Thread: Finishing

So far, I have been able to use my King 1000/6000, finish on the strops, and the shave has been comfortable and close enough for me. I had read that you can finish on a barber hone, so I wanted to give it a try. I purchased a Swaty some time ago, and figured with their reputation, I would try to go from the 6000 to the Swaty, with water and a little dish soap, then the strops. The thing I noticed right away was that the bevel is nice and polished (with the naked eye) off of the 6000, but after a few strokes on the Swaty, there is, visibly, a rougher scratch pattern. I know that touch can be deceiving, but the Swaty feels smoother. What is going on?

How does the shave feel ????

Scratch patterns can be one of the most deceiving things in this hobby, shave test, shave test, shave test

Goes right after my Bevel, Bevel, Bevel mantra Hehehehe

I stopped when I saw the scratch pattern. My brain told me that it was taking a step backwards. I will continue on with one of my razors and give it a try. I think I will shave as is, then before my next shave, I will use the Swaty, strop, then shave. Thanks.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

How does the shave feel ????

Scratch patterns can be one of the most deceiving things in this hobby, shave test, shave test, shave test

Goes right after my Bevel, Bevel, Bevel mantra Hehehehe

AHA the first two stanzas of the "honemeister's chant". First rule of the Honemeister's Guild "never talk about the.......oops.

Adam,
It seems like here lately there is too much worry about how polished the SIDE of the blade is, who cares. It's the cutting EDGE that does the work & as Glen mentioned the shave is all that matters.

Originally Posted by AdamN

The thing I noticed right away was that the bevel is nice and polished (with the naked eye) off of the 6000, but after a few strokes on the Swaty, there is, visibly, a rougher scratch pattern. I know that touch can be deceiving, but the Swaty feels smoother. What is going on?

But how deep are the Swaty scratches. ? Just 'cause you can't see the 6k scratches doesn't mean they're not coarser.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

But how deep are the Swaty scratches. ? Just 'cause you can't see the 6k scratches doesn't mean they're not coarser.

I didn't even consider this. And on further thought, these hones were obviously used successfully by barbers to get the edge in proper shape for a paying customer. I see that I stopped the progression prematurely. I think I will continue, but just out of curiosity, will look at the edge under magnification along the way. Maybe I should be doing this anyway.

King 1K/6K -> barber hone is how I hone. I added a finishing hone later, but I have shaven off of the barber hone. The edge is more than adequate.

I'm not sure if it is all swatys or only some of their models, but in the instructions that came with some I have had, it said that one side was coarser than the other. Now when I first got into this I had an old swaty given to me years ago by a barber. I got hold of a norton 4/8 and finished with the swaty. Somewhere on the forum , at that time, I had read that a swaty was estimated at 12k.

Down the road apiece Randy had told me that I should be getting good shaves off of the 8k before I attempted finishing with anything else. I began to follow this advice and , to my surprise, found I could get stellar shaves at the 8k level. Before I had begun to practice this I was frequently going to finishers prematurely. More work to achieve the results if you go to a finisher too early.

To further complicate the issue ...... a friend of mine has been experimenting with barber hones ..... making them ..... the last few years. He bought much of the inventory of American Hone Co , Moravia , Iowa. The machinery and the raw materials to make the hones. What he has told me, if I understood it correctly, is that , contrary to popular belief, these barber hones are usually coarser than we have believed.

The instructions that came with them almost always warn the honer to use only a few light strokes. They are generally fast cutters because of this. Say that to say, when I was 'finishing' on my Swaty it was probably not as fine as my 8k. Which brings us to the shave. Since you have the 6k I would suggest trying to shave off of that level of edge and then try shaving off of the edge finished on your Swaty. One side may be finer than the other so you might do some honing on each side and check under magnification to see if there is a difference you can see. My two bits.

I shaved the King 1k/6k before I got a Norton 8k. Immediately it became clear why ATG was difficult. The 8k made it a happy shave. When I tried barber hones(4) as finishers......I got mixed results but mostly found little improvement over the 8k. When I went to pasted strops after the 8k sharp became smooth.

When I went to Thuringian I couldn't believe I had been shaving such dull razors. I am presently testing 4 finishers(Escher, Welsh, PHIG, Llyn Idwal) which all seem very close. Occasionally I toss in a barber hone and with one exception they all seem to degrade my edges. I have tried 2 Shumates, a HSB&CO OVB, and the smoothest an Anchor. The Anchor seems to make little difference as long as I don't do more than 3 or 4 passes very lightly. It doesn't improve anything but it doesn't seem to hurt much either. I have found all the barber hones capable of destroying an edge in short order if used improperly. Under the microscope the edges get "overhoned"(I don't like that term) and take the appearance of torn paper. Then I must go back a few grits and develop a fresh bevel.

Improperly used in this case is medium pressure and over 25 passes obviously not something which would occur casually. My technique is getting strong enough now to limit it as a variable so I occasionally try shaving from every grit in a progression to see the results. It is surprising how well I can shave with a 6k stone and a pasted strop.

I think someone who shaves several customers a day for years could probably do very good work without every honing above the 6k level particularly if they employed a pasted strop. I believe another person's hands can do a better job stretching skin perfectly which allows for the lightest touch and lowest angle. Some of the Turkish barber videos on YouTube give this appearance.