Thread: Hello from Midwest, USA: a non-AD Japanese knife enthusiast ready for straight razors

Originally Posted by Crawler

With razors, 8k is a perfectly acceptable & common place to stop in the honing process, followed by finishing on a treated strop

I guess that all those great shaves I got off of the 8K weren't so great! I never used a 'treated strop' I still don't. I have them but only use them on rare occasions. But the pasted strop only gets about 5-7 laps and the strop is only 14" long.

However all freshly honed razors do get a about 100 laps on cloth followed by few hundred laps on leather and that's whether or not the freshly honed blade has touched a treated strop or not.

To Each Their Own.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I guess that all those great shaves I got off of the 8K weren't so great! I never used a 'treated strop' I still don't. I have them but only use them on rare occasions. But the pasted strop only gets about 5-7 laps and the strop is only 14" long.

However all freshly honed razors do get a about 100 laps on cloth followed by few hundred laps on leather and that's whether or not the freshly honed blade has touched a treated strop or not.

To Each Their Own.

Yes, there are a million ways to skin this particular cat. I have a tendency to be long winded on here, and didn't want to overwhelm him with a micro-novel.

Personally, mostly due to a lack of resources, I refresh my edge on the only razor hone I have: a Shapton M5 12k ceramic. Then I use many, uncounted laps on my 3" Black Latigo strop (first webbing, then leather) from SRD to meditate. It's not a Lynn Abrams edge, but it works. I've also completely honed a few razors this way.

Though there are wrong ways to hone a SR, the "right way" is a much more wide, grey area. The OP can streamline his self education in this matter by spending a weekend in the SRP library.

All I had for the first year or so was a Norton 4k/8k and a CrOx paddle strop and I got a VERY nice edges and shaves.

Unfortunately, I won't have time to go to Italy. But I'd love to see Mistro Livi's workshop. I remember watching an incredible video on YouTube where he makes a razor from start to finish.

Anyway, I really appreciate all the advice everyone has been giving me. But just one more question: is using a 12k, and nothing else, a common way of maintaining an edge on an already sharp razor?

I forgot to mention, the most common finishing stone I've seen cited on Japanese knife fora to sharpen is 4K/6K.

I'd assume the properties of Japanese steel, especially something like tamahagane, are what make that possible.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I was vilified on Reddit for my ignorance by making the claim that an 8k can produce a satisfactory shave.

You should be vilified. Any reason will do. Love ya brother!!! Lol

Originally Posted by vileru

But just one more question: is using a 12k, and nothing else, a common way of maintaining an edge on an already sharp razor?

Any hone 8k or above could be used as a touch up regularly to keep a razor sharp. The trick is not to let the edge degrade further than your stone can bring back.

For a minimalist approach, I would go for a coticule. That's what I used on your razor.

Enjoy!