Shaving straight from stone

Ok I have been trying different things off my newest stones and find the best shaves so far have been straight off the stone without stropping.

Now these are what i would call softer versions of these stones. Not soft stones though.
The razors are just a little smoother right from the stone and still sharper than needed for a good shave.
So how many of you shave straight off a stone without stropping?
Is it a softer stone or super hard stone?

When I forget to strop, it's usually pretty apparent in the first swipe that something is very wrong with the edge. I've not found any success shaving without stropping since my first few weeks shaving when I had a strop that didn't do anything, (Zeepk).

First just realized I missed the H in shaving in the title.


I have only found this phenomenon with these softer stones so far. Very close and smooth no irritation no matter which direction I shave.
This is why i was asking. Haven't really tried this with the harder stones.

I've had some quite comfortable shaves off the hone before. But don't take this as me advocating for it. What I would suggest is doing either the HHT test or treetopping arm or leg hair before and after stropping just as a comparison. I think the difference may be more noticeable.

Which 'softer' stones are you referring to?

Well I got the idea from using one of Peter's old thuri light green bouts. He had suggested about three laps on the stone after stropping.
I then found while playing with my Nakayama Iromono Tomae that without stropping the shave actually felt even better straight from the stone.

Oh and thank's to whoever fixed my title.

Sometimes straight off the barber hone in mid-shave but usually strop.

All that matters is you like it! Most people find their edges improve with a good stropping so maybe see why yours degrades? It could be that you just prefer a crispy edge. You might actually like diamond spray on hard felt...

It is alctually sharper crisper off the strop smoother off the stone.

Is your strop maybe pasted? Did you get it used?

No. One new and one is my Grandfather's. One horse and one buffalo. Neither is pasted and it is only like this for these two stones.
Maybe i am saying this wrong. There is nothing wrong with any edges off my strops they are fantastic. I just found that off these two stones it has a smoother feel straight from the stone and was curious if any others had this experience.

I can get a good shave straight off my 30,000 grit stone, but it is even better after stropping

rideon66 said:

No. One new and one is my Grandfather's. One horse and one buffalo. Neither is pasted and it is only like this for these two stones.
Maybe i am saying this wrong. There is nothing wrong with any edges off my strops they are fantastic. I just found that off these two stones it has a smoother feel straight from the stone and was curious if any others had this experience.

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What type of stone is it? In your experience what is your definition of smoothness? Is it the feel as your shave? Or a lack of burn after the shave?

Kentos said:

What type of stone is it? In your experience what is your definition of smoothness? Is it the feel as your shave? Or a lack of burn after the shave?

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I say what stones above. Smoothness like a the smoothest coticule feel and lack of burn.

Now tonight I tried this with a red Imp wedge and shave was great both ways, but a tiny bit better after stropping. The other times I used old Sheffield wedge blades.
Maybe softer steel and softer stone makes a difference.

You are finishing on water off the Jnat? I never had good luck with that myself, likely don't have the skill.

If you like shaving right off the finisher then you're not loosing anything if you need to do a mid shave touch up on that stone. That could be a note worthy advantage if you actually prefer the prestropped edge.

I have done water only, trace slurry, and just honed till the slurry was almost gone. The stone is still wet, but very little water left. I get about the same results every way. I think for shaving straight from the stone trace slurry may give the smoothest shave. Probably because finishing on water only gives a tiny increase in how keen the edge is. I have not had any issues finishing on water even on my harder stone and on stones that are just about really hard. This iromono tomae is a very easy to use stone. I think most of your razor quality fine finishing JNAT softer stones are easy to finish on water. Usually people have problems finishing on water with the really hard stones.

I am guessing most JNAT people here use the really hard stones as finishers. I have to strop after using my harder stones. I started with coticules and love that smooth soft edge. I tried razors honed up on really hard JNAT from guys who know what they are doing and they were really sharp not harsh but unforgiving and not as smooth.The shave was very close though. I don't think my skin was a fan of those. I have sensitive skin. So when I started on JNATS I went for a middle hardness finisher then went harder with the next stone and found that was as hard as I wanted to go. Incredible shave when used in a Mikawa shiro nagura progression. Then I thought about trying one of these softer finishing stones and was pleasantly surprised.

I love the shaves every which way off these stones. The tiny differences may not be even noticeable by others. I am just having fun with this to see what works best for me and was curious if anyone else had done this and had good results. I think I will try the strop then like 3 laps on the JNAT combo as I had done on the thuri and see what that does.

I tend to jump around from stone to stone. One week I will shave from a thuri, next week an JNAt, next a charnley forest or a Coticule. I like variety and this gives me more options.

Ok. Tried what I read in an old thread on a no longer updated website devoted to my first stones. On this thread the guy in Japan was being taught on a old school Kiita from his barber who has done this for like 40 years. Using what I read and finishing on a bit more slurry and breaking it down a bit more I got the John Barber I did last time even a bit better and was even a touch better after stropping.

That's a great thread and were I first read about jnats.

mikael said:

That's a great thread and were I first read about jnats.

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Yeah. I really liked that read. Plus most info I see now is for using the harder stones and I think you just have to treat these softer finishers a little different to maximize their potential. Seems like the old Japan barbers preferred the kiita and softer stones like that.

Not sure why the stone was better than the strop before. Maybe I was maxing out how keen I could get it off the stone before and the strop was just making it keener. Which wasn't as smooth feeling as it was off the stone. I think maybe this way I was maximizing the keen and smooth so once I put it to the strop it was even nicer. I dont' know though.
They were all nice shaves any which way, but now I have a good way to use this stone.

The Thuri is still strop then 3 laps on the stone then shave though. It really does work. Haven't tried it on a regular harder thuri. This one feels more like a barbers delight.