Thread: Please Help!

Yes to a strop with abrasive. Chromium oxide on a nylon strop is what I use. It works wonders for getting a razor back into shape. As long as the stropping is good.

Is Chromium Oxide a generic type or is it a specific grit size? I have a paddle strop with two leather sides would an abrasive work on one side?

CrOx comes in a variety of pureness and should not be purchased from hardware stores unless it's purity can be verified. Most of the shave shops have it in its pure form

A couple of thoughts here as I have TI as well and that was my first razor...
The steel in the blade is pretty hard compared to that of other makers, so as far as pre-shave stropping goes, more passes seem to help mine out quite a bit. 50-60 should be sufficient on a shave-ready blade.

Get that thing honed again and start from scratch. You really shouldn't need the TI paste for quite some time if your stropping is good. If you do, apply it VERY lightly. I use mine on a strop I no longer use (leather) and follow that with CrOX on balsa. That combo makes the blade heavenly! Limit your number of passes to between 7-10 on the TI since the metal is a bit tougher (I might only do 5 on my Dovo). On a freshly honed blade, even with some bad habits, you should really not have to use the paste/CrOX for at least a few weeks shaving every day. If you need it more often, time to look back to technique.

The moral of the story here, though, is "less is more." Stick to the basics and get good at stropping with a shave-ready edge. You will get a good feel with just a bit of time as to what is shave ready and what isn't.

Also, and this may be the biggest thing...
the edge may not "feel" shave ready, but go liiiiiiigggggggghhhhht on pressure to your face. the harder you press, the worse your shave will be and the more irritation you will get...probably making you think the blade is dull. Let it glide over your skin at 30 degrees or less and the weight of that TI blade will do all of the work for you.

Enjoy!

I'm guessing most of the issue is your stropping, practice stropping with a dull razor shaped object for awhile (like a butter knife), it will help you develop some muscle memory of the stropping motion.

Your first problem is as said, your stropping and possibly your strop.

How many laps are you stropping?

Posting a photo of the strop may help us advise if the strop is the issue.

Adding a pasted strop will only make thing worse, as will a 1K or lower grit stone at this point. Most novice stroppers use too much pressure or lift the spine while moving forward. Either will roll the edge. Determining the amount of damage, will determine the repair.

Before you do anything else, buy some magnification, 60X lighted LED lighted loupe for 2-3 dollars and look straight down on the edge, any shiny spots are where the bevels are no longer meeting (is no longer sharp or chipped).

Your issue is stropping, but you have to determine how bad the edge is now. If you continue to strop it, you may be wasting your time or at worst damage your strop.

Learn how to maintain your razor, (stropping and cleaning) then how to shave, then to touch up with a high grit hone, your 4/8k will be fine for that, but not yet.

Much of straight razor maintenance, is problem solving. In order to repair the razor you first must identify the problem and the cause, then make those corrections and eliminate the cause. A razor edge is very fragile.

Thanks for your post! How quickly can I dull a blade by stropping poorly? I been reading some of Lynn's guides to stropping and I will practice with a butter knife on my paddle strop (thanks rodb!) to get some practice. I'll send my razor out to be honed and I might just buy another one and get it honed as well for comparison.

You can roll the blade with one bad strop movement. Been there, done that.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Your first problem is as said, your stropping and possibly your strop.

How many laps are you stropping?

Posting a photo of the strop may help us advise if the strop is the issue.

Adding a pasted strop will only make thing worse, as will a 1K or lower grit stone at this point. Most novice stroppers use too much pressure or lift the spine while moving forward. Either will roll the edge. Determining the amount of damage, will determine the repair.

Before you do anything else, buy some magnification, 60X lighted LED lighted loupe for 2-3 dollars and look straight down on the edge, any shiny spots are where the bevels are no longer meeting (is no longer sharp or chipped).

Your issue is stropping, but you have to determine how bad the edge is now. If you continue to strop it, you may be wasting your time or at worst damage your strop.

Learn how to maintain your razor, (stropping and cleaning) then how to shave, then to touch up with a high grit hone, your 4/8k will be fine for that, but not yet.

Much of straight razor maintenance, is problem solving. In order to repair the razor you first must identify the problem and the cause, then make those corrections and eliminate the cause. A razor edge is very fragile.

Just found the quote function, I thought by "replying" to a post it would show what post I was replying to.

I would normally do 25 round trips before and another 25 after. They would be fairly slow strokes because I was trying not to apply pressure and to try and get the twist at the end.

I've attached a picture of my strop next to my Norton 4k/8k for comparison, as well as both sides of the leather. One of the sides has some very small wear and I avoid that side.

Thanks

25 laps might not be enough, I do 30 plain linen/50 plain leather before and 10 of each after each use of a razor. I go to a CrOx paddle when it starts to tug