Thread: Feedback wanted on finishing routine

After I have the razor honed up to the Naniwa 12K and it will shave well, I do the following steps to "smooth" out the razor as well as to add that last level of sharpness to the blade. I was interested in the thoughts of the more experienced honers on the board.

Basically, what I have found, is that while the 12K will give me a blade that will easily cut my beard, it isn't as easy on the skin as I would like. In searching through the archives I found a post by Bart that basically says that you can use a Coticule with water only to smooth a blade even if it was finished at a higher grit. I have been playing with the idea and here is what I have started doing. I tried it on a Sheffield TI, Le Grelot, Fili, and Bismark. Worked well for each.

20-30 passes on the Coticule with just water
60-80 passes on Leather
3-5 on CrOx
60-80 on Newspaper
60 on Leather

This gives a slightly sharper, but much smoother blade. Any alternatives or other ideas to refine the edge of a Naniwa 12K?

Ok first off that is no longer a Naniwa 12k edge...


Pick one razor, just one and work the 12k until you learn how to get the best finish you can muster straight off the hone... NO strop at all
Then after that, add the CrOx back into the equation, start at 5 laps if you go above 20, go back to practicing on just the 12k
After that, add 50 linen and 100 leather then shave and see how smooth that is

If things are not working out, adding more to the mix isn't usually the solution...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Ok first off that is no longer a Naniwa 12k edge...


Pick one razor, just one and work the 12k until you learn how to get the best finish you can muster straight off the hone... NO strop at all
Then after that, add the CrOx back into the equation, start at 5 laps if you go above 20, go back to practicing on just the 12k
After that, add 50 linen and 100 leather then shave and see how smooth that is

If things are not working out, adding more to the mix isn't usually the solution...

AGREE 100%

I think if you're using the coticule after the naniwa 12k you're just removing keeness from the edge. I was doing this for a while until I realized the naniwa can smooth an edge enough without removing sharpness with the yellow coticule. If the coticule was an escher thatmd be a different story. I agree with Glen with practicing on the 12k until you like the edge.

For a long time, after I got the complete set of Naniwas, I would go to 8k and shave off of that, and it was fine. Then I started bringing it up to 12k routinely and what a sweet shaving edge it is for my particular mug. Now once, not long ago, I took a TI Super Gnome 5/8 that was one of the first 'new' razors I bought when I was starting out. I did not buy it shave ready because I wanted to see how well I could hone it myself.

I had honed it with one layer of tape on the spine using the nortons 1k, 4k, & 8k and finished on a shapton 15k and it was a decent result. So a couple of years and many razors later ..... I've quit using tape on the spine about a year ago. Exceptions being damascus or decorated spines.

So I have quite a few to re-do sans tape and grabbed the super gnome. I took it from bevel setting through finishing on my set of naniwas and decided to ice the cake with the Shapton Pro 30k. Now I've had this stone for a long time and rarely used it. Lately, thanks to Kingfish, there have been a lot more posts on the 30k so I have messed with it and gotten astonishingly good results. One ATS-34 straight that was like shaving with a Feather DE blade.

Anyway, I took the gnome to the 30k and when I was done stropped and shaved. My sig below and the old barber's advice has worked well for me but this time I just touched the blade to my cheek and wham, I was cut. So I gingerly finished my WTG on that side and went to the other and wham, as soon as I touched the blade to my cheek cut again. I finished the shave with no more nicks and very carefully.

The following day I did the exact same thing. I never get nicks and I got four in two days. I would have posted about it but people would talk. Kidding aside, on day three I took the gnome to a beautiful 7x1 1/2" vintage coticule and did 10 round trips with water only. This tamed the scary sharp edge but still left it smooth and keen. No nicks since I'm happy to report. If you've gotten this far, sorry for the long ramble.

Okay, I will play around more with the Naniwa. For whatever reason, I feel "safer" on the coticule since it is relatively slow. I have only been doing about 20 on the Naniwa, so I will up it a bit on the next round of honing.

+1 with Jimmy, and a great story too. The coticule is renowned for its ability to add smoothness to a scary sharp edge, providing it is used sparingly, as Jimmy did, say 10 laps or so. If you start doing dozens of laps it will start removing keeness achieved with a higher grit hone, dropping down to coticule keeness.

I played around with the N12K and I found the source of my problem. I was not doing enough work on the 8K. I never really got to a shave ready edge with the 8k, so I was over compensating on the finer grit hones.

Originally Posted by bonusmarple

Okay, I will play around more with the Naniwa. For whatever reason, I feel "safer" on the coticule since it is relatively slow. I have only been doing about 20 on the Naniwa, so I will up it a bit on the next round of honing.

When I come off an 8K to the Naniwa 12K or Coticule, I usually will not do more than 10 strokes. On the Naniwa, that is usually enough and sometimes with the Coticule I may have to do another 5 and then another 5.

Have fun,

Lynn