Well, tonight I found myself in a bit of a bind..
I lent out my Naniwa 8 and 12k to another member on the forum....and all I had left was my
little 1.75x4 inch Coticule. This was the stone that I started honing on about a year ago, and
as soon as I started getting Naniwas' I stopped using it. At the time, I found it too narrow
and too short. I would rock the razor during my strokes and just had a hell of a time with it.
So tonight, I had re-scaled a razor that I will be using as a loaner for people that are interested
in trying out straight shaving. It was a smaller 4/8 "H&S" (generic stamp from some US co).
The blade was in good shape, it had a small chip in the heel but nothing terrible.
Since I had my Naniwa 1k, I decided to remove the chip with that in order to save myself about an
hour of honing on my coti.
After the chip was gone, I went to work.
It has been at least 6 months since I honed a razor on this stone, and I forgot how nice the feedback was. I loved it! What really made me pat myself on the back a little was that I didn't find the stone difficult to use anymore. My honing stroke has steadied up so I had no problem keeping the blade flat and even on the hone.
More importantly though, I could actually feel my progress from the feedback on the hone. I knew when I needed to dilute, add/remove a little pressure ect. Everything just came together really well.
Just to see what would happen, I didn't use any pastes ect. Just 40 linen and 100 Leather.
I'm going to take it for a test drive tomorrow and see, but if my bald leg is any indicator I think I'll be a happy man tomorrow.
I haven't noticed any improvement on my honing in a long time. I like my results, and other people seem to as well I just feel like I stagnated a bit. This was a nice experience just to let me know that I really did improve, even though I didn't notice it along the way.
Anyways,
Experience shared, take from it what you will
Cheers gentlemen,
Good shaving.
