Thread: Do I need a hone?

Originally Posted by bmiami

Thanks for all the great advice, this forum and the people on it are amazing. I will start shaving only one side of the face to not be overwhelmed as suggested. Gasman, that's a great tip on the butter knife but scary that you can wipe out an edge so easily. From the videos I've seen stropping seems relatively straightforward and I was listening for the audio feedback but maybe I heard the wrong feedback! When stropping should the blade lie completely flat on it's side? If so it doesn't seem like the edge is touching the leather and I don't hear any feedback, but when I angle it up just the slightest amount I can hear the blade making a "shush" sound across the stop so I figured that was the right way to do it.

The spine and edge should both be touching the surface of the strop through the whole lap. That sound you hear when lifting, is the blade scraping the surface, its also an indication you might be rolling the edge, that's something you want to avoid.

A visit to our library will also help you understand our vernacular. I had to look that up so I didn't misspell it.

The sounds is irrelevant. The action is what is important and that the razors is in fact perfectly flat with no pressure applied. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith even if it does not make sense yet. Overtime it will all become more clear.

As was said, Flat on the strop. By no means lift the spine and drag the edge. One time like that and its all over. Well, maybe. Think about this. The very tip of the cutting edge is so small and fine that when people do what is called the HHT (Hanging Hair Test) The edge is finding the grooves between the folicals of a hair. So it is delicate. The reason for stropping after a shave is to re-algin the edge back straight because when you shave it becomes all out of whack. To strop before a shave is to remove any micro rust that might be starting and the re-align one more time to be sure the edge is straight, in-line.

Also, if you think about when a razor is honed, the spine and edge are touching the stone. So on a piece of leather with spine and edge touching, it is touching the very edge. If it wasn't, then it would never get sharp on the stone properly. Do not lift the spine when stropping or honing.

And strop however it feels comfortable. Some people like to strop at waist level with the strop horizontal, while others like to strop with it vertical almost. Horizontal may be easier.

Originally Posted by bmiami

Bought a beautiful strop and used it first but when I went to put the razor to my face the first time I was surprised at how it really wasn't cutting, mostly skimming over the hair and just cutting a few. I realize I am new and I tried different angles and pressure but I figure this can't be how it is supposed to be.
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I've heard you can dull a blade with poor stropping but even though it was my first time I was very careful and watched videos of how to do it - can't imagine i did much if any damage from stropping.

im not saying the razor was not properly honed initially, but it could be your stropping. I can assure you that you can destroy a good honed razor with improper stropping. After 4 years i still think im just OK at stropping. Not good. For about 1-2 years i kept destroying my honed razor with stropping. Sometimes too much pressure, sometimes too much angle, sometimes just rushing to get the job done. One wrong stropping and your perfectly honed razor is destroyed.

The way i remedied this, was i learned to hone my razor. Then i realized that it wasnt the razor just not being honed, but my stropping destroying it. Then i spent a lot of time working on my stropping. Including getting a magnification loupe and looking at the edge before, during, and after each stropping. I noticed via stropping with the loupe how much i had to strop, when i destroyed the edge, etc. It took a long time to get comfortable in stropping. If you dont want to learn to hone a razor you can send it out to folks here to get it done, but you definitely need to master stropping though.

As I always say..honing doesn't end at the stone, it stops at the strop. It will either refine the edge, or destroy it.

It all in your hands now..