Thread: Too many cycles on diamond with felt on a brand new paddle strop?

This is one of those bad news good news sort of stories. I think I put too many cycles on a .5 micron diamond abrasive and dulled my blade. Up until today I've been using a hanging strop successfully. Today I tried out the paddle strop for the first time with diamond.

I've also finally figured out a great diagnostic to tell when the blade is not sharp enough during a shave test. I have some small flat whiskers on my chin. If I can't remove them WTG, the blade is too dull. Which lead to something else I've never done -- abort a shave. The blade was not shaving well. The little flat whiskers were going no where. I tried the hanging strop and chrome oxide, followed by linen, and finally leather but no luck. So this was going to be more than a pasted strop refresh. Ok

So for the first time I broke out the 4000 grit whet hone on my new razor. I went 4000, 8000, and then 12,000. I followed that up with chrome oxide on linen, linen, and leather. It was time for the shave test.

The shave test results were amazing. That answered the question. I dulled the blade with the diamond abrasive. I'll have to be more careful with the diamond abrasive cycle count. After the re-honing, and stropping with the system I'm used to the blade was very keen.

So I have some learning to do with the new abrasive and new paddle strop, but the stones and vertical strop worked like a champ. I've been practicing honing on an inexpensive razor and getting good results. So I took a deep breath and tried out the new razor. Success!

There is a saying here on the forum that "less is more". It would behoove one to determine the minimum number of strokes needed to bring an edge to shave ready condition and then stop before one damages the good honing work done up to that point.

In other words, we have the elusive "when to stop" question/answer. When to stop manifests itself through experience. Hone enough razors and you will eventually figure out when to stop. It just takes time and experience.

Switch yourself into the less is more mode and pay close attention. .......

Thank you. Very good advise, and I agree I am just going to have to get more experience with the paddle strop system. I'll back way down on the cycle count and see how the shaves feel.

I sharpen a lot of other things, and can usually tell when I've rolled the edge. But this is a new process and a new tool, like you said it is just going to take time and experience.

Fortunately I find honing and stropping a very relaxing activity, I need to learn about this new abrasive.

0.5 is equivalent to Chromium Oxide IIR - how many laps did you do?

Far too many :-). I was just enjoying the new tool too much. More than 30 cycles, yeah dumb. The diamond dust was like snow on both sides of the blade.

Normally on the Chromium oxide (which lives on the back side of my linen strop), I'll do 5 cycles and never more than 8 or 10. I can't even see anything green on the blade. I'll wipe the blade through a clean soft white cloth and get a couple of little green lines.

I'm happy that it all came back to keenly sharp. I figured I was in trouble when it didn't shave arm hair well. A quickly aborted shave test and I knew it wasn't right.

Back to the stones and then chromium oxide on linen, the arm hair just slides off and the shave test was very smooth.

I screwed up and proved to myself it pays to keep focused.

If you are seeing diamond dust like that on the blade you are either doing way too much honing or you are using some real pressure. Either way it's not good for the blade.

Completely agree. Too much honing was the deal. I just did five cycles before a shave today. No dust. No problems. Blade was plenty sharp. Mistakes like this are why I'm the beginner :-). I'll be taking it real light and few cycles from now on... Although I haven't had any problems with too much pressure. The SRP honing and stropping videos are really good about getting that across. The suggested grip helps too.

My issue too much fun playing with the new tool :-).

Diamond is very aggressive, and requires very few passes. CrO is far more forgiving.

I have 1.0, 0.5, and 0.25 micron diamond spray on fine microfiber tacked to 3" balsa blocks. If the bevel has been set with progression from 1k to 8 or 12k, then I make only one or two passes for each diamond level. After that, I use only leather for several shaves before touching up with CrO or diamond, again with very few passes.

Less is definitely more with diamond sprays.

I did five cycles today. I am now going to 2 occasionally. I appreciate the tip.

Ed,
You're doing great! The best news is you're learning, we all learn by trial and error. That's what brings success!
U da' man