Thread: Funny Striation Experiment

So I have a razor that I bought NOS, came to me really sharp. It shaved well after I bought it, but I decided to hone it on 8k and .5 paste, almost, what 6 months ago, maybe a year. Never got a good shave with the damn thing after that even though its the best razor in my inventory (supposedly). I've tried honing it up sharp as a whistle but its a singing razor and requires a lot of talent. I was getting close, it was shaving ok, but I thought. This might be a good razor to test striations out on.

I've always concluded that about 6K was the perfect grit to striate a blade on, just from my experiments. Funny though, since I don't own a 6K hone. Just a barber hone that behaves in about that region. But I have heard all the guys on the German version of this site love the 6K. So I thought, ok in order to get striations and achieve a 6K grit on a hone maybe if I mix 4k and 8K a little I could get something close to 6k . . .

So I honed and shaved at the same time, I made one pass on 4K on an earlier razor and got a good shave, with a little irritation. Yes, a good shave on only 4K. But I knew irritation was pointless. So for today I honed the razor on one pass with 4K and one pass with 8k.

Shave was good, not great but good . . .

I added one more 8k pass

Shave was great, but not perfect

I added one more 8k pass . . .

WOW! Perfection, best shave I've ever gotten !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woops!

I just did a 1/3 ....sound familiar?

Damnit, did I just prove one stage of the pyramid works? Dang it, Dang it, Dang it ....

Ok, then I added one more 8k pass, and I felt a distinct lessening of the shaving quality . . .

Then a 5th pass, still shaves OK, but not as good as 3, the edge seems to not shave as well ...

I should have done 10 passes probably but I ran out of face. Got an awesome shave though which is I guess what really counts. Funny experiment though...see why I'm not a scientist? Could still be telling though. The blade seems to shave worse after each 8K pass but generally shaved ok. I think more 8k passes wouldn't really matter too much, but I'll have to try tomorrow. I think the blade will just be striated at 8k now.

After that maybe a hundred passes on .5 to wipe the striations away? No, that wouldn't make sense would it . . .

Then again the razor could just be 8k sharp . . . no striations at all.

I suppose I can't think of anyway to prove striations exist. Oh well. Thought you guys would find the story funny though, and the razor shaves great now. LOL

Makes sense that a 4k pass then a few 8k will make something like 6k striations. As the 4k striations wear down you inevitably pass the equivalent of 6k on your way to nothing but 8k.

I haven't thought of honing and shaving. I must try it. I find waiting a day makes comparing results very unreliable.

Alan, so less is more in this situation?

-Rob

Yea, you can see a discussion at the end of "Why Pyramid", the idea here with this type of honing is to see how "aggressive" you can leave the razor.

That is interesting. You can't emulate a 6K that way, though.

When you use the 4K you leave a 4K stration pattern. The 8K only cuts half as deep, so it will striate only the high areas on the edge until you've done enough passes to remove the 4K troughs. That would take a lot of 8K strokes.

On the other hand, one or two 8K strokes may not be enough to put down an 8K pattern on the high spots. Why you notice such a difference going from 2 to 3 to 4 I don't know, but it seems that you're putting down a pattern of 4K troughs with an 8K scratch pattern on the high spots between 4K troughs.

Too few 8K strokes don't put down the pattern and too many take down the high spots too much.

Traditional thinking would be that you should get the best edge when it's all 8K striations.

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

When you use the 4K you leave a 4K stration pattern. The 8K only cuts half as deep, so it will striate only the high areas on the edge until you've done enough passes to remove the 4K troughs. That would take a lot of 8K strokes.

On the other hand, one or two 8K strokes may not be enough to put down an 8K pattern on the high spots. Why you notice such a difference going from 2 to 3 to 4 I don't know, but it seems that you're putting down a pattern of 4K troughs with an 8K scratch pattern on the high spots between 4K troughs.

Too few 8K strokes don't put down the pattern and too many take down the high spots too much.

Joe. this is exactly what I mean when I say A"^"^"A"^"^A.

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

Traditional thinking would be that you should get the best edge when it's all 8K striations.

If this were true, we wouldn't use the pyramid at all.

X

Thanx Joe, yea I suspected that homemade 6k hone thing wouldn't work about a day after I tried it. :-)

Originally Posted by xman

If this were true, we wouldn't use the pyramid at all.

I'm with Joe on this. I think there may be other reasons why the pyramid is used other than because it produces the best shaving edge.

Originally Posted by PapaBull

I'm with Joe on this. I think there may be other reasons why the pyramid is used other than because it produces the best shaving edge.

And what would or at least might those be?

For one, prevent forming of the wire edge.