Originally Posted by
mjhammer
rolling X Stroke Success!!!
I studied the wiki on the rolling X and by golly, I managed to get it right and honed up my 'King Cutter' which I have been afraid of for a very long time. I had messed up this edge while I was learning to strop. It was the first true straight I ever purchased, after buying several cheap crap razors and strops, like a pakistani, a chinese and a kreiger. That was before I found this site and forum and learned what was real and what was junk. I went to SRD and made the right choices, except I still had no idea what I was doing, hence messing up this blade before I learned to strop properly. :)
It gave me a great shave today.
I worked it over last night, but failed. There were spots on it that were great, but not the entire blade. I tried again this morning and finally achieved it! I found that if I used tape, the tape would bind on the roll to the toe and pull loose and bubble up, so I removed it and restarted again. It was a little strange since I've been taught that you keep the entire blade length flat during your strokes, so keeping the toe up a little at the start, and put the toe forward toward the end seemed counter intuitive at first. Once I did a few passes on the the 1k and actually started to see the bevel developing the way I hoped it would, I was excited. I actually got the entire blade length fairly equal after a few attempts. It popped hair the full length and each side looks very close to each other.
This time I tried a pyramid approach instead of circles and laps (should never let me near the wiki's as it just gives a guy ideas) and again had some pretty darn good success. I started at the 25 lap per side level since I don't know what I'm doing, and worked it down the whole way to 1 to 5. It popped hair easily, very easily. It was actually a good bevel and polish!!!
Once I moved to the CNat though it did get a little stranger. My stone is the 2" width stone, so it actually made doing the rolling X a little easier than I anticipated. I found that doing it with almost 0 pressure was tough. I actually screwed it up once and had to go back a step cuz I dinged the edge a good one on the flip. Kind of lost control of the razor after the roll to the toe, during the flip toward the heel again. Pissed me off good, but I recovered and went back to the 4/8 pyramid and fixed it right up. Another first!! :)
I only did about 150 passes on the Cnat, this time with a healthy amount of slurry, and to my surprise it was enough. Darn near the same result as 300 on clear water, which shows I was over doing it again, as is my way. :)
A couple of passes on the diamond (5) and a few more on the CrOx (10), which I am beginning to swear by, and my Boker was literally singing to me. I only did 50 on the clean felt and only 100 laps on the leather and then went right ahead and showered and shaved with it. It was bliss. 2 passes and I was satisfied and very pleased with the feel and result.
Who knew??? Who knew I could do any of this stuff.
But first, I really must thank my mentor Roy Davis (cudarunner) who went out and bought me my first stones to get me started down this path (DMT 325, 800 King, 4/8 Norton and a stone holder, I later added a 1k King and a CNat). I repaid every cent he spent, but the show of friendship and the risk for a brother shaver say's worlds about the man. Thank You Roy!! I don't know if I ever say it enough to him directly, but every time I hone a razor and succeed I thank Roy!
Happy Honing mates!!
M