Hi gents,

I just finished my first restore on a Genco. It's not a full restore, just simple unpin, cleaned up the blade, shorten the scale and re-pinning.

I decided to try honing the razor today. my setup: norton 220/1k, norton 4k/8k, and naniwa 12k. I used 1 layer of tape throughout the honing process, changing tape on each hone.

norton 1k - setting the bevel and smooth out micro dents
- 2 set of circles (20) with pressure
- 20 x stroke heel leading with pressure
+ It popped leg hairs at this point but I could still feel the dents on tnt
- 1 set of circles (20) with pressure
- 10 x stroke heel leading with pressure
+ tnt was smooth, but i noticed some skipping on the thumb nail??
- 1 set of circles (20) with pressure
- 10 x stroke heel leading with pressure
- 2 set of circles (20) no pressure
- 20 x stroke heel leading no pressure

norton 4k / 8k, naniwa 12k
- 2 set of circles (20) with pressure
- 20 x stroke heel leading with pressure
- 2 set of circles (20) no pressure
- 20 x stroke heel leading no pressure

By norton 8k it passes hht all across the blade. After the naniwa, I stropped on balsa crox 20x, then leather 20x.

So I decided to take a shower and shave with it. The shave was harsh, I had a few days of growth, so the whiskers are quite long, but it tugs quite a bit. Stretching helps, but not alot. I finished two passes but it was getting painful so I stopped and rubbed some alum which burns.

Given it's only my 3rd straight shave, I'm pretty sure some of it will be my technique. My first two shave was with whippeddog razor, it was quite smooth then.

I had a look with 30x loupe and could not see the micro dents anymore. My question is, is it possible to have such a small dent that I can't see using the loupe but gives a harsh shave?

Also, when using circles on 8k and above, is there any point using pressure? My logic was using pressure to smooth out the scratches made by lower grit hone and then no pressure to polish.

Any comments is much appreciated.

Sy