I'm another one who came to straight razor shaving via stones.
As I grew my skills at sharpening kitchen knives and pocketknives, I came to realize that there are almost no situations in which a stone finer than 8K has any useful purpose for a knife, and those few situations where it applies, deburring tricks aside, do not apply to my purposes. I'm not going to be cutting my own sushi anytime soon.
Oh, you can use those fine finishing stones, that I could not let go of a fascination with, on a knife. "Look, the letters reflect off of my shiny bevel!" But while I have no criticism for those fascinated by such endeavors, for myself, I need a purpose to obtain any kind of pleasure and fulfillment.
I kept encountering statements like "of course, you don't need to be so careful, unless you're honing a razor." "this wonderful stone is too fine for knives, but would be good for someone honing a razor." "This stone is very hard and difficult to use, suitable only for razors."
OK. Fine. I resolved to start shaving with a straight razor, so I could participate in the most refined, most finicky, most challenging, level of sharpening.
Turns out that shaving with a straight razor is really wonderful, all on its own. It's really rewarding. But so is my collection of high-grit stones, because it has a purpose.
As I grew my skills at sharpening kitchen knives and pocketknives, I came to realize that there are almost no situations in which a stone finer than 8K has any useful purpose for a knife, and those few situations where it applies, deburring tricks aside, do not apply to my purposes. I'm not going to be cutting my own sushi anytime soon.
Oh, you can use those fine finishing stones, that I could not let go of a fascination with, on a knife. "Look, the letters reflect off of my shiny bevel!" But while I have no criticism for those fascinated by such endeavors, for myself, I need a purpose to obtain any kind of pleasure and fulfillment.
I kept encountering statements like "of course, you don't need to be so careful, unless you're honing a razor." "this wonderful stone is too fine for knives, but would be good for someone honing a razor." "This stone is very hard and difficult to use, suitable only for razors."
OK. Fine. I resolved to start shaving with a straight razor, so I could participate in the most refined, most finicky, most challenging, level of sharpening.
Turns out that shaving with a straight razor is really wonderful, all on its own. It's really rewarding. But so is my collection of high-grit stones, because it has a purpose.