Thread: Razor already tugging after about 4 shaves

I think apart from what the others have noticed about lifting the razor a bit, you need to have consistent grip on the tang.
On the stroke towards you you are holding by the tang , fingers on the tang stamps. On the away stroke you are holding by the jimps. The correct grip should be a pinch grip by the jimps. When holding the razor by the tang you are creating more downward force and torque that can cause incorrect technique and consequent rolling of the edge.

I repeatedly have made the same offer to members in Hawaii...

I'm willing to come to your place for a week or two for one on one help, as long as you have a spare bedroom for my wife and me! She needs a vacation.

Yes, I too thought you lifted the spine at one point. A cure for bad stropping is a lot of good stropping. That is, you MAY be able to fix a mildly rolled edge with more stropping. If the edge does not improve, then you will need to have it re-honed.

Thanks again for all the responses.

Today, I decided that if I'm going to learn the art of Straight Razor shaving, I'm going to learn it all. So I went and bought a Norton 4k/8k stone and carefully watched Lynn's video on refreshing a razor. After a few passes on the stone, then through all my strops, I have a razor that will cut hair again. It's probably not perfect, but at least usable. I also ordered a 12k finishing stone online, and when that gets here, I'll do the refresh again adding that to the sequence.

This is turning into an expensive hobby.

I agre with jkatzman - your newly honed razors from Srd shouldn't need any abrasive pastes for quite a while. I worried about pastes and fabrics for a long time until I realized I just need to get the stropping on leather right. When it clicks it's a great feeling and I now touch up on a natural stone only when I feel a bad shave, no pastes for me but I am not an expert. I found so many comments about the pastes in crox and diamond only to be confused or think of all the time and steel I will spend on getting those right when I wanted the razor for shaving, not testing pastes. I am still learning of course but slow careful stropping is where I got the biggest gains - not trying new stones or pastes.
If I can suggest - keep one of the newly honed razors by Lynn as a control. Use it to compare the edge of the razors you strop and shave with ( just a couple of strokes will compare). You can judge your progress and although razors and steel will differ - it should be enough to give you some feedback.
Enjoy the process

This also may help you with your stropping. I had a barber friend tell me when stropping, angle the blade with the heel of the spine leading. He said a 30-45 degree angle will be fine. It alleviates rolling the razor onto the edge at the end of the stroke and it also kept me from getting cut marks at the end of the strop. You will find you don't put as much pressure on the blade and the blade stays flatter. I noticed Mastro Livi uses an angle when honing and stropping. I also noticed Lynn also has a slight angle as well. When starting, go slow and watch the razor to see if it is flat throughout the lap. At the end of the lap, slowly roll the blade on it's spine and look to make sure it is flat before the next lap. If you go to fast, there is a tendency to do a rolling takeoff when you end the lap which will round the blade. Remember, practice makes perfect and sharper edges.

It's not uncommon it takes a few months to actually improve your edge from stropping. Also I know you think you need to learn to hone, but you can't even shave yet much less strop.

All you need right now is a decent finisher(naniwa 12k and 4-5 laps on it when your razor starts to tug. Or just do it every 10 shaves or so to maintain. You can go months r even years between honing with nothing but leather and the naniwa. These guys you see that are honing all the time are restoring and selling or doing it for other people. Realistically if your blade needs honed all the time your doing something wrong. So get hones f you want but you need to learn how to SHAVE, AND STROP. And you need to be more patient cause it don't happen over night. Plus sow down stropping till you can really strop well, it's not a race. Tc

+1 to Mainaman
There are experienced honers that recommend gripping the flat of the tang when stropping.
However, it seems awkward, slow, and produces less satisfactory results than holding the edges of the tang - IMHO.
Just part of the art - always interesting to try doing things a different way to see if it works better.

Yes, you rolled the edge. It does look like the spine comes off the strop at the edge of your strokes, and just before as you anticipate the flip.

You are flipping with your wrist, and are not stopping, before you flip.

Stop then flip. When you flip with the wrist, you will almost always put too much downward pressure on the edge.

Learn to hold the razor by the corners on the tang, so that one corner of the tang is, in the middle of the thumb pad, the opposite corner biting into the edge of the index finger.

Then flip the razor by moving the thumb, like flipping a switch. The other corner will then be in the middle of the thumb pad

If you do it right, only the thumb moves and the wrist is locked and remains in the same position and does not put any downward pressure on the strop.

You can adjust pressure on the edge by controlling the pressure of the thumb and torque the razor for more or less pressure.

As seen in the video it is very slight, but if you used the same pressure on Diamond or Chrome Oxide, just one swipe will roll the edge, subsequent strokes will cause the roll to break off and chip.

Look at the edge with magnification. I like a 60X lighted loupe or the 60X100 Carson Micro Max. Or just run a QTip along the edge from heel to toe lightly. If it snags the cotton the edge is chipped.

The degree of damage will indicate the course of action for repair. Caught early .50 Diamond might bring it back, but look at it first.

I find paddle strops are unforgiving with excess pressure.

+1 on Euclid440. If you lightly run your fingernail from spine past the edge & it hangs on one side, it is rolled. If it is, send it back in for your free honing.