when to do the HHT? or, I am not sure I like the Norton
as some of you know from my introduction, i was able to hone my vintage razor enough for a decent shave the other day using oil stones leather and some abrasives i had.
Today my norton 4000/8000 came and there was great rejoicing. I knew my razor could be sharper so out it came and got honed on the norton.
Dang, the norton made it duller!
I came back here and read some post and tried a variety of things such as truing up the norton with sand paper, the pyramid, and making sure that only the weight of the blade was applying pressure. At some points I even freehanded it so that the pressure was less than blade weight. During most of my honing i could feel good suction between the razor and the stone.
at no point was I able to get the blade to pass the HHT without substantial stropping before hand.
after a lot of work i was finally able to get the blade back the the sharpness it was before it met norton.
is it unreasonable to try to get the blade to pass the HHT after honing and before stropping?
If its not reasonable to get it to pass the test before stropping why did i wast 70 bucks on a stone that doesnt make my razor any sharper than my oil stone?
If it is resonable, then what am I doing wrong?
Read Them Permanent Help Files
One of the things one of those texts mentions (or maybe I read it somewhere on the net) said it was important to keep your wrist exactly the same from one direction to the next. The grip changes subtly at the forfinger and thumb. Inspect what you are doing with them carefully to see what you can notice.
That's just one idea. It could be any of a dozen different things that is keeping you from getting there. Like I said, review the files. You never know what you thought you remembered.
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