Thread: What's your edge refreshing routine?

Every 5 to 10 shaves, really? I have a Dovo with the turtle shell scales and I've used it probably 40 times now and haven't done anything but daily stropping. Am I missing out?

Originally Posted by mark77

Every 5 to 10 shaves, really? I have a Dovo with the turtle shell scales and I've used it probably 40 times now and haven't done anything but daily stropping. Am I missing out?

It depends. After about 10 shaves I feel the edge is no longer as keen as I like it so that's time for me to refesh. That does not mean I can no longer shave with the razor.

It all depends on what you want from a shave. Do you use pasted strops?

I'm a newbie and my first razor is a new Dovo Best Quality that came shave ready. I now have approaching 20 shaves on the blade and noticed that the quality of the edge had tapered off a bit even with my passes on the canvas and leather strops. It still produced a very good shave but felt like it was maybe only 80% the sharpness I remember when first starting.

Undoubtedly, some of this initial wear was the result of being a newbie and just learning to strop, shave, etc.

I knew 20 shaves shouldn't require a hone so instead I whipped out some Thiers-Issard razor strop paste. A friend of mine has a workshop full of all sorts of goodies, including lots of leather scrap. He gave me a section of leather that I cut into a 1ft strip slightly wider than my razor. I attached the leather to my counter top and then applied the paste. I gave the blade about 20 passes across the pasted leather, washed off the paste residue and then my normal 20 on the canvas strop and 50 on the leather strop.

A quick shave test showed that sure enough this brought the blade right back up to where I remember it when it arrived as 'shave ready.'

One of my other hobbies is cooking and as such I have a set of hones and tools for keeping my knives sharp and in order. Consequently, I'm keen to break out my new Norton for the straight razor and have a go at honing a different blade... but I'm being patient and know it will still be some time before that's likely necessary

I usually do the Escher followed by the J nat too, (Nakayama Asagi) ( I can't believe Jimmy broke down and bought one, Now I know what he did with his Escher sale money...Ha...)

This is getting wierd. I have no set routine, the blade determines when it needs to be honed. Some blades seem to hold up better than others...As a matter of fact, One of my Escher's stays out on the counter by the razors all the time, I too have tried pastes after the J nat, I feel it smooths out the Keeness a bit, usually Crox, just 10 lapps...

I find this quite interesting. I strop 10x on .5 micron pasted strop & usually 40-50x on leather every time I pick up a razor in my rotation. I VERY seldom have to touch-up/re-freshen a blade. Every time I clean up a razor after a shave I strop on crox pasted webbing 10x followed by leather.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I recently drank the kool aid and acquired a Nakayama and have done exactly what you described Kees. Escher first followed by the Nakayama.

Official communication from HAD certification board:

We are please to announce your membership has been restored in good standing!

'Grats on the Nak. What did you get? Where from? 'Very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts from playing with it.

Stuart - your description of the escher vs asagi answered a question for me - wondered if smooth could be had from an Escher, or just keen. 'Can't afford multiple finishers, but am LOVING the asagi from Yamashita-san. Before trying an asagi edge, I think I'd never had 'smooth' in the vocabulary. 'Hard to imaging doing w/out it now. The methods I've been pleased with so far haven't tested well on TPT or HHT, but the shaves are so good I could care less.

I'm also in the "it depends" camp.

Usually, 2 to 5 laps on a barbers' hone does fine. On the really harder steels, maybe 10 or more (I don't use pastes).

When I feel a blade's sharpness has tapered off a bit I'll go to my chrome ox balsa strop and do 10 laps. I don't count shaves in between paste touchups, but I will generally do this 3 times (or until I notice that 10 laps of chrome isn't doing much anymore).

At this stage I will either go to my coticule or Nani 12k. If it's a coticule touchup I'll do 50-100 laps, water only. For the Naniwa it's usually 15-20 laps. After hitting the hones I find chrome ox is mostly optional, sometimes I do for additional smoothness, sometimes I don't. I guess I don't really need to. Then its 40 linen 60 leather and shave time. It's not really a test shave as this routine will bring my edge right back to where it should be.

I very rarely feel that I have to drop down from a finishing hone (ie down to an 8k) for touchups as I find it unnecessary.

you guys are at a totally different level then me and I don't have all those different choices in stones actually all I have is a barbers hone with two different sides , isnt this enough to perhaps get the edge back into working order I know its not nirvana but ....

Originally Posted by golfnshaver

I'm a newbie and my first razor is a new Dovo Best Quality that came shave ready. I now have approaching 20 shaves on the blade and noticed that the quality of the edge had tapered off a bit even with my passes on the canvas and leather strops. It still produced a very good shave but felt like it was maybe only 80% the sharpness I remember when first starting.

Undoubtedly, some of this initial wear was the result of being a newbie and just learning to strop, shave, etc.

I knew 20 shaves shouldn't require a hone so instead I whipped out some Thiers-Issard razor strop paste. A friend of mine has a workshop full of all sorts of goodies, including lots of leather scrap. He gave me a section of leather that I cut into a 1ft strip slightly wider than my razor. I attached the leather to my counter top and then applied the paste. I gave the blade about 20 passes across the pasted leather, washed off the paste residue and then my normal 20 on the canvas strop and 50 on the leather strop.

A quick shave test showed that sure enough this brought the blade right back up to where I remember it when it arrived as 'shave ready.'

One of my other hobbies is cooking and as such I have a set of hones and tools for keeping my knives sharp and in order. Consequently, I'm keen to break out my new Norton for the straight razor and have a go at honing a different blade... but I'm being patient and know it will still be some time before that's likely necessary

ti rasoir paste is exallant stuff for touch ups.i use coticule with water mainly . this works with 30 to 100 laps depending. if not i'd raize a minute slurry and do 30 laps and then finish on water , this gives a little boost. both would work ti paste or coticule , i tend to prefer to use stones, but the paste is realy handy if i need it.

best thing to do would be to touch up just before you need it, keep on top of things