Thread: Turning that finishing progression around

First off: I almost never post a thread in the "advanced honing" section, since I think a lot of questions in this forum should be in the basic section, but I think this might qualify.

A while ago I read a thread wherein Glen stated that he used pasted strops AFTER stropping the razor, and got better results. Don't ask me when the heck that was, but it was a while ago.

That got me started on a little experiment, to wit:

1. Take 10 razors of different makes, grinds and sizes and set them aside as a rotation

2. Hone those razors with the usual method: from coarse to fine, finishing on a Nakayama and a balsa Chrome Ox. paddle strop until they are "shaving sharp" by my standards. (That would be: making arm hairs fly away with minimal tug, and little to no problem with ATG passes on my neck.)

3. Shave with those for 5+ "rotations" and make little notes of the shave quality as I ran through them over and over.

4. Re-hone those razors from coticule on up to Nakayama and balsa again except I took them to the Nakayama and Chrome Ox. AFTER I stropped 50 on linen and about 60-70 on leather. Then I re-stropped them on leather again.

5. Re-run the rotation again for approx the same number of uses and make further little notes.

Results: I have been getting significantly better results with the strop before finishing method. Much smoother and sharper, and I think the edges might last longer too. That part I haven't spent very much time on yet, but it looks promising.


Any thoughts would be appreciated.