Thread: what do i do after 8000 stone

Hi everyone,

I received my straight razor in the mail yesterday and unfortunately although quite sharp it wasn't as shape as i thought it would be. I ordered it from dovo and i was able to shave however it was pulling on the hair a bit and didn't pass the hair test. I have been reading and watching videos and realise that to sharpen i need to hone on an 8000 polishing stone to start (cool i get that part). However then what do people do to get the sharpest edge possible. I have read many conflicting things for example:

1. 8000 -> linen strop -> leather strop -> shave
2. 8000 -> pasted 1 micron leather strop -> pasted .5 micron leather strop -> quarter micron leather strop -> normal leather strop -> shave
3. 8000 -> plain leather strop -> shave
4. 8000 -> 12K grit -> leather strop.


I am confused and just want to know what the minimum is that i need to get a really sharp edge and to put my on my merry way.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

As a new guy starting out the answer to your question is do nothing but shave. Don't worry about the ultimate edge now. Extract the max you can from the 8K and you will get a very good shave. Eventually when you reach that point where you are getting the best you can then you can explore a higher grit edge. BY the way, shaving off the 8K doesn't mean any shaving compromises at all.

ok cool thanks so a strop after the 8K stone will give me a sharp enough edge? So a basic leather strop is all i need at this point?

If you do have a really good edge after 8K, you don't have to go to 12K although I usually do anyway. If you go from 8K to stropping on plain leather, and do
100 or even more laps, you should see real improvement. That depends, of course, on the quality of your stropping.

100 laps! that sounds like i'd be there a while i thought i'd need 20-30 max...

100 laps is about my average. I like stropping, and if it improves the blade, that's a good thing.

I don't strop quickly at all, and I use a paddle strop, but 100 laps only takes me about 5-10
minutes, and it is time well spent. My honing can take a half hour to an hour. Why deny the
blade another 10 minutes if it improves the edge? Stropping is under-estimated in its
effectiveness.

Is this your first straight and shave?

8000 -> 12K grit -> pasted strop -> leather strop

Isn't it nice to get such consistent answers from the group? <g>

The lesson is:

. . . You'll find some sequence that works _for you_.

The final hone will be 8K or finer, you may or may not use a "finishing hone" (barber hone or something >8K), and you may or may not use a pasted strop.

For a while, I ran 8K --> CrOxide strop --> linen strop --> leather strop, and got good shaves from the results.

My first barber hone was pretty useless (too coarse), but the second one is a nice transition between 8K and CrOxide paste.

Charles

PS -- pastes are cheap, compared to fine-grit hones. A little tub of paste will last for a long time. Diamond dust is pricier.

thanks guys i'm still waiting for my strop to arrive... Pinklather are you saying you cut yourself a lot because your blade wasn;t sharp enough? Yeah i didn;t read the part about shaving for the first 6 months before i attempt sharpening but i guess it;s something i would have to learn sometime... i guess now i have my stone i'm in it for the long haul