I just got done honing a beautiful little 4/8 salamandar with some pretty impressive results. I got hair popping clean 1/4" off my arm (or leg as the case may be) and I took it to the shave den and gave it 100 on the felt and 200 + on the leather (lost count somewhere around 180 so I just kept going for a while).

It has a friggin edge on it alright. I had to really work it on the 1k and 4k to get rid of a double bevel and some micro chips on the edge, but it all came out good.

I had to do a lot of circles and X's on the 8k to get it to feel just right, but I was pleased with it and could have shaved with it off the 8k.

So, I took it to my newly lapped/chamfered C12k and tried to work up a slurry. Barely got sh*t from my slurry stone. I hadn't read the other posts here before I tried, so never tried the edge. I'll do that next time. I did get a little milk on it after about 10 minutes of trying to work some up. Had to keep wetting it as the slurry stone would just stick to it.

I finally gave that up and started to do X's. I did 8 sets of 25 X's, and between each set I would have to rewet and then did 20 lite circles. After every set, I examined the edge with my lighted loupe (30X) and it showed continuous improvement in scratch pattern. It was starting to mirror up pretty nicely, the best I've ever seen yet from one of my hone jobs.

Keep in mind I've never successfully gotten a good edge off this thing yet, I've been shaving off the 8k for a couple of weeks. I tried to keep the pressure really light and consistent, and I think I did a pretty good job. After @ 200 X's and a final HHT (which popped that sucker before I even knew what happened) I took it to the felt and leather. 100 felt 200 leather and I tested the edge again. Hair literally fell to the floor in bunches. I was kind of shocked at the ease with which it caught hair and popped them off my leg.

So, in a couple of hours will be the real test. All indications are it will be the sharpest razor I ever honed. And I take back what I said about mine being closer to 8k than 12k. Using the other side of the stone that had never been lapped before, it was like silk and the razor just glided across it. I really could not feel any grit or grab to it. It just pushed the water off like it was ice.

I'm pretty pumped to give it a shot!! I'll update when I can!

M