Thread: Blade Refreshing

Welcome aboard,,,

Straight Razor Place - Beginners Tips: November 2014

I have only been at this for about 9 months ago take my experience with a grain of salt. I have a 12k Shapton (and some lower grit options) as well as strops pasted with .5 crox, .5 diamond, red and black Dovo pastes. I find that the 12k Shapton cuts a little slow compared to what others experience with different stones. I am still experimenting but think for most refreshing a .5 micron crox does great. A couple times now I have used the dovo red, then black, then 12k, and diamond or crox. This had served me well so far for the more extreme touch UPS.

Welcome, Max...

I shave about every other day with my Dovo and use my Naniwa 12K to refresh/maintain the blade once every 3 weeks. With regular stropping, it has been working well for me so far.

I tried maintaining the blade once a month, but my coarse hair does a good job at dulling the edge.

Some good information so far. Personally if I was going to by one stone I would buy the Norton 4k/8k The 8k is a fine hone to use for refreshing the edge. As to paste
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ugh-guide.html I did this post awhile ago and I find paste to be a reliable method for everything up to setting the bevel. Setting the bevel can be done with paste but is a real pain in the butt. The major benefit for a new shaver is that pasted strops use a skill that you are already developing and using everyday stropping. If you do use a pasted strop use a paddle strop it eliminates a lot of factors.

So, a razor is maintained with a linen and leather strop, and the edge touched up with a high grit stone when more keenness is needed.

A pasted strop can do both but, a pasted strop is an abrasive strop and if the stropping skill is not mastered, one can easily do more damage than good, as said. Stropping can take time to master, but once mastered one can maintain a razor for a very long time on just linen and leather. Diamond and Chrome Oxide are on opposite ends of the spectrum, Diamonds for keenness, Chrome Oxide for comfort and any number of other pastes in between.

It is absolutely normal for a new shaver to damage the edge when first learning to strop, and to have it refreshed 2-3 times, before they get to the point where they are doing more good than damage maintaining a razor.

Yes, a 12k Super Stone is an excellent choice, lifetime purchase and will easily refresh a razor, a simple chrome oxide strop will make it more comfortable and add a bit of keenness and a good linen/ leather stropping daily, will maintain the edge. Really unless you get into collecting and restoration, the three are all you need.

The largest factor in learning to shave and maintain a razor is one on one coaching, this will dramatically reduce you learning curve. You can watch all the videos and read all the posts, but nothing can replace someone looking over your shoulder, making small corrections to your technique.

Maintaining a straight razor is not rocket science, neither is it as easy as watching a video. It’s somewhere in between.

A year after you think you have mastered stropping, your edges will improve dramatically.