Thread: Harsh Shave

To be fair, It'll be equal parts shave technique and honing ability. if you're only 3 shaves in, your technique just won't be up to it yet, especially changing razors. Please don't put too much stock in the HHT it's a parlour trick at worst and extremely subjjective at best. Sounds like you were pretty dilligent about the honing though.

First off, were you checking with the loupe all the way through and after each set of strokes and circles? and did you use the magic marker test? also something i've learned to ask is "are your hones properly lapped?"

You probably don't want to use pressure at any stage with these, some people will advocate miniscule amounts, some will advocate a fair amount when removing chips on a low grit. i will when using couple of layers of tape to match the honing angle when honing with no tape and miniscule pressure, but only when get rid of chips. remember the hollower the grind and the more pressure you use, the greater the deflection on the blade and therefore the more work you have to do when using no pressure on the next stage up, which eventually will stop working as higher grits just polish as opposed to remove metal.

When you get the loop out do there look like there are any deeper scratches on the bevel than the rest? if so you haven't done enough work smoothing out the previous grit levels work. these can then manifest as uber microchips on the edge later on in the honing process