Pressure versus stroke count, how to know how much?

[duderdo]

I received my Oozuko from Maxim last week, and immediately got some great results using three nagura stones in increasing fineness.

I honed two razors, a 5/8 Carbonsong TI, and a 6/8 Japanese western, and like I said, the results were awesome.

Then I tried to hone a 6/8 Japanese frameback, using the exact same method as for the other two. I went to give a quick test on my cheek with oil only (works well for a quick shaving ability test), and it was terrifyingly bad. It pulled and hurt like hell.

Bewildered, I went back to just the final Nagura (Mejiro), and used what I would have considered to be far too much pressure. It got this razor cheap, and thought "why not". I did a few strokes on water only, did another shave test, and the results were much, much better.

My question is, as the consensus seems to be "light pressure, more strokes", would I have achieved the same finish with less pressure and going with twice as many strokes, even though I did what I thought was plenty (I was probably doing 40 strokes each nagura, 20 water only)? Or do some razors just need more pressure to get the job done?

 

[azmark]

IMO there is no set count or time on any natural; it's going to vary even between two stones from the same mine.

As far as pressure though I only notice a benefit when bevel setting but get mixed results with progression in sharpening. I never noticed any benefit with pressure with polishing though.

 

[bluemantra]

I don't use a set amount of strokes on my coticule either as Mark said. As far as pressure is concerned when I'm honing, yes, I will use pressure on slurry with my coticule during the dilucot phase, however, this is because my particular coticule is slow and I've found that using pressure is beneficial in my case. When I'm polishing, touching-up, or finishing a razor on water only I use only the weight of the blade and no pressure on my part, just enough to keep the entire blade on the stone.

 

[mainaman]

Is the bevel set correctly?
What is the nagura procedure you use?
As stated above there is no set count recipe, the count depends on the razor. One more thing there are some razors that will finish better on a different stone, that is why there is no "standard" finishing stone that all people can use.