Hey all,

Still a newbie to SR shaving, and while I am a dozen or so shaves in with enough success to keep me wanting to come back for more, I am finding myself with a razor seeming to dull a bit faster than I would have expected. It is a vintage Bismarck that I fixed up myself. I have quite a bit of experience sharpening as I collect and use pocket knives as well as woodworking hand tools, so I found honing a razor came fairly easily to me. I am taking care of it, having honed the first time from a 1k King (shaped the bevel), to a 4k then 8k Norton, and then up to a 13k Sigma Power Select II, finishing on a hard backed horse hide strop charge with green compound (.5 micron) then finishing on another hard back HH strop bare. The entire time I am using the spine to register the bevel.This thing gets as sharp as sharp can be and initially shaves great, But after just a couple shaves (stropping on leather in between) it seems to dull quite quickly, Heck... I seem to notice it from beginning to end of the same shave changing a bit. It is now to the point where I find the stropping does not seem to get it just quite good enough (even with the green compound). I mean can shave with it but not near as easily as when it was freshly honed. It feels like it is resisting so much more than before.

I am wondering if it is possible something could be contributing to its dulling that I have not considered. One of the things I have been questioning is whether or not hot or cold water rinsing would have any effect on the wear, as in the steel being warm or cold during my shave. Is this thought ridiculous? I have also started shaving a second ATG pass going back about 5/6 shaves or so. Does this contribute to accelerated dulling? I do have quite course beard hair so this maybe be part of it as well...

Maybe this is normal and I am just expecting to much durability from my edge but I keep reading about you guys honing only once in a blue moon, and I already feel the need to re-hone this sucker (after not even 3 weeks!). At least taking it back to my 8k stone and back up again...

Thoughts?