My razor hasn't seen a whole hell of a lot of action, but it's tugged me a bit. Maybe a thing with the lather (I used Tabac instead of Proraso this time). I learned recently that the Dovo Astrale simply will not work if the lather is dry--the Feather AC works fantastically with thick, frothy lather, sure, but when you bring up a real straight razor you learn that you actually need 3-4 times as much water to get a good cut (and what a cut! Best damn shave I ever had! Prego!)

Anyway. Razor seems to be pulling. I don't think I'm warranted to go back to the Norton 4k/8k routine here. The Norton is fantastic for a truly dull blade, and I've buffed a knick out of a blade (hit the faucet pretty hard) in 20 minutes using only the 4k/8k, but that's the point: I don't want to remove a fantastic amount of metal.

To my senses, this is just maintenance. The blade has started to wear after a few dozen uses from a very amateur attempt at putting a blade on. That means I got it sharp enough to shave, but perhaps I didn't finish the job. Who knows? In any case a dozen or a hundred shaves, it matters not: eventually the blade will go from viciously sharp to less viciously sharp, and I'll notice less cutting power; I noticed a few weeks back that the blade was not pulling, but was cutting less spectacularly than it had initially. At that point I should have touched the blade up.

So now what?

Maybe 1000 laps on the Chinese 12k natural? I know it's a slow cutter, plus high grit--I'm aiming to put an edge on the blade without gratuitously grinding off metal.

What other options should I consider? I know some seem sold on glass stones or Nawina 30k(!); I feel this is excessive. Perhaps a stone that cuts faster and/or provide a better finish, maybe Nawina 15k? I don't think the 3k difference matters at this point, so much as that it's synthetic and would put a synthetic finish (mirror) on instead of a natural finish (cloudy).

I need to steady my hand some more first, and learn to make those long cross-strokes (X stroke etc) evenly so that I have a blade properly sharpened along its whole length rather than finished in sections.