Thread: success....sort of

The hair cutting questions all end up in the same place....your hair maybe someone else's hair maybe not. My hair has defeated commercial DE blades. I have shaved from a 1k hone and strop. I don't recommend it. I have shaved easily from a 6k hone and strop not so bad but when you get up to 8k and finish with a pasted strop you realize how dull the razors you have been using really were.

When I got my first finishing stone I died and went to heaven. The shaves became wiping off lather and watching the whiskers roll up into the lather.

I would expect when you are done with 1k and strop it should cut any hair growing out of your body. The 4k should just make it easier. When the hair is on your face cutting the hair needs to be accompanied with comfort and that is where the magic begins to be more important than the science.

Well the original post date was Aug the 4th and I have been using the same razor now every other day to shave. I got some bit of razor burn the last couple of shaves and I thought I would put the blade back on the stone for a few strokes. I went through a pyrimid on the 4/8 like so...

5 5
3 3
1 3
1 5
10 extra x-strokes on the 8k.

I left it at that hit the strops for 100 and 100

I have noticed that there are some scratches on the edge/face of the bevel that I can see with the naked eye. Most of the blade mirrors up nicely after the 8k.

Are these scratches that I missed with the first bevel set?
Will they eventually hone out after time?
Is it worth my time to hone these out if the blade shaves well?

Razor burn doesn't necessarily mean a dull razor. It usually means angle too high or too much pressure which could be the result of a dull blade but until you have a hundred or more shaves under your belt it is just as likely technique.

The only test you should be concerned with is shaving test. If it shaves well there is no value in taking off more metal IMO. The appearance of the blade even under very high magnification isn't analogous to smooth shaving. Honed long enough the blade will disappear as will the scratches.

I've found that the prep and soap that you use is more than50% of shaving success. MWF or the like, is a good one to use if you're still having problems. And I found the wetter the better.

Keep up the great work, learning curves are different for all of us, do what your doing, go slow, test shave a lot and always forgive any mistakes, we've all made 'em!!

Good going,

tinkersd