Thread: New Member Intro

I was just posting on another thread about stropping post honing, and i realized that a well stropped post hone blade feels very similar to one that has been shaved a few times (Sorry for stating the obvious, this is a 3 A.M revelation), by that I mean that the edge is mellowed somewhat.

I strop every time before I shave, part of the zen. They seem to get better each shave for the first few shaves, at least to me. Again, it could be my stropping or honing skills at play, as well.
Cheers. Just noticed that your in Perth, 3am comment makes sense now.

It's the stropping. I noticed the same effect when I started using a straight. It was on about day 3 after a hone that the blade started feeling smooth again. My fix is that I after I hone and CrOx it, I do 300 laps on plain leather, that seems to mellow it out for me.

As far as the "broken in" feeling, I tend to think that it correlates with the whole "sharp vs mellow" finishing stone. A good amount of work on a strop (pasted or otherwise) will mellow out a sharper edge. Based on that I would beleive that a smoother finisher (Coticule for example) would not need the stropping (or not as much). I have a coti, but haven't given it much time yet so this is all conjecture.