Transition between honing and stropping

I am new to straight razor shaving and I have decided not to buy a ‘shave ready razor’. I purchased the world of straight razor shaving DVD from classic shaving; I have a 4000/8000 Norton wet stone, a leather/linen strop, and a dovo loom strop with one side leather and the other side red paste (the DVD said the red past was around .5 microns).

I am starting with a new stainless steel dovo razor. I did the honing pyramid suggested in the DVD and it seemed sharp after the honing without a wire edge. I am wondering what the transition between the 8000 grit wet stone and the strop is. After honing I tried 30 strops with the red paste, 30 stops on the linen, and then 60 strops on the leather. The razor passed the hanging hair test, but I when I shaved the razor pulled hair and gave me razor burn. I think that my honing and stropping technique are more or less right, but my razor is not sharp enough for a good shave. Can anyone help me out? Thanks…

I would highly recommend sending the razor to Lynn for a honing. This way when you get the razor you know that it is sharp and you can focus on the other variables including stropping, beard prep, and shaving technique. Once you know what a sharp razor feels like and develop the proper technique you will be in a much better position to hone your own razors. If the razor is not properly honed, you have absolutely no chance to get the close irritation free shave that you desire.

+1!

I couldn't agree more. Honing is hard enough to get right once you know what you're doing, let alone when you start.

Imagine you're asked to redecorate a room. You know how to prep the walls for painting, and you know the tools you need to get the paint on evenly. You've been asked to paint it Midnight Blue, and you know in theory what shade that is, but unless someone actually gives you a swatch to compare you have virtually no chance of reproducing the right shade from first principles.

Kinda like that. You need to experience shave-ready sharp before you can copy it. (And more importantly, you need to eliminate the variable of sharpness before you can separate it from technique problems.)

I made the same error to start with and had no idea what was going on. I sent my razor off to Lynn and was able to focus on shaving technique, then latterly honing. Wish I had done it to start with. Would have saved me much razor burn!:o

Thats way too much honing on a new razor. Go back to 8K and back hone a little, then gently forward hone on 8K to smooth out the bevel, then use leather only to strop. Add more 8k strokes until you get a decent shave. Use the leather and 8K alone for a while.

Try a couple of strokes, a set at a time, with the loom/.5 combo to try and reduce any pulling you might have.

Failing that, go back to 4K for a couple of strokes and then 8K for several strokes and work your way to a good shave using 8K and test shaving.

See just how close you can get with the 8K alone and repost.

It would also help me, to help you, if I knew how you decided it was "sharp without a wire".

What Alan says.

The advantage of getting a shave ready razor is that you have a benchmark to check your progress against; that is immeasurably helpful.

Unfortunately, poor technique is what causes razor burn, and can also cause pulling; not just a dull edge. You should be holding the blade close to parallel with your face, aiming for a 20 -30 degree angle, and using no force from your hand to shave, just the weight of the blade.

You can only really test the edge by shaving. HHT doesn't mean a lot, as it is mostly a test of your hair rather than the edge :-). Thumb pad test (just run the pad of your thumb across the blade very gently) is best when testing an edge, but don't overdo it, and it is also a learned skill to know when the edge is likely to be ready.

Depending on your beard, an edge finished on just the Norton 8K may be sharp enough, but still pulll some. If that is the case, the pasted strop may give a smoother shave, but this assumes that your technique is good and the edge truly shave ready.

Welcome to a lifetime of learning.

Most new razors require just a tad of honing. probably about 20 or so strokes on the pasted strop was all you really needed and then the linen and plain leather as a final. Usually when I get a new razor I'll do about 30 passes on the yellow coticule but the pasted strop will do the same.