Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Just hone with it and see what you can do with it.
Is 10,000 enough for now
- Thread starter Alwase1
- Start date
Just hone with it and see what you can do with it.
+1 to both of these. Scopes are useful to see what is going on on a blade as you work on your technique, or to help diagnose problems; they will not in general tell you how an edge will shave (unless something is drastically and visibly wrong).
And assigning numbers to natural stones, or synths without a grit rating, as Keith points out is a mug's game.
HHT is the same - it can help show honing progression and consistency but the only test that matters is the face test.
Scopes aren't really good for establishing grit ratings outside of differentiating when there is a massive difference. They're better for demonstrating how clean and straight a particular stone can leave an edge visually; though a shave gives this information quite well too.
Expecting any test to tell you "how an edge will shave" is asking rather a lot. What tests (and visual inspection) do is give you insight into the state of the edge. This certainly contributes to how an edge shaves and can be very valuable information... information that even a shave may not give you (some edges shave great one time and then lose a great deal of comfort in future shaves, tests and inspection can inform you as to what is causing this, for instance; whereas a shave is useless for determining the cause of this). Of course any test is only as useful as a person's experience allows it to be. I don't golf, tests to determine various performance aspects of the latest driver design are meaningless to me. They may well hold a great deal of significance to a professional golfer.
Is 10,000 enough? Sort of. I don't really notice a huge improvement in the shave between a 10k and a 12k and a 13k and a 16k and a 20k and a 30k. Are there differences? Yes. Can I say one is definitely better than another? Probably not. Is the fact that these scales are not generally created equal and border on meaningless against one another in most comparisons a factor? Yes. Do I think there's much point in buying a higher grit synthetic for razor finishing if you already have a good quality 10k? No. Is the 10k you're looking at good quality? I don't know. Would it make much more sense to look at natural options if you find a 10k finish unsatisfactory than to go further up the synthetic ladder? In my opinion, yes.
The majority of this section (honing) of B&B is dedicated towards discussion of razor finishers. "Is 10k enough" isn't a question anyone can really answer for you. Can someone shave comfortable off a 10k Naniwa SS or SP or Chosera? Yes. Can everyone? No. Are the stones to blame? Now that's a question with a very complicated answer.
Expecting any test to tell you "how an edge will shave" is asking rather a lot. What tests (and visual inspection) do is give you insight into the state of the edge. This certainly contributes to how an edge shaves and can be very valuable information... information that even a shave may not give you (some edges shave great one time and then lose a great deal of comfort in future shaves, tests and inspection can inform you as to what is causing this, for instance; whereas a shave is useless for determining the cause of this). Of course any test is only as useful as a person's experience allows it to be. I don't golf, tests to determine various performance aspects of the latest driver design are meaningless to me. They may well hold a great deal of significance to a professional golfer.
Is 10,000 enough? Sort of. I don't really notice a huge improvement in the shave between a 10k and a 12k and a 13k and a 16k and a 20k and a 30k. Are there differences? Yes. Can I say one is definitely better than another? Probably not. Is the fact that these scales are not generally created equal and border on meaningless against one another in most comparisons a factor? Yes. Do I think there's much point in buying a higher grit synthetic for razor finishing if you already have a good quality 10k? No. Is the 10k you're looking at good quality? I don't know. Would it make much more sense to look at natural options if you find a 10k finish unsatisfactory than to go further up the synthetic ladder? In my opinion, yes.
The majority of this section (honing) of B&B is dedicated towards discussion of razor finishers. "Is 10k enough" isn't a question anyone can really answer for you. Can someone shave comfortable off a 10k Naniwa SS or SP or Chosera? Yes. Can everyone? No. Are the stones to blame? Now that's a question with a very complicated answer.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Yeah, the term "bevel" itself is accurate but doesn't convey the actual meaning of that step. Using a coarser stone for speed and efficiency, setting the bevel defines the cutting edge. Subsequent stages in a progression refine the cutting edge; but the actual edge geometry is primarily determined when you set the bevel.
It turns out that later stages in a progression can also "refine" the edge enough to change its shape, but it takes far far longer than that initial coarse bevel setting, so it is useful to think in these terms. When you set the bevel you are making the cutting edge of the razor. If you do it poorly, everything after that is basically polishing poop.
It turns out that later stages in a progression can also "refine" the edge enough to change its shape, but it takes far far longer than that initial coarse bevel setting, so it is useful to think in these terms. When you set the bevel you are making the cutting edge of the razor. If you do it poorly, everything after that is basically polishing poop.
