In another thread I had postulated that part of shave comfort comes from a certain degree of dullness.
Due to a lingering addiction to gazing at my edges under a scope, it had been difficult for me to refrain from always pursuing a flawless edge.
But I have at least temporarily overcome that temptation. And tonight I honed up two razors. Bevel set on a Harbor freight diamond plate, followed by a Shapton 1K and then a thorough going over with a new sheet of 3um lapping film, no PicoPaper, just flat on glass (I used the back of the Shapton, Ouch style). It was HHTing like a champ, so I left it at that.
I gave them a good stropping on the canvas followed by vintage horsehide and gave it a go.
The shave was excellent.
I had about four days growth, and it came off with ease. There was slightly more resistance than my usual ultra sharp edge, it certainly had a different on-skin feel than I am used to. But, the upside was the lack of fussy ess about the shave and after shave skin feel: zero irritation, zero weepers, zero aftershave burn.
Both the razors performed in a similar fashion.
So, I recommend further investigation along these lines. Natural stones have an innate limitation to the level of refinement attainable. The issue for fil users is the temptation to pursue the 1um, 0.5um, 0.01 and beyond edge.....And that will work fine, and have its own attributes. But for a more forgiving edge, try holding back on the refinement and you'll get a natural feeling edge without having to rub a rock.
Due to a lingering addiction to gazing at my edges under a scope, it had been difficult for me to refrain from always pursuing a flawless edge.
But I have at least temporarily overcome that temptation. And tonight I honed up two razors. Bevel set on a Harbor freight diamond plate, followed by a Shapton 1K and then a thorough going over with a new sheet of 3um lapping film, no PicoPaper, just flat on glass (I used the back of the Shapton, Ouch style). It was HHTing like a champ, so I left it at that.
I gave them a good stropping on the canvas followed by vintage horsehide and gave it a go.
The shave was excellent.
I had about four days growth, and it came off with ease. There was slightly more resistance than my usual ultra sharp edge, it certainly had a different on-skin feel than I am used to. But, the upside was the lack of fussy ess about the shave and after shave skin feel: zero irritation, zero weepers, zero aftershave burn.
Both the razors performed in a similar fashion.
So, I recommend further investigation along these lines. Natural stones have an innate limitation to the level of refinement attainable. The issue for fil users is the temptation to pursue the 1um, 0.5um, 0.01 and beyond edge.....And that will work fine, and have its own attributes. But for a more forgiving edge, try holding back on the refinement and you'll get a natural feeling edge without having to rub a rock.