so, new honing & stropping technology?

Looking around on youtube....

Came across this video. Don't know if you guys have seen this (the gent may even be onth these forums)?

It seems to be an interesting development when it comes to getting the "perfect edge". Nice that we seen visually confirming results. Thoughts?

It has been around for over 3years, and I have never heard much about it.

I saw that a month ago when I made the switch to straight razors. Pretty impressive.

I wonder if an edge that refined is a foil type edge that will easily roll or dull?

After watching that one, and many others I decided to go the basic route of honing on stones, and finishing on a hanging leather strop. Mostly for the reason I made the switch in the first place, for the romantics of it all. I just couldnt get excited about sitting at a bench and honing on a piece of glass.

Now a few weeks later, my little corner of the bathroom smells like a barbershop, and I absoulutely look forward to stropping on my battle scarred strop and lathering up with some TOBS.

Oddly, I quite enjoy the meditative process of honing... Knives currently, as some of our kitchen ones are woefully blunt. To the point I avoid using some of them completely.
Made a wonderful discovery too, found I had "inherited" a rather nice oilstone from Grandad (was in the bits of toolkit that I got after he died - when mom & dad cleared the house).
It's a norton India roughly 60 years old by the packaging.
cleaned it up, nice stone to use.

Nice video. It was made by a member here "drMatt357". Very nice guy and dedicated to both the analysis and sharing of information.

The newest tech is lapping film plus pastes as shown in that video.

Doesn't mean it's any better than anything else that's been around for a couple million years, but it is a fun and effective option.

Obiwan said:

Nice video. It was made by a member here "drMatt357". Very nice guy and dedicated to both the analysis and sharing of information.

Click to expand...

Suspected he would be TBH. It's nice to see that I am not alone in the wish to get factual details regarding such things...
whilst I appreciate and respect people having an opinion that I may not agree with, it has been said that one cannot argue with facts.
YMMV can be applied to many things, as much of shaving is pretty subjective... Nice to get some visible and clear results though.

The problem with that is that a microscope picture of an edge can show how shiny it is, perhaps how refined it is. But it cannot tell you how it feels to shave with.

Alot of guys on here prefer edges that maintain a bit of "topography" caused by a natural stone finish, ala a JNat or coticle.

Seraphim said:

The newest tech is lapping film plus pastes as shown in that video.

Doesn't mean it's any better than anything else that's been around for a couple million years, but it is a fun and effective option.

Click to expand...

+1...If you have limited time and need a more "fool proof" method to ensure adequate to excellent shaving edges, film is it. I like stone honed edges as well, but I just couldn't get them where I wanted them.

**Edit: I should clarify...I couldn't get my edges where I wanted with stones (so far) due to my skill, not the stones.

Seraphim said:

The problem with that is that a microscope picture of an edge can show how shiny it is, perhaps how refined it is. But it cannot tell you how it feels to shave with.

Alot of guys on here prefer edges that maintain a bit of "topography" caused by a natural stone finish, ala a JNat or coticle.

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+ 100^10

As long as we have tools to sharpen or hone there will be more ways to do it. IMO there is no reason to reinvent the wheel, and honing on stones takes very little time to do once you know how. But again curiosity is a human phenomenon so the need to attempt to improve something either with a different process or abrasive is a good thing. I think the edge we can put on is more than our skin can take and this has been so for a long time. We are all different so smooth and keen can be very subjective. Im sure there will be many more "breakthroughs". And choices are good always!

buca3152 said:

As long as we have tools to sharpen or hone there will be more ways to do it. IMO there is no reason to reinvent the wheel, and honing on stones takes very little time to do once you know how. But again curiosity is a human phenomenon so the need to attempt to improve something either with a different process or abrasive is a good thing. I think the edge we can put on is more than our skin can take and this has been so for a long time. We are all different so smooth and keen can be very subjective. Im sure there will be many more "breakthroughs". And choices are good always!

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Well yeah, it's another option to be sure. My main thought in using a scope to see what's going really would be more focused on if something isn't going right... is there an actual cause?
by way of an unfortunate example, due to us choosing to put our kitchen knives in the same drawer... in time they've banged against each other as drawers are opened, meaning almost every single blade has got a ding or damage to the edge. Some of these dings you can see... Others you can just feel by running a fingernail (carefully) down the blade.
looking at the damage under a scope would help to assess how bad it really is, and as I try re-edge the blade I can monitor my progress. Hopefully learn what I am getting right and wrong.

Im with you brother! I dont use my scope anymore but use what you like and learn and do as you like, There are too many ways to do this that all end up working to say one way is THE way! Having an open mind is good for sure. Many settle into a routine so that can be good and bad as well!

OMG, did your account get hacked Seraphim? Next are you going to be posting vids of your jnat slurries?

but +100 on this. I've been doing film honing, and looking carefully at the edges under magnification. What I mostly find is that
it tells me when *I* haven't done something right.. but it won't tell me how it feels to shave with it, and no matter what it is that's
the only test that matters.

Seraphim said:

The problem with that is that a microscope picture of an edge can show how shiny it is, perhaps how refined it is. But it cannot tell you how it feels to shave with.

Alot of guys on here prefer edges that maintain a bit of "topography" caused by a natural stone finish, ala a JNat or coticle.

Click to expand...

Craig has been secretly honing on rocks! I think he is planning a big comin out party soon! LOL.

If you guys are really interested in the facts and some interesting high magnification (electron microscope) images, you really must check out this guy's blog:

https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com

phat said:

OMG, did your account get hacked Seraphim? Next are you going to be posting vids of your jnat slurries?

but +100 on this. I've been doing film honing, and looking carefully at the edges under magnification. What I mostly find is that
it tells me when *I* haven't done something right.. but it won't tell me how it feels to shave with it, and no matter what it is that's
the only test that matters.

Click to expand...

Woah, woah, wooooOOOOOah now!

I said "some guys prefer", I didn't say I preferred shaving with a slightly dulled razor like that.

I have a hard time viewing films and pastes as new or high tech.

Films have been around for a long while, pastes have been around for a way long time too.
Both are just synthetic abrasives - which isn't a new thing at all.
The fact that someone injected Alox into plastic to use in sheets is, to me, a fairly tame concept. It's just sand paper and using that for sharpening isn't new or high tech either; it's just the poor or lazy mans way of sharping on synthetics.
Which is fine btw; contrary to popular belief - there's no king-of-the-hill crown to attain here. However anyone gets 'there' (wherever that is) should be and is perfectly ok.

'There' - to me - is a great shave on a daily basis.
Someone would be extremely hard pressed to prove to me that their 'there' is better than mine.