Begineer unable to maintain shave ready edge

Both my shave ready razors which were shave ready, have seen so little use (10 shaves each at most), but now not sharp enough to shave with. They were stropped before & after each shave (watched few videos for advice). Presuming they don't need honing already. Can't work out where I'm getting it wrong.

Secondly, as I've bought couple of super cheap straight edges off ebay to practice honing, advice on what stone would also be great.
Confused about what combination to buy for maintaining shave ready edge, and for honing. Thanks again for any help :)

ps I have a 1000 grit Japanese stone available to borrow, but was unable to improve on edge using that.

Monkeyboyo,
If these razors were shave ready when you received them and now are not after 10 shaves, I can only assume your stropping needs work as well as your technique. I would concentrate on those two important elements and forgo honing for the time being. Honing is a totally different skill so wait till you master stropping and shaving.

Welcome to SRP. You won't improve an edge to shave readiness on a 1k stone. That is for bevel setting/correction. Your best bet is to send the two razors out to a known honemeister to have something to shave with, and to compare your results once you begin honing your cheap straight razors.

Are these vintage razors or 'cheap' current production razors. World of difference. For a stone I would normally recommend the Norton 4/8 combination stone, but your being in the UK might complicate matters. Contact SRP member Neil Miller with a PM. He is in the UK, is a honemeister, and has a vast knowledge of stones and all things straight razor. He may have something in stock that you could start with, and he could certainly hone your razors for a nominal fee. :gl:

Thanks for the super-quick reply. Having watched stropping videos, it is difficult to work out where going wrong !
But yes, a re-visit is a good starting point. Thank you

If you razors have dulled to the point that they are no longer comfortable to shave with, I would guess one of two things. One, your stropping technique may need some polishing, or two, your beard is just a mutha. And actually, if you've gotten ten shaves out of your razor without any fine honing, you're not doing too badly.

If I were to buy hones today, knowing what I didn't know then (:)), I would purchase a 1k Chosera, a 4k/8k Norton, and a 12k Naniwa with a DMT course diamond plate for lapping. Covers everything from restoration to shaving edge honing.

G'Luck, and continue to ask questions!

Thanks Jimmy for all the info & advice in your post. Have read Neil Miller's excellent guide to honing stones, and indeed as beginner, worth asking him directly for anything suitable in stock. The two shave ready, and 'hone practice' cheapies are all vintage. The two good ones are a Kozak and Fisher.

Like the Ian Maclaren quote in your signature by the way !:D

Thanks Mike. Great responses here, and super-quick. Much appreciated ;).
Don't have an actual beard; but maybe tough hair (don't know). Wondering how vintage razors survived so long needing regular fine honing. Must be a finite amount of metal removed at any time.

Being a begineer myself I ran in to the same issue and had to revisit my stropping technique. That is where I was going wrong with a bad angle and too much pressure. I was making the whole stropping process more difficult than it had to be. Once I watched several videos and purchased the modular strop from SRD things have greatly improved. Not honing myself yet I did have to send my first razor off to get sharpened but the other two I purchased after the first one I have been able to keep shave ready and the modular strop has really helped me with that. I know this is stating the obvious more than giving you helpful advice but just trust you are not alone and when you are new to the process you will make mistakes. Good luck

Yea, never underestimate what a good stropping can do or a bad one. You get far more of the latter when you are beginning your SR journey. Suffered through that myself.

Bob

monkeyboyo,

Even after years of using straight razors, I still occasionally get into stropping 'doldrums' :)

WRT the flipping action, somebody described it as being like twiddling a rotary switch with thumb and first finger - that helped me a great deal :)

These videos have helped me the most :

hi_bud_gl

straight razor stropping - YouTube

Mr Davis

alan Davis - YouTube

Have fun :)

Best regards

Russ

I would also guess your stropping technique isn't quite there yet, maybe to much pressure or flex in the strop. You could also look into a CrOx pasted paddle, use it at first sign of pulling/tugging, then strop as usual

practice makes perfect
keep trying and go slow

Hi,
As I think you've probably gathered it sounds like your razors do in fact need honing if they are not now sharp enough to shave with. I'd agree that it's most probably your honing that has dulled the edge, but don't forget that prep pays a big part.

I'd recommend a Shapton 16k hone for touch ups, as few as 10 laps can be enough; at least in my experience.

I'd still do as suggested and get both professionally honed, and then use one as a bench mark. So, when one gets dull, use the Shapton 16k to bring it back to being shave ready using the razor you haven't yet used as a guide. Then, assuming they are now both shave ready and reasonably equal in regards to sharpness, you could use the other not yet used razor until that needs a touch up and so on.

When you get them honed I'd ask the honer to use tape on the spine (but that's just my preference) and then continue to tape the spine when you use the Shapton 16k. You can touch up a razor on a hone like this for a long time before it needs a harsher hone'; I find I haven't needed to go to a coarser hone since the original honing on many of my razors.

be careful that a cheap razor is actually worth honing. Cheap razors can have a lot of spine wear and/or warping of the blade, as well as other problems like being honed to the stabiliser...

Carl

After you get your razors fixed you may want to reduce the variables by placing the strop on flat surface (e.g. table, countertop). Then all you need to worry about is keeping the spine of the razor in constant contact with the strop - the edge will take care of itself.
Ten shaves are not much, so you could try light abrasive on one of your razors only. 0.5u (microns) chromium oxide is fairly standard, but you can use diamond or other 'pastes'/'powders'. Sparing use is important both in application of the abrasive to whatever surface you use (piece of wood, even the back of your strop may work), and in refreshing the edge (by shave 5 you would have deterioration so 3 laps and test, if necessary do 3 more - this order of numbers).

Keep us posted on the progress - it's much more difficult to do it over the internet, but chances are your issues are solvable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by monkeyboyo

Confused about what combination to buy for maintaining shave ready edge, and for honing. Thanks again for any help :)

ps I have a 1000 grit Japanese stone available to borrow, but was unable to improve on edge using that.

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1k is for bevel set, 4/5k is for sharpening and 8k is basic polishing. Anything higher is refinement on the polishing. More info here
What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Library

Secondly if you used a 1k hone on your shave ready razors you have completely removed their edge and will defiantly need to get them honed.