refining an edge with tools at hand

I honed a Wostenholm starting on the 1k using circles till sharp, it would shave arm hair all along it's length.
then I did a pyramid on the norton 4k/8k starting with 25 laps and working down.
Then i did a smaller pyramid on the 8k and the phig, starting at 10 laps.
Then I stropped on an srp strop, but only on the leather side. the shave was not bad. i have a thing about the sound. i don't feel like anything is happening if i can't hear it.
anyway, i'm spending all my extra money on my daughter's student loans and telescope parts, so i don't want to get sidetracked with pastes and whatnot.
what can i do to increase the perceived keenness of my razors using the hones and strop i have? i've seen the term "dial in an edge" but at this point it seems i might be using small numbers of laps and would they have any effect?
I'm almost a year into this and am finding that i loathe the time spent stropping. i'll put off shaving rather than spend time stropping.

It sounds like you moved to the 8K too early and the 4K didn't sharpen the razor enough. Don't worry, this happens a lot with new honers and it happened to me too.
Stay on the 1K until you pop arm hair at the heel and the toe, if both poles pop hair fine then the middle is probably okay, you can test the middle if you want.

Now the norton stone:

When on the 4K make about 40 laps and try to pop arm hair, it should pop a lot easier than the 1K did.
When you move to the 8K if you see any metal coming off on the 8K side of the hone or the water turning grey or dark...STOP!! You moved to the 8K to early and your blade will not be honed properly. Go back to the 4K and try another 30 strokes, you can repeat this until you see the 8K is staying clear and clean.

Once on the 8K make about 20 strokes and pop arm hair test again...Arm hair should pop at mid length easily...almost silently..it depends on your hair.The thicker the more audible the pop, but should still be a lot more effortless than previous grit levels. Make sure you use super light strokes when on the 8K portion.

Is your 4K side of the norton lapped perfectly smooth? You need to lap it like 4 times before it's smooth enough for razors....

PM me if you want..

Nick

I know you didn't want to look at pastes etc but for me chromium oxide powder on a piece of balsa wood teases out that last bits of keenness. I bought a thin piece of balsa from a craft shop and stuck it to piece of oak that I had it does very well. I think I spent about £8 in total.

Also, forget the chinese for a while. IMO it is a bad stone for beginners from the start, but you wouldn't be better off with a nani 12k either. Until you can get a nice shaving edge from the 8k side of the norton, don't use it. You are just wasting your time trying to refine your edge with the chinese, when in reality you didn't refine it enough on the 8k. Don't worry, everyone makes these mistakes, those people who are giving you advice too :)

i forgot to mention i also have a coticule and a rubber. i know that's a whole different thing to learn. the phig actually feels grittier than the 8k. i think this is all good advice and thank you all for it. i'm going to skip the pyramid and use each side of the stone to it's best advantage.

I think you should try to shave after the pyramid with the 4K/8K. If the shave is not quite there, try an extra 1-3, 1-5 pyramid or maybe even 3-5 strokes on the 8K to dial in. If you can get a decent shave here, then I would not recommend a continued pyramid with the 8K and either Chinese 12K or Coticule. I would recommend 10 no pressure X strokes with a very light slurry, followed by 10 no pressure X strokes with just water on the Chinese 12K, then strop and test. On the Coticule, I would just do 10 no pressure X strokes with water first, then strop and test. You can always go back and do 10 with a light slurry and then water if your particular stone doesn't hit with just the water.

Have fun.

Noisy, I can't add to what's been said on the honing side, but wanted to speak to the lack of audible feedback. I too have a hard time w/ a silent blade. I encounter it most often w/ the heavy Sheffields. I've not made peace w/ the Sheffields for this reason. A few have given feedback, but they're the exception. I've never seen an actual full hollow Wosty, and only 1 W&B, so I have to assume your Wosty is a heavy grind. With these blades, feedback will be very subdued at best, and most often, just silent shavers. This has to do w/ the steel & nothing to do w/ your honing.

'Sounds like you're heading in a good direction w/ your honing. Keep it up. Keep posting the questions. Fun is a neccessary part of honing, or you'll drive yourself nuts! Heavy Sheffields aren't the easiest blades to work, so keep the fun & humor handy!

Reminds me of these newer cars with these electric power steering units. No road feel at all however the wheels turn fine. If you do your stropping correctly and the shave is going fine you and the strop did it's job. Noise or feedback is nice but not necessary.

spender you make a good point and that is exactly why i like my older trucks i love a bit of feed back from the wheels and the motor i want it to be loud enough so that i can hear what its doing and not just a silent vibration lol

o sorry sidetracked once you get your edge sharp you should pick up a barber hone eventually, they will keep ur razor touched up for a loooooong time, like 5 swipes with lather on it and you are back in the game

i keep forgetting i have all this stuff, i have an ender's oak leaf barber hone, a pike barber hone, and a swaty. i did notice i was getting gray water on the 8k, so i'm going to work on that aspect of this. i'm comparing my honing efforts to a red point 917 and a boker king cutter that dylan honed for me last november. i unfortunately dropped the 917, superglued a crack in the scale, but the other night it completely fell apart while i was shaving with it. nice blade in search of new scales now.

Sorry to hear about the Redpoint, those are some great shavers.