Thread: The goal of polishing the edge?

Yeah Jimmy you are probably absolutely right in looking for comfort rather than sharpness. I guess I'm also looking for the perfect compromise as well.

For me, I think maybe because I'm still relatively new to this, I sort of equate more sharpness to equalling better edge. This is because, so far as I have gone the sharper edges provide appreciably better shaves. Just going up from my 12K to the Shapton 16/30 was like minor league to the majors. The first 30K shave was like: HELL YEAH this a properly tuned tool capable of doing the job I want.

So where do I go from here? I would like to maintain the sharpness of my edge while obtaining some maximum of durability/longevity. I'm guessing after placing this post there are several options. Maybe stay on the current track and use pastes/stropping to maintain before rehoning. Or maybe using natural stones to achieve similar sharpness but for the complicated reasons mussed about previously may in fact provide more durable and less fragile edges. Hmmmm. ... a fork in the road.

I have found my smooth edges to be pretty easy to maintain using linen and horsehide. I've even been able to bring back slightly degrading edges with extended stropping...

Originally Posted by economica

Yeah Jimmy you are probably absolutely right in looking for comfort rather than sharpness. I guess I'm also looking for the perfect compromise as well.

Like some of us here you seem to approach honing as what Lynn calls it, a sport. That is certainly my approach to it. I am not just trying to get a better shave but also challenging myself and trying to improve my honing skills.

When talking about sharpness versus comfort I think of my fore mentioned friend. An edge I would find just fine wouldn't be worth a darn to him. Reminds me of shaving DE with a Derby as opposed to a Feather. I can get BBS with the Derby using good prep and stretching techniques and I don't get weepers or maybe a nick.

The Feather, OTOH, is scary sharp to me and will give me a bbs shave with less technique but I have to be a lot more careful to avoid razor burn, weepers, nicks. Then again all of this is all determined by our individual beard and skin types. I happen to be lucky to have fine hair on top and not too coarse on the whiskers.