Thread: Getting a smoother/duller edge??

Originally Posted by gglockner

Mr. X I thought the Lithide hones were a charcoal or graphite color. My Honemaster is a light brown or tan like color.

Glen

The Lithide is almost black, and the Itsapeech is cool navy green (I expected peach orange??)

Originally Posted by gglockner

Mr. X I thought the Lithide hones were a charcoal or graphite color. My Honemaster is a light brown or tan like color.

So's mine, but these are not the natural Belgian stones or anything where the colour indicates the fineness of the grit. the colours of the barber hones are inconsistent with respect to colours.

X

AFD, I've noticed the same thing about the smoother shaving razors looking a little rougher. I've had razors that I had honed and stropped until under 100x they still looked like a black sheet of glass (VEERRRRY sharp) but were very uncomfortable to shave with, but the same razor looking like the crudely filed edge of an axe (I'm exaggerating of course) shaved quite smoothly.
I'm sure there is more to this story, of course.
On a side note, I LOVE the itsapeech hone for finishing. I've only lapped it against another barber hone, but it is extremely smooth.
I do need to get a new Norton, however, I've managed to crack mine.
John P.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I pretty sure I'm alone here with my sensitive skin but I like working from a duller blade.

My skin is extremely sensitive. I have a permanent skin cindition and apply medication every day. A duller blade will not help with irritation. It's more likely to increase it. A sharp blade will not produce irritation, but then you have to be careful not to shave off any skin, because that produces skin sensitivity.

When we speak of a blade being too sharp it ususally has to do with the blade getting hung up on every imperfection on your face and cutting you. It would not produce irritation unless you apply too much pressure, use too sharp a blade angle, or shave too agggressively.

Originally Posted by threeputt

As for the cautions with too sharp a blade, I have found that to be an oxymoron. It's like "too much beer". For me, at least, the sharper the better.

I'm with you on that. To me it's just a matter of learning the techniqu for the sharper razor.

[/QUOTE] There is an improvement after the coticule in using the 15k, but the improvement is negligible with the .25 paste over the 15k. [/QUOTE] You're just not using the .25 pasted strop enough. A .25 pasted strop is equivalent to 100K grit.