Attainment of Awesomeness Complete
Uhhhh.. I should say, while shaving in two stages (two levels of honing) on the razor from two days ago I did one side at one level of sharpness, then the other at the official "finished" stage. The first, less fine side also appeared to still have a double bevel on part of the edge (monitored on the microscope). I gave my face a full two days for the first half (unfinished) razor shave. I can see these spots, rather large, look like pimples. But they aren't. Far less on the finished side of my face. Also, I guess I wasn't entirely accurate because my face has suffered somewhat, complexion-wise if not burn-wise, from the inferior razor edge. All experiments and learning (on purpose, actually).
Just now completed a fantastic shave with a finished edge (spyderco ultra fine), the Chas M. Beach 6/8 square-tip. Finished it last night, actually. It has a wide, shallow chip in the middle and had to be honed in two distinct areas, the long shallow chip appears to be at the "tipping point" where I had to apply slight pressure (or adjust the subtle emphasis with the grip on the shank) while honing to achieve the proper gradations of fineness and final polishing along the entire blade's edge. It's okay, I'm not working on complete edge restoration. It's all a learning process, the blade functions awesomely! Very sharp, snipes off all the little straggly hairs around the mouth, good ATG action on the sideburns. Very nice cutting in the heavier bearded areas flirting with full on ATG. Fast and smooth. I finished this with a mild hand soap whetted approach on the finishing hone. It seems to work quite well, actually. Just takes a long time, with less viable surface area to work with that I can completely trust it takes some time outs for de-swarfing.
Hooray! I'm officially awesome. I had to do intense honing and shaving experimentation to really get it to sink in and learns the subtle differences. I feel I am ideally situated at this point to understand a lot of the trials and tribulations of what goes on in a shave-oriented community like this.
Time for the aftershave balm's cool, refreshing scent. A suitable accompaniment to the harsh winter chill!