This is gonna sound crazy....but

I use 13* for shaving and 15-16* on my user knives . If the knife is already sharp I give each side 5-15 light passes on my Black Arkansas 2X6" keeping the bevel true and then strop about the same on a 2.5X11.5" . I use a guide for most of my sharpening . DM
 
I cannot reconcile my own experiences re stropping with what some of the other members are reporting. Some of the folks seem to be getting and maintaining face-shaving sharp edges just using compound on a strop following a fairly coarse grit. How this is accomplished by hand stropping is beyond me. I can see where using some sort of power strop one might remove enough metal to shrink the cutting edge, by hand the best I seem to manage is a polishing of the grind pattern. While this does shrink the cutting edge slightly, for me it only yields a modest improvement overall. In terms of maintenance, after maybe a half dozen stroppings, my knives need to go back to the stone. Attempting to maintain them with just a strop after that point results in some rounding (I believe) and a loss of edge quality. I can maintain them just as well using only a stone. Clearly my strop technique or materials are lacking, or I'm expecting something of the process that it cannot deliver.

I've spent enough time lurking on Blade and Badger and Straight Razor forums to know that even at that level a barber's hone or similar finishing stone is needed with some regularity. Your regimen makes sense to me based on what I'm seeing. I'm pretty sure a dozen passes on a clean edge with some sort of finishing stone and no more than a dozen or so light passes on a strop will get me where I'd like to be, but I'm not getting there coming off of a hard Arkansas.

In any event, I went for it and ordered a translucent from the site Clay recommended. Now for the wait.

Those edge bevels are per side?

HH
 
Hand, Yes, degrees/side, is the way I give it . Yes, technique has a lot to do with it and a guide helps . I think your thoughts are correct . I only strop once between sharpening on a stone . As the stone edge is better and I'm not talking much stone work here . Stropping alone could put off going to the stone one additional time but I'm like you, it rounds the bevel . I've talked with barbers and they tell me they will always stone and strop their razor between shaves . Because 1) it needs some and 2) they can't afford a dissatisfied customer . So, barber's don't care about testing for edge retention . Its 'the close shave' they're after . I've noticed this with mine as well . I could get one more shave off the blade but it wouldn't be as close as that first one . Also, beard preparation helps, that hot towel works wonders on whiskers . DM
 
Just received the Translucent today (excellent service and it helps that it was shipping from NJ to NY). After lightly breaking in the edges and corners I promptly put it to work. This is an extremely fine stone, exactly what I was looking for. Resulting edge stropped a half dozen times on felt with green compound, cleanly removed a day's growth with no lather, soap, etc. Next step, see if I can make better use of my Belgian coticule. In the past I've used with a slurry and it polishes OK. Supposedly if you have a very fine edge to begin with, using one of these with just a touch of water will produce one of the nicest polished edges around. I've tried it after my hard Arkansas and it does very little, probably because the grind pattern/edge dimensions are too large for it to do any good. Ahh, nothing like a fresh challenge.
 
I knew you'd figure it out and be happy with your results . I thought those stones were fine and hoped you'd like the step up . Just keep working with it as I've noticed the stone gets even finer with more breaking time . Keep us informed on the progress . DM
 
I did a quick test with the coticule and strop coming off the translucent. I'm running into some conflicting results. When I strop with compound or use the coticule coming off the translucent I get an improvement in shaving quality, but it seems to have a harder time cutting newsprint across the grain. This doesn't make sense to me. I've never felt like I had a real good grasp of stropping despite the seeming simplicity, and results like this leave me a little confused. The edge feels sharper using the thumb o meter, but as I've said before my thumb isn't well calibrated past a soft Arkansas. I need to come up with a different battery of testing for these really fine edges or just stop at the translucent. As for the coticule, I believe its a similar issue - the edge is being refined more but performs less consistently on some tests even when they involve push cutting?

HH
 
Ahh, things are starting to make sense again. I wet my strop and worked the grain in the strop direction with the coarse side of a Sic stone. Let it dry and applied some green compound. This time there was a noticeable improvement not only on the thumb meter but in a few impromptu cut tests. Now to see how far I can push things along. Its now so keen it makes me uncomfortable dry shaving with it, if you know what I mean. Edge retention and maintenance with the strop, tests to follow...
The coticule is kind of a different bird, I'm gonna leave that one alone for now.
HH
 
Heavy, I could tell you were making good progress . Glad you kept at it to realize this yourself . Yes, thats the type shave I was meaning and hoping you'd find . Whats the blade steel on your knife ?
 
Its Kershaw's 14C28N Sandvik, the knife a Barrage. To be honest I don't really care much for the knife, but the steel is supposed to be very good and the price was right. After spending so much time on it, I must admit to a growing fondness...
In any event I have to say at this point - the steel is very good. Next on the agenda is a CS Voyager with their much maligned (undeservedly IMHO) VG1 steel. Had a mishap with this knife and I can attest to its edge holding though it does have a ding that needs to be worked out.

Thanks for the assist
HH
 
Heavy, Thinking about it and looking back at http://www.danswhetstones.com chart gives a entry level hard Arkansas stone at 800 and I've seen 700 on other charts . Lets assume your original hard stone was in this range . Then you purchased a Translucent Arkansas stone which moved you up to 1200+ grit . Thats a big jump up and could be a reason why your blade is delivering for you such good shaves . Then you've added a better strop so all together this bounced your knife up a couple steps in sharpness . DM
 
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