K Shapton pro. I made a few more visits to my friend's house and received more instruction as I practiced with more ebay acquisitons. I have followed this procedure with good results since.

As long as you always use the same lubrication, why not just place the hone on a scale as you sharpen? You should be able to determine how much downward force is being applied by the change in weight

Sure, thats very easy to do.

Pressure = Force / Area.


The problem with this type of quantification is the human interaction itself. My results may vary when comapred to yours. Unless the force is being measured with a gage somehow ... I dont see an accurately comparable scale.

Interesting idea, though.

One way to measure it is if it is working. If your razors are getting as sharp as you want them to be without excessive or uneven wear. IOW, if it works no need to fix it. Fun to speculate though.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Back in the early '80s a barber sold me a Swaty and a coticule. He demonstrated how to hone and he taught me how to strop. He told me to use the Swaty dry and the coticule with lather or water and only the weight of the blade.

He was adamant that only three or four strokes should be used on the Swaty and not many more on the coticule. No pressure, only the weight of the blade. As a result of following my barber friends instructions I was never able to get a blade sharp or keep a sharp blade shaving well. So shortly thereafter I gave up straight razor shaving and went back to the Gillette 'Good News" for another twenty years.

Is this the barber in your sig Jimmy?

no wonder that didn't work improving my grip

I never go past grade 2
I also torque the tang to lift the edge sometimes on finishing strokes

when I mentioned doing circles with slurry on an escher I had my finger laid on the blade, but that isn't even enough to jiggle a key on the computer

Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

Is this the barber in your sig Jimmy?

no wonder that didn't work improving my grip

I never go past grade 2
I also torque the tang to lift the edge sometimes on finishing strokes

when I mentioned doing circles with slurry on an escher I had my finger laid on the blade, but that isn't even enough to jiggle a key on the computer

No it isn't. The barber in my sig was Tom Coppetto. The barber who sold me the hones was Frank Natale. Both very old guys who cut hair into their seventies when I knew them. The thing in my sig really does work for me and has saved me from nicks/cuts many times but not every time.

Use lighter pressure when using finer finishing hones and heavier pressure when setting a bevel. Your forearm shouln't be cramping or anything. You're removing a very small amount of steel against a stone so there has to be some pressure. The edge gets thinner and thinner as you finish so go lighter and lighter. Use the force.

I am always a believer of less is better both in the number of strokes you use to hone as well as the amount of pressure used. I find that when using the lower grit hones for repair and bevel setting, that I do put a little more pressure on the hone than when I do the actual honing from 4K up to polishing and pasting. Because I sit at a table for stability when I hone, it is easy for me to guage pressure simply by shoulder involvement. If I sit close and have any shoulder involvement there is heavier pressure than when I sit straight and my back it against the chair with my arms in front of me for regular honing with minimum pressure.

The use of two hands on the blade has always been indicative of heavier pressure and whenever watching new guys use this method, it has been easy to identify not only too much pressure, but uneven pressure in the process.

Lynn