Shaving off of 8K

[richmondesi]

Ok, guys. I've seen a lot of people ask about the finishing stones available to us, and I think the consensus is that they are nice options but not necessary. That's my opinion as well as others that I've seen. I would like to have this thread out there dedicated to helping people understand that when you've done a good job of honing, you can shave comfortably off of the 8K stone. My most recently honed razor is a no name 3/8 3/4 grind that came to me stone blunt... Off to test shave the 8K edge now

[JimmyHAD]

I'm a late night shaver some of the time as well. I like to shave off of the 8k just to make sure that I've done a good job up to that level. With my particular skin/whiskers I can get a smooth comfortable shave at the 8k level. Usually the following day or so,assuming I was happy with the shave, I'll go up in grit and see how much polishing will improve the shave. It does improve it BTW.

[ziggy925]

If you don't get a good edge off the 8k you won't be able to improve on it much with finer stones.

Over in the knife forum they talk about this a lot. You should almost be able to shave your arms with a course stone. Once you can do that you can improve on the edge.

It seems a lot of people here see anything above 8k as a luxury. I tend to agree.

[holli4pirating]

Yes, Ziggy, we say the same here. It seems to be agreed that one should be able to shave arm hair easily off a 1k. That's how I know I'm done on the 1k at least...

I've not shaved off anything known to be 8k, but I have shaved quite comfortably off my BBW and my Dragon's Tongue. I've heard their grits estimated at 6-8k.

[gssixgun]

Hear Hear !!!

Huge plus 1 from me as well...

[mosley59]

So holli, by that standard would you think it should be possible to shave off a 4K? I ask only because I have a few dull razors needing a hone and my few shave-ready blades beginning to approach dull, but only own a 1K and 4K, and am unable to buy anything higher for a few weeks. Nor do I own a pasted strop to touch them up with, so unless people think it possible to shave off a 4K I may have to revert to a Mach36.9 for a few weeks until I can afford an 8K and possibly a C12K for that final polish.

[mainaman]

If you don't get a good edge off the 8k you won't be able to improve on it much with finer stones.

Over in the knife forum they talk about this a lot. You should almost be able to shave your arms with a course stone. Once you can do that you can improve on the edge.

It seems a lot of people here see anything above 8k as a luxury. I tend to agree.

When I sharpen my knives, I know I have set the bevel on 1k only if it can shave arm hair. Only then I move up in the grits.
Same applies to razors. Glen has tested face shaving off 1k stone and the results were pretty good.

[SavantStrike]

I'll say another +1 for shaving off of 8k.

Totally doable, and as others have mentioned, you should even be able to do it at lower grits than that .

When I started as a newbie (which really wasn't so long ago...), I used my C12k and a CrOx pasted "strop" (piece of oak backed plywood okay ) as aids to make up for poor skills. I was really shocked when a month or two later, the results straight off of the 8k side of my Norton were better than the results with all that extra "stuff."

As insane as I thought it was wen I kept hearing guys say that you should be able to get the razor to pass the HHT at 1k, I even found out that too was not impossible. I didn't try to shave off it though; I'm a bit spoiled these days .

[richmondesi]

Positive report from last night's shave. It was quite nice. Now that this was successful, I'll spend a little more time on the stones and upgrade the edge a bit.

[IanS]

Look at barbers hones. 6-10k I here most are estimated at.

Anything in that range should be plenty if wielded properly... assuming our faces haven't gotten softer in the past hundred years. I think most of the polishing stones are there purely for the enjoyment. A shave with 8k probably feels fine to at least the majority of people here I'd assume... but they go with the 12k, 15k,16k,30k stones just because they shave with them and think, "That was better than fine". The same happens with disposables. I shave with $1 /10pack singles. Yes, they clog regularly and rip out several hairs a shave. I shave with 5blade $5/head razors. They clog and occasionally rip a hair out. But if I shave with a single, when I'm done, I feel my chin and go; "Yeah that was acceptable". The next day I pick up a 5blade, shave, feel my chin and go "That was much better". If they came out with a better disposable, I'd probably repeat that process going from a 5blade to that one. I doubt anyone here, no matter how many blades or stones or how expertly they strop feels they've experienced the best straights have to offer, even though they deeply enjoy their shaves, they are typically looking for a better one, and once that's achieved they'll look for one better than that, etc, etc, etc.

It's like collectors. Sure you've got 100 of the coolest lawn gnomes ever, but you REALLY need the one that looks like a yellow smurf... it would make your collection so much better!


Edit: Does the wiki or anywhere have a good explanation of the grit exchange thing, as I've seen several references to it "Mostly along the lines of "Japanese grit is soooooo much finer than everyone else"", but I've yet to find any substantive information along the lines of "This stone's grit is calculated thusly... and this one's is calculated as such."