After my shave this morning, I accidentally ruined the edge when I closed my razor. It happens from time to time but the good thing is that it allowed me to get more time in with my newly acquired Apache Strata. So lets get started. After I used Anthony Esposito's technique and reset the bevel, I built a slurry and did roughly about 20 subtle "X" strokes. After that I rinsed the stone off and went back to Anthony's technique with just plain water. I did the usual 20/20, 10/10, 5/5 and 10 round trips to clean up the edge a bit. After that I took some 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and cleaned the stone off under some warm running water. I then went back to the stone numerous times and kept going until the razor got extremely sticky using Anthony's technique in combination with some "X" strokes. But when I did go back to Anthony's technique I cut it down to 10/10, 5/5 and 10 round trips instead of the usual:
This specific stone works better with no slurry and very light pressure as opposed to using the weight of the blade and a slurry. The reason I say this is because the longer I spent honing with clean water and using a little pressure, the razor became extremely sticky and wouldn't hardly move across the Apache Strata. That's what happens when you've gotten all that you are going to get from a natural stone. With synthetic stones the razor does the exact opposite. So we will see how tomorrow's shave goes. I have a feeling that I will be liking the results.
