Thread: Maintaining the edge for a beginner

Hi,

Background:

New to SR shaving (From DE). I have two shave ready razors, one a new Dovo with a free honing available. The other a used Spike. Both were bought shave ready (and are). I've been shaving with the Dovo (and stropping with a 2.5" strop - webbed and leather - X pattern). Only shaved once with the Spike, and want to save it as reference, until I send out the Dovo.

Objective:
I want to be able to maintain the edge on these, after getting the one professionally sharpened (SRD). I purchased Norton kit (flattening stone, 220/1K/4K/8K) and have been reading up on them as much as possible. I don't have anything finer, no barber hones, no sprays, Cr-ox, or whatever. i'd love to hear advice for how to handle some issues (maybe common problems) as well.

Questions:

For a beginner, like myself, what should be the plan of attack, when the blade starts to lose it's edge?
Should I use the 8K, 4K/8K, get a higher grid stone, or get pasted strops?

I'm a bit confused from all the reading - many opinions - some saying learn the lower grits before trying the finer stones, others saying pastes/sprays (I haven't looked into this at all) and then finishing hones.

Next, what actions are needed if one has a blunt? A small shiny spot on the blade? Can it be corrected by stropping? Spray/paste? If honing needed, what grit is needed? I'm not sure how it happened, but it may have been due to my shaving practice initially. Before I got a scuttle, I had the shaving cup in the sink, sitting in water, and was swishing the blade in the water to get lather off of it. May have bumped it?

It doesn't seem to be causing any real discomfort in shaving, though it doesn't seem to shave as well as when I got it. It's hard to tell, as I'm learning shaving technique with the SR as well. My last 4 shaves have been very good, only one nick (today) and very close. I did do one shave with the other blade a few days ago, and it was cutting better, so I suspect I also am not stropping well yet (it's been about a month) - guessing that it's not a difference in honing work done by others.

In reading other threads, I did see one comment about the strop twisting a bit. Mine does that sometimes as well. Would the result be that there would be more pressure on some parts of the edge? I can't tell, as I don't have a magnifying glass yet, and visually, it seems to be even along the length. I'm trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Would a paddle strop be a better way for a beginner (trying to eliminate all the variables)? If it does turn out to cause uneven wear, what's the suggested corrective action? Does one go back to re-setting the bevel?

I did try the pin test for rolled edge, and it doesn't seem to catch anywhere on either side, except at that one small spot where I noticed the ding (so maybe I'm not rolling the edge stropping, at least .

Here is a photo with my phone - really hard to take the shot, but you can see the reflection where the ding is... red arrow drawn.


Here is another shot, I think a bit out of focus though.



Looking forward to your suggestions... as this forum is GREAT!

Thanks,

PCM