Thread: Beginners, The 1k shave . . .

Tonights shave was on par with the rest, a little more irritation.
I dulled the edge of the greaves which wasnt really necessary because I added an extra layer of tape.
4 layers of tape, I realize thats a lot of cushion, however I am unhappy with the large size of the bevel with three layers.
25 rolling x with pressure
25 rolling x little pressure
10 rolling x zero pressure
5 laps Crox
50 linen ( I just noticed its a "geuine belfast linen"? )
50 leather
I thought it was pretty smooth, but my wife just came over to me and said my face looks really red and irritated... maybe it has to do with the heavy wedge + low grit? crox? tape cushion? different strop? Im voting for a not so great prep... maybe Ill take a magnified look at it later> Edit: the bevel

I plan on introducing a new razor tomorrow, something with a heavy hollow. filarmonica?
As requested going from 1k to escher (pretty sure its still going to act like 1k with a shinier bevel) on the greaves
Also Im going to attempt the unicot method on the Wostenholm from the 1k

"sometimes we forget what can be done with very little." quote of the day!

EPD if you read the "One Stone Honing" stuff that Lynn and I did last year you will find 1k to Escher in there, I think you are going to be rather surprised with the edge that you will get doing the One stone hone routines.. Especially now that you are confident in the 1k shave...
Once that bevel is in the condition you are now getting to you are going to find that honing is going to become much different for you...

Honest I have been saying that 90% of honing is in the bevel set for quite a long time now, this whole experiment you guys just did should really be an eye opener once you add back in other stones and hones...

Alright guys you roped me in.......as always! i took part in this little test tonight! Here was the set up.......

Chosera 1k
Tony Miller Latigo and Linen
Filarmonica DT 13...........DON'T WORRY GLEN IT WASN'T THE ONE I JUST GOT BACK FROM YOU...

This is what i did.....

there was a small chip i needed to get past to i took the blade across the side of my Norton 220/1k combo 3times to get a little closer to removing the chip. I followed that with a set of 20 circles on both sides with firm pressure and then 20 firm pressure X strokes....tested with the TNT and it was OKAY not great but close...however a small bit of the chip was still there! So......20 more circles on each side followed by 25 firm pressure X strokes with a tad more pressure focused on the chip area.....VOILA chip gone and TNT passed along the whole blade!!! So i did an Arm hair test and it was good but not yet great! So 20 more light/no pressure circles on each side followed by 40 NO pressure X strokes.....arm hair was RUNNING from the Filly so i figured lets go to the strop! Did 50 laps on the linen and 80 on Latigo (this was the first time i had used this TM and LOVED the feel of it may have to put it in the rotation before the Old No. 2s i have)

NOW THE MOMENT OF TRUTH.....THE SHAVE........

did my normal shower/proraso prep, whipped up some RazoRock LE and took a DEEP BREATH.......and HOLY S&!*$ it was a DFS!!!

did a 3 pass shave with VERY little irritation at all which was a total shock i was for sure there was gonna be a big sting with the Alum but there wasn't....even SWMBO commented on the shave!

NOW i don't know if the Filly shaved my A$$ or if i actually did it right but this is probably one of the best shaves i have had with a razor i honed! i am gonna try again for my next shave with a different razor to see how it goes!!

In conclusion GLEN IS RIGHT 90% OF HONING IS IN THE BEVEL SET!!!!! and i learned that in a GREAT way tonight!!! thanks again guys for thinking up this idea!!!

This thread has been an eye opener for me.
Yesterday I decided that I had to do something about my honing skills, since I never seem to be 100% satisfied with the shave readyness of my razors,
and I allways seem to need more hours honing than you guys here on SRP
Having read this thread with great interest , I decided to start with the basics.



Shapton 1k
Dovo prima silver steel ebenholz
Dovo paddle ( I didn´t use the CroX side )

I blunted the razor with a bevel to the side of the glass move.
40 circles on each side, 20 ordinary strokes and 20 X strokes with quite heavy pressure seemed to create some microchipping.
30 circles on each side, 20 ordinary + 20 X strokes all with light pressure makes the razor pick some of the arm hairs above the skin.
30 circles on each side, 20 ordinary + 20 X strokes all with no pressure at all, and the razor is grabbing and cutting hair about 1\3 inch above my skin ( some of the hairs atleast)
I did 20 more ultra light strokes over the hone with not even the weight of the razor ( to help the quite rugged looking edge under the microscope) that didn´t seem to help at all, so I decided to do the rest with the paddle strop.
80 strokes over the paddle and time to hit the shower.

The shave was suprisingly smooth, probably better than some I got of my 12k a couple of years ago.
I don´t want to lie, the shave was not very smooth, and the stubble on my upper lip pulled something fierce, but no razorburn and no cuts.

Never again will I spend 4-5 hours polishing a bad bevel from 6k to 30k and back to 6k again , thanks to this thread I now know what a bevel looks like when it is ready atleast on my Dovo.

Originally Posted by BenjamanBarker

...i don't know if the Filly shaved my A$$...

interesting, i think i would definitely know if a razor did that.

Success! This afternoon I went back with the TÍ Le Canadien to give it another go. 20 medium pressure circles each ide, then a couple dozen or so x-strokes until it passed the tnt. Then I did 20 light x, Arm hair test was good. 20 more and then crox for 25 and iron ox for 25 on balsa. 50 on the 'roo and the shave was quite good. A bit more sting from the aftershave was the only real indicator of a rougher edge than usual. I've had trouble with this hard steel, so getting it down felt great.

ahh, found the thread again.. i just had success at this and was pleasantly surprised how "good" a 1.2K edge could be.. great learning tool, before spending time moving up the grits

I goofed around some more with this idea. I did a full diamond regimen.

Bevel set-DMT 1200 mesh
Diamond paste-9 micron and 3 micron
Diamond Spray-1 micron, .5 and .25

worked fine and it was really sharp. not sure if this, meaning so much diamond sprays and pastes, destroys the spirit of the experimentation