Thread: Suggestions

Originally Posted by wyldr

you can always send your razor out to be honed
I started with Dovo, it was fine
enjoy your new shave routine

Yes but my last post was about stropping
I really hope I can go at least a month without honing (I shave 3-4 times a week on average). Do you think this is realistic?

If your stropping correctly , light pressure(razor weight only)flat on the smooth leather, you should get a few months off of the edge . I have my first Dovo pro honed, 8 months ago, and it's still going. Probably used ,70 shaves. You shouldn't be using the other sides of your 4 sided paddle till it's dulling. Could be why it didn't go well the first time because the first shave should have been without stropping. Keep at it you'll get it. Tc

You could jump from a 3k to 10k but you will have to spend a lot more time honing on that 10k to get the 3k bumps out. Most people use the "double the grit size" for incremental honing - meaning take the last hone you used, double it's grit, and that is your next hone grit (1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, 30k, 60k, 120k). That's the base line and after you know how to hone you can change it up to match the metal and your honing style, that is how I settled on 1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, 30k(CrOx) for Dovo.

Another way of looking at this would be sanding a piece of wood. If I go out and chop down a tree and then split it to make a board, that board is going to be very rough and splintery. If I want that board to be BBS am I going to start to with 100 grit coarse sandpaper, then 320 grit heavy sandpaper, then 1000 grit fine sandpaper, then 3000 grit. No I'm not, because in that jump from heavy to fine grit I skipped the medium 400 grit and light 600 grit - my 1000 fine grit sandpaper is going to load up with wood dust so quickly that I will spend more time loading sandpaper than sanding. And 1 sheet of 600 grit paper costs less than the 10 sheets of 1000 grit paper I would have to use by skipping it.
The same is true of honing. Your stones will load up with metal and slurry quicker if you make a size jump to quickly. You will also have to replace your more expensive higher grit stone more often.

A 3k/6k or 3k/8k followed by a 10k or 12k will work better than a 3k/10k.

As for pressure, you just want the razor's weight on the strop (or a stone if you are just refreshing). Concentrate of keeping the spine against the strop and the blade will follow it. It's not about speed, it's about keeping the blade against the strop. Someone has probably already mentioned it, but watch the stroptober videos on this site and lynn abrams stropping video. The final stropping on plain leather is the most important to get right.

For your paddle strop it looks like #1 is plain tool leather, #2 is unfinished leather, #3 is carbon black, and #4 is chromium oxide.
#2 should be the roughest, this is the side that you store the strop on so that the other sides don't get messed up. You can also use it to clean up/polish your scales if you want to. Do not use #2 on your blade. #4 should be the roughest and should be used after honing or when the blade really starts to tug or pull. Just five or so travels on it will refresh the blade. #3 should be the less rough than #4 and should be used to refresh the blade when it just starts to tug. Just five travels. Some people would use #4 and then #3. #1 should be the smoothest, it's the finishing strop, the one you use every time you shave, 30 to 50 travels or more depending on how you like your shave.

One last thing, if you are worried about messing up your blade trying all of this stuff out then don't use your razor. Get a cheap kitchen paring knife (unserrated), glue a toothpick to each side of the spine, hone it on 1000 grit or less sand paper to get the knife bevel off of it (you may have to replace the toothpicks), and now you have a practice double hollow straight blade razor. You can hone it and strop it as much as you like and test how it feels by cutting apart hotdogs, steak, wood, felt, whatever. That will teach you the difference for the feel of each grit.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

You could jump from a 3k to 10k but you will have to spend a lot more time honing on that 10k to get the 3k bumps out. Most people use the "double the grit size" for incremental honing - meaning take the last hone you used, double it's grit, and that is your next hone grit (1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, 30k, 60k, 120k). That's the base line and after you know how to hone you can change it up to match the metal and your honing style, that is how I settled on 1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, 30k(CrOx) for Dovo.

