Have seen many posts on various sites, from people I know to be very good at the art of Honing razors.Most say shave off the finishing hones, no stropping,Why? do you get some feedback from the stones? that stropping may negate? just curious.
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Have seen many posts on various sites, from people I know to be very good at the art of Honing razors.Most say shave off the finishing hones, no stropping,Why? do you get some feedback from the stones? that stropping may negate? just curious.
I have never tried that. I cant understand why they would not strop.
I have done it off the JNAT, shave is better post stropping.
I often palm strop after honing just to check the HHT.
No expert at honing but I do recall trying shaving direct off the hones and think it may give a better idea of what the honing did. Stropping after honing seemed to make for a slightly smoother shaving edge than directly off the hones. Then again I suppose that is what a proper stropping should do.
Bob
It's a nice way to check into the smoothness aspect. Stropping does smooth things up quite a bit, but it's nice to see where the edge stands right after honing.
not that im a walking book of knowledge or anything when it comes to honing or straights , but often if im running a few razors through the hones or hone one before i shave i often forget (in a hurry) to strop and although i get a good shave from the unstropped razor i can defiantly feel a difference in the way the shave feels .. ive even went as far as to getting the first pass along the sideburns done , then going " man i forgot to strop this thing" and going to the strop before i finish the shave .. maybe im not honing to top performance but there is a difference in the feel to me
The only reason would be to see how the edge compares to a known synthetic edge for hone evaluation purposes.
For actual edge assessment (shave ready, finisher vs prepolisher) stropping before the shave is a must. No pastes should be used if you want to find out if the hone gives good edge.
If you have a really good hone on your hands, the edge will need very little post- honing to get there.
Stropping seems to always give a "smoother" shave. At least for me.
I've tried it just for giggles a few times, mainly just to see how different stones feel. But in the end, the shave is always better after a good stropping.
I agree with Cat, I shaved right off my charnley forest today and frankly it was a bit harsh :0
Really sharp though :)
YMMV
Mike
I often shave off a hone after having used a 0.1 micron CBN slurry. Strops are, of course, about the only tool to keep a razor up but I often wonder if 0.1 CBN is not actually finer than a leather strop.
Later,
R
I wouldn't shave straight off the hones. In my first 6 months or so of learning to hone, I got to the point where I regularly made very sharp but very harsh edges. I assumed I was doing something wrong on the hones, so I honed the razor again and the same thing happened. Eventually out of frustration I tried a long stropping session, 200 laps on a high-draw horse shell, and that fixed the problem. I now always give a newly-honed blade a long stropping before use, and I'm pretty happy with my edges (mostly). :)
I tend to shave right off the hones without stropping. I started doing this when my Zulu Grey arrived and I wanted to do a thorough comparison of it and my other finisher (PHIG). My theory was that shaving directly off the hone might give me a good idea as to exactly how the stones compare, and that stropping would introduce a variable to the comparison. On reflection, that probably doesn't make a lot of sense considering that one normally strops before shaving, making this a pretty artificial comparison.
Cangooner exits stage left, reconsidering his options...
:hmmm:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cangooner
Bingo :)
I think we all have tried the same, I used to suggest trying shaves off of the various hones so you can get a "feel" of what each does to the edge, but like you I realized the it is a artificial comparison :( so I stopped recommending it..
@ Pixel Experiment with it and see what you think, that is the only way to learn and decide for yourself..
Hey Cangooner may be the strop is the great equalizer in all this after all. Do what you want on the hones but a proper stropping puts the final bit of smooth in the shave. Seems that is what most people on this thread are saying they experience.
Bob
Too slow on the keyboard again I see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobH
:thinking:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ml#post1145416
Now there is a concept :)
This is not shaving off the hone, as you are using foreign substance to impart the final edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by riooso
We are talking shaving of the hone with no extra slurries etc. Unless I am missing your meaning?
yes that is the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cangooner
I do not even prep before the test, it gives really good feel of what a hone is all about.
I knew that sounded familiar... :)Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Yea, I should learn to read but the pictures are purdy. I tend to learn by making mistakes, lots of them, being bull headed. Lots of info on here.Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Bob
I've never done it, myself. The way I think of it is two-fold:
1. I don't shave off anything other than my finisher, so for me test shaving off anything less than my finisher (for example to compare sub-finisher stones) is pointless;
2. Whenever I shave I always strop. To me it is how a finishing stone behaves in conjunction with a strop that matters. If I want to compare the edges of finishers, they get compared through the lens of a strop: to me, a shaving edge is a stropped edge.
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that's how I think of it. I guess it boils down to what you think a strop does. I will say, though, that if you think a stropped edge negates or removes the differences in edge-feel between two finishers, then you've got to wonder why we worry about the relative merits of finishing stones at all....
James.
So shaving "off the hone" is with water only? I guess I misunderstood the question? Sorry about that!Quote:
Originally Posted by mainaman
R
From everything I have read it sounds like a fun experiment ending in the same result except for one instance. There is a guy on you tube that has this nano super 0.0005 micron diamond spray paste with nano/glass rag to go with it. Never before done and superior to all. The micro scope proves it from the scratch marks disappearing to one very shiny surface. He was very excited about it ! My first thought was "yeah, then he strops it. "
My point is ....Strop then shave.
I've done it occasionally to convince myself that my honing isn't getting worse... More usefully to test one barber hone vs. another. Since finding my favorite finish hones, very rarely.
I always strop 60 or so laps when I want to really enjoy the shave.