Thread: The Famous/Infamous Norton 4/8 "JaNorton 2012"

Well Ja/norton participants, i got 2 more shaves since my last update, no honing, just good stropping maybe a little agressive,
but overall good smooth shaves, no iritation, no stinging with alum and witch hazel. Stropping is king! i really feel like both razors
improved with good agressive stropping, by agressive i dont mean with preasure i mean more then usual but the results speak for themself. I dont really think i can improved at the moment with doing more honing, its sharp, its smooth,i could easily shave with these results without any problems. So i continue to doing stropping only see how long the edges will last. Stropping regiment
is like this 40 linen 40 heavy draw leather, 40 fine almost no draw leather!

Originally Posted by Martin103

So i continue to doing stropping only see how long the edges will last.

Should be interesting to see what your reaction is if you keep using one blade until you find it dull and then switch to the other, still sharp blade, and then wonder how you ever managed to still use the dull razor :P

Originally Posted by jdto

Ok, went back to the hones with my TI Le Canadien & W&B 5/8 Bow Razor today.

Le Canadien
I started with a moderate slurry, 20 circles up and 20 back, moderate pressure. Then 5 X strokes, moderate pressure. It passed TNT so I gave it 5 more moderate X-strokes, but it wasn't doing a very good job on arm hair, so I rinsed the stone, raised a bit of a lighter slurry, refreshed the tape, then did another 20 up, 20 down with moderate pressure. Now it was starting to get there. Next step were about 10 X light pressure strokes with light slurry on the 4k. I refreshed the tape on the spine at this point in time. It was starting to dial in, so I rinsed the stone, did another 10 X strokes with just water, no pressure on 4k. Then I did another 10 X Strokes with no pressure and moved to a pyramid:

25/5 20/5 15/5 10/5 7/5 5/5 5/7 3/10 1/10

Now it was popping arm hair with ease, so I moved to the 8k for finishing. With fresh tape, I did 10 no pressure X strokes with water, then rinsed the stone again, wiped away the water with my finger and did 10 slow X strokes with the damp stone. Stropping is SRD Latigo 50/100 then 100 on my episaacs 'roo.

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Test shaved this razor tonight. Shave was alright, but it still needs a bit more smoothness. I will try a conservative pyramid in the next couple of days, then I'm going to shave with just that razor all next week until I dial it in. The following week will be dedicated to the W&B.

Full writeup of my shave is here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...tml#post906116

I had to be gone for awhile due to the military and had to drop out of this. the things I picked up were many but the two bigest are:
I need to push my 4/8 combo more prior to moving on to the 12 then 16K.
I Love the shaves off the 16K way more then the 8K. Sue me I'm spoiled.......
Paul

Originally Posted by fragalot

Should be interesting to see what your reaction is if you keep using one blade until you find it dull and then switch to the other, still sharp blade, and then wonder how you ever managed to still use the dull razor :P

I did a similar experiment this week. Starting Saturday morning with no stropping. I ended up doing 5 shaves without stropping before the strops hanging there called my name. The shave was still OK but more skin irritation. I then did 25 on the fire hose and 25 on the Latigo, smoother.

I think that I am different than most here because I shave because I have to not because I want to. Keep that in mind with my next theory. If I get a 7 day set and shave with each 4 times, I should only have to strop about once a month!

Tim

Originally Posted by Str8Shooter

I had to be gone for awhile due to the military and had to drop out of this. the things I picked up were many but the two bigest are:
I need to push my 4/8 combo more prior to moving on to the 12 then 16K.
I Love the shaves off the 16K way more then the 8K. Sue me I'm spoiled.......
Paul

I am getting more that you have to compete one step before moving on. If you don't have a good 4k the 8k isn't going to work well. I don't see any posts that say that the 8k is the perfect edge but most say it is good.

I think that maybe the terminology is misleading. For example 'finishing stone". You can finish on a 1k if you want. I think they should be called refining steps. I say steps because I would include pastes, strops, etc.

The edge is set at the 4k level. [I am open for arguments about 1k!] Where you choose to stop refining and "finish" that edge is your choice.

Although it can be better the 8k is not a bad place to stop.

Tim

After shaving off the Norton every day for two weeks, I revisited a nice 30k edge using my FON Golden Star, just to check how it felt after getting used to the Norton.

And it sure was nicer, no doubt about that, but it's not a world of difference, I have no problem going back to the 8k tomorrow.

Originally Posted by georgephillips

This reminded me of something i heard as a technique used before concerning lather and stones. Does anyone have experience with using something other than water on the surface of the Nortons? (And by other I mean soap shaving cream lather, not oil) Has this been something that people have found to provide better or smoother polishing while honing?

Just to try something different, I started JaNorton with one of my razors (WM Elliott) finished on the 8k side with lather. I didn't notice any benefit to the edge and it actually seemed to slow the stone down quite a bit (I did my normal finishing routine and It needed about 2.5 times as many laps on the lather to get it where I wanted it).

Originally Posted by 32t

I am getting more that you have to compete one step before moving on. If you don't have a good 4K the 8K isn't going to work well. I don't see any posts that say that the 8K is the perfect edge but most say it is good.

I think that maybe the terminology is misleading. For example 'finishing stone". You can finish on a 1k if you want. I think they should be called refining steps. I say steps because I would include pastes, strops, etc.

The edge is set at 4Ke 4k level. [I am open for arguments about 1k!] Where you choose to stop refining and "finish" that edge is your choice.

Although it can be bette8Kthe 8k is not a bad place to stop.

Tim

As with all things, opinions differ. I don't like the shave edge off my 8K. Can I shave with it? Sure. Do I want to when I can push MUCH better with a higher stone? Hell No!!!! I can drive with my feet but that does not make it a good idea. for me I much prefer the edge I get off the 16K shapton.
That being said I believe my edge's are better now that 8Kpush my 8k farther then I used to. Some razors i bevel set on the 1K, some on the 4K. Some even on 220!!!! It all depends on the razor.

Originally Posted by Str8Shooter

As with all things, opinions differ. I don't like the shave edge off my 8K. Can I shave with it? Sure. Do I want to when I can push MUCH better with a higher stone? Hell No!!!! I can drive with my feet but that does not make it a good idea. for me I much prefer the edge I get off the 16K shapton.
That being said I believe my edge's are better now that 8Kpush my 8k farther then I used to. Some razors i bevel set on the 1K, some on the 4K. Some even on 220!!!! It all depends on the razor.

To each his own, but are you sure you pushed the 8k edge as far has it will go is my question!!