Another way of looking at this would be sanding a piece of wood. If I go out and chop down a tree and then split it to make a board, that board is going to be very rough and splintery. If I want that board to be BBS am I going to start to with 100 grit coarse sandpaper, then 320 grit heavy sandpaper, then 1000 grit fine sandpaper, then 3000 grit. No I'm not, because in that jump from heavy to fine grit I skipped the medium 400 grit and light 600 grit - my 1000 fine grit sandpaper is going to load up with wood dust so quickly that I will spend more time loading sandpaper than sanding. And 1 sheet of 600 grit paper costs less than the 10 sheets of 1000 grit paper I would have to use by skipping it.
The same is true of honing. Your stones will load up with metal and slurry quicker if you make a size jump to quickly. You will also have to replace your more expensive higher grit stone more often.

A 3k/6k or 3k/8k followed by a 10k or 12k will work better than a 3k/10k.

As for pressure, you just want the razor's weight on the strop (or a stone if you are just refreshing). Concentrate of keeping the spine against the strop and the blade will follow it. It's not about speed, it's about keeping the blade against the strop. Someone has probably already mentioned it, but watch the stroptober videos on this site and lynn abrams stropping video. The final stropping on plain leather is the most important to get right.

For your paddle strop it looks like #1 is plain tool leather, #2 is unfinished leather, #3 is carbon black, and #4 is chromium oxide.
#2 should be the roughest, this is the side that you store the strop on so that the other sides don't get messed up. You can also use it to clean up/polish your scales if you want to. Do not use #2 on your blade. #4 should be the roughest and should be used after honing or when the blade really starts to tug or pull. Just five or so travels on it will refresh the blade. #3 should be the less rough than #4 and should be used to refresh the blade when it just starts to tug. Just five travels. Some people would use #4 and then #3. #1 should be the smoothest, it's the finishing strop, the one you use every time you shave, 30 to 50 travels or more depending on how you like your shave.

One last thing, if you are worried about messing up your blade trying all of this stuff out then don't use your razor. Get a cheap kitchen paring knife (unserrated), glue a toothpick to each side of the spine, hone it on 1000 grit or less sand paper to get the knife bevel off of it (you may have to replace the toothpicks), and now you have a practice double hollow straight blade razor. You can hone it and strop it as much as you like and test how it feels by cutting apart hotdogs, steak, wood, felt, whatever. That will teach you the difference for the feel of each grit.

Really useful Now I understand much better what those 4 sides are for. So, I got my blade back from honing (and the blade is tugging) and now I would like to know how to start stropping.
So: Should I start with #1 Around 30-50 trips then finish on #3 or #4 around 5 trips or vice versa?


P.S. The honing routine with access to 3/8K or 3/10k stone would be really appreciated Or should I in the future use the same routine you posted but skip over the different grit sizes?.

If it is fresh from honing, then all you need to do is 30 to 50 travels on the plain leather.

Start with 25 travels, do a test shave in a small area. Do 25 more travels, do a test shave.
Decide which one you liked better. Increase or Decrease your travels to suit your style. Some people do 100 travels, some do 10.

After about 7 shaves, give it 5 strops on the black, and then do your plain leather stropping.

After about 7 more shaves, give it 5 strops on the green, then 5 strops on the black, and then do your plain leather stropping.
Decide which one you liked better (some do just black, some do just green, some do both, some do none)

As your get better at shaving with a straight, you won't have to use the pasted part as much. For the first month I used the chromium oxide strop about once a week. I only have to use it about once a month now.

My honing routine for a 3k/8k on Dovo steel is
3k - 25 travels with light pressure
3k - 30 travels with no pressure
8k - 9 travels with no pressure

For 3k/10k on Dovo steel is
3k-25 travels with light pressure
3k-30 travels with no pressure
10k - 5 travels with light pressure
10k - 10 travels with no pressure

I think for now I have all the information I need

Great thanks to you!

I would update this once I go over the procedures you have mentioned and tell how it worked