Thread: How can some people shave off a 12K and like it?

I really need to ask. How in the hell can someone shave off a Coticule or a 12K stone? I use to hone to a point past a 30K and still after about 7 shaves it is time for a touch up. I have a very good finishing stone now and even now I only get about 9 shaves before I really feel an unacceptable drop in performance and need to do a touch-up. I know everyone has different objectives but I have tried shaving off a 16K Shapton and it was a horrible shave. I must be missing something.

Later,
Richard

Originally Posted by riooso

I really need to ask. How in the hell can someone shave off a Coticule or a 12K stone? I use to hone to a point past a 30K and still after about 7 shaves it is time for a touch up. I have a very good finishing stone now and even now I only get about 9 shaves before I really feel an unacceptable drop in performance and need to do a touch-up. I know everyone has different objectives but I have tried shaving off a 16K Shapton and it was a horrible shave. I must be missing something.

Later,
Richard

Richard as you note yourself something wrong .
By your estimation after coticule you should be getting at least 60 shaves then blade will get duller.
as after 30k your edge lasts 7 shaves.
1. i think you have problem with honing the blade.
you like sharpest edge out there available and as a result edge just doesn't last longer.
in the over hand your shaving techniques may need change too.
which one first i am not sure.
try send 1 of your razors to pro's to hone.
get edge back and check it out. see how it looks like and feels like.
this may help.
shaving try scything motion could help.
gl

+1 on scything

I've found that shaving at a lower angle (facilitated by scything) allows me to go MUCH longer between touch-ups.

For whatever it's worth, paying more attention to bevel-setting also helped me a lot in that department, as I was overly fixated on finishing stones for a looong time.

Also check your stropping and use the linen side now and again

Sham has some good points. Coming at it from a different perspective, when I first got into wet shaving it was with the DEs. A friend who introduced me to the forums told me the 'best' DE blade was a Feather. So I bought a hundred and found them to be very good.

As time went on I tried other DE blades and was surprised at how different some of them shaved. I was even more surprised to find some users who said they didn't like the Gillette Swede, my favorite blade at the time. When I got a pack of the highly recommended Derby blades I was appalled at how they shaved. I thought they were terrible. Time passed and I returned to the Derby and found that in an early Super Speed they gave a very smooth and close shave. No irritation or weepers which I sometimes encountered with the Feather blades in my merkur slant.

As for shaving and honing straight razors, I have the Shapton Pros, up to and including the 30k, but prefer the shave I get from a good coticule, or even better, an Escher. So it goes back to different strokes for different folks. I don't know if my windy post has anything to do with your situation but thought I would throw it out there as something to consider.

I'll start by pointing out that millions of men shaved with edges off of just a coticule or barber hones for their entire lives.

I lean toward thinking that either you are in a "Princess And The Pea" shaving state or else you are being heavy handed with your honing. I suggest that you get either a coticule or a barber hone and maintain one razor with just that for a while. That will help you either improve your honing, or lower your shaving standards, or improve your shaving technique.

Originally Posted by riooso

I really need to ask. How in the hell can someone shave off a Coticule or a 12K stone? I use to hone to a point past a 30K and still after about 7 shaves it is time for a touch up. I have a very good finishing stone now and even now I only get about 9 shaves before I really feel an unacceptable drop in performance and need to do a touch-up. I know everyone has different objectives but I have tried shaving off a 16K Shapton and it was a horrible shave. I must be missing something.

Later,
Richard

You are not missing anything...
The ultimate test is the shave test.... on your face.

Yesterday I tried to shave off a couple days of whiskers
and resorted to a seven razor presidential shave. For
some reason each razor in my rotation shaved
terribly and after a small patch it was time for
a fresh blade.

Today was vastly better... but I did spend much
more time on my "latherin" with more care at stropping.

Tinker with one thing at a time but shave prep
and lathering is the bit I too often short cut.

Originally Posted by riooso

I really need to ask. How in the hell can someone shave off a Coticule or a 12K stone? I use to hone to a point past a 30K and still after about 7 shaves it is time for a touch up. I have a very good finishing stone now and even now I only get about 9 shaves before I really feel an unacceptable drop in performance and need to do a touch-up. I know everyone has different objectives but I have tried shaving off a 16K Shapton and it was a horrible shave. I must be missing something.

Later,
Richard

You should try a razor switch with somebody that knows how to hone...

They send you one of their known razors to hone, you send them one of yers to hone..
You both hone them and send them back to each other, both of you might learn a trick or two..
Kinda fun too...

As the others already mentioned, if you can't shave off of 12K, you are doing something wrong. If your basic edge is not ok, then going to !@K or even 30K is not going to help things. That would be like have a crappy foundation of your house, but making up for it with some very expensive decorative woodwork. If the foundation sucks, nothing will wimprove it except new foundations.

8K is all you need for a comfortable shave. Many people here have used 8K as their last step for years.

Once I even shaved with an edge directly from my 325 grit DMT plate. It was a bit scratchy but the shave itself was pretty good because the bevel was perfect. going higher in grit makes it smoother. There is also an increase in sharpness, but really not that dramatic.

From your description, I think that either your bevels are not in order, or you mess up while stropping or shaving.

Hi,

As a honing newbie I cannot get a smooth shave off my Naniwa 12k; I always have to go to the pastes after the hones.

This indicates to me that my honing skills are not there yet

So, I have started an intensive quest to improve ; the goal - to have a good shave straight off the 8k !!

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