Thread: What does a properly honed razor feel like?

You can get a great edge off of the Norton 4/8K stone. Go slow across the stone and concentrate on keeping the blade level and using light light pressure. One day it will just "click" and you'll have a edge to be proud of. The strop will really make the edge shine. No, you don't need another stone. The Norton 4/8K is all you need. A polishing stone is luxury if you can afford it. Master the 8K first, then decide.

As a newbie honer still learning on Nortons, I took some recent advice I saw on some thread or another here, and started lathering my 8k after I feel like I've gotten all I can get out of ultra-light polishing strokes on just water. A few more light x-strokes on the lathered hone really does give a noticeable improvement. I also lap/clean mine with a well-worn Smith fine (725?) diamond hone (just until I can get a DMT) before every new blade. This has given it an almost glass-like smoothness that I think really helps. I am finding that you really can tweak an 8k edge quite a bit, and get very comfortable shaves from it with judicious stropping afterward.

But yeah, that reference blade idea kept me going for my 1st year or so of honing. I still occasionally TPT my son's Dovo (with the liftetime honing by Lynn) to make sure I'm heading in the right direction. I know I won't be getting edges THAT good until I get a few thousand more razors under my belt, but mine are about 90% there.