Thread: How sharp do you like it?

Everyone else has pitched in their spare change, I might as well too.

I'm qualified! I participated in JaNorton!

Too much of the physical sensation of shaving is happening in your brain for you to really be able to judge what's a really good edge until I've done a lot of shaving.

You, me, everybody -- we all interpret the world around us, and it gets dangerous when we assume those interpretations are objective fact. There is a blind-spot roughly the size of a dime DEAD CENTER in your field of view where the optic nerve connects to the retina. Your brain fills in that gap like the smart fill tool in Photoshop. All of your senses work this way. We do not experience the world as unfiltered data. You get to facts with repeated observation (for values of observation that don't just include looking). Lots and lots of repetition.

This applies to shaving.

One day a shave can feel like wiping butter off your fingernail with a feather and the next, with the same blade, stropped exactly the same way, it can feel like dragging a two-by-four over a cornfield. Some days shaving just isn't as comfortable no matter how good the edge.

But I'm not here to destroy objective reality. Where do you stop with honing?

Stop at the Norton 8k.

REALLY.

Unless you've got an enormous pile of razors (like me), you aren't going to be honing very often. Get better at stropping, because that's going to make a more regular difference in your perception of the edge quality. For a long time there was no practical difference between the edge I produced with a Norton 8k and lots of good stropping and the edge I could produce on a sweetheart CNAT and 'regular' amounts of stropping.

Here's the procedure that I find works best with every endeavor.

Step 1: Build your skill to 'good enough'.
Step 2: Keep doing it that way until 'good enough' isn't, every time you do it.
Step 2: Learn the technique for the next 'good enough'.

Iterate until you take a dirt-nap. Or hell, find a 'good enough' that works for you and just be happy there. Unless you're making edges for other people, that's all that matters!