Thread: My Razors won't keep an edge

I have a DOVO bismark and a Lee magnetic and sent both of them out to get sharpened. They came back fantastic thanks to a member of this forum. But after a couple of shaves both razors have lost that extremely keen edge. I have a DOVO hanging strop that I have conditioned with Fromm strop dressing and I've put yellow strop paste on it a few months ago. I strop my razors about 50x before a shave and I don't use the same razor 2 days in a row. What am I doing wrong? I do have a very thick beard, barbers have commented on the difficulty in shaving my beard. Do I need a different razor, strop paste, etc. I've only been doing this for about 10 months and still consider myself new to it. Thanks
Gregg

Some members here have said that their coarse beards benefitted from heavier grinds. Have you ever tried shaving with a wedge?
Because of the stiffness of the blade and the wide bevel, they can take more abuse before getting dull.

IF noone else has a beter idea, you might ask in the BST forum for a shaveready starter wedge, or maybe ask in the razors forums if you could borrow one from someone. I don't have a wedge ready at the moment but maybe someone else could help you with that.

I have a couple of wedges that are shave ready but I haven't polished enough to post yet. I'll let you test drive one if you like. Send me a PM and we'll work something out...

Can I assume that you have other razors that you've kept going for longer? Many pros hone the blades tight, really tight, and you should use a light touch stropping them initially.

Try something gentle like stropping on newspaper, .5 paste, or fireash. Or take it to a fine hone for a touch up.

Lots of possibilities with this scenario.

If the strop is dried out you may have torn the fin but that usually doesn't feel the same as dull.

I would have backed off on the stropping in the beginning too, but thats just me. Lots of guys will strop like crazy.

Even with the heaviest of beards, you should not need to rehone for a couple of months. I'm bettin' stropping technique. How much dressing did you put on the razor? How much pull or drag does it have when stropping?

Lynn

I'm not feeling too much drag on the strop, it's very smooth. Usually right after I use the strop dressing it has a nice drag, but how often should I dress the strop? Or should I use more yellow strop paste. I put about a pencil eraser amount on a few months ago. Is that enough?
Thanks,
Gregg

Dovo strops don't need dressing from new and only need it eventually after you start to see it getting polished. I am inclined to think you have over dressed your strop and as a result, apply too much pressure to the razor while stropping.
Clean the strop of dressing is my cure based on the limited info.

PuFF

Yea, I would say the odds are 10 to 1 that its a stropping problem. You probably dulled the edge while stropping.

For the benefit of us new to the effort, can you who are many much more experienced (regardless of this possibly having been gone over countless other times) discuss stropping technique rather than just saying that what we have here is a stropping problem?

Does one pull as hard as one can on the strop to absolutely minimize sag?

Does one let the strop sag somewhat? What is a reasonable droop?

Does one push and pull the razor on the stop with absolutley no pressure, if not, what amount of pressure should be used and how can one judge this force?

Does one avoid putting any dressing or compound on the hanging leather strop?

How does one determine if the hanging strop requires dressing and then what should be used and in what quantity and with what method of application?

serve away, good friends, as, hopefully, this only starts the volley -- Bruce

I agree with the fine gentlemen here, Being new myself i found slowing down and mastering your stropping technique really improves the life of the edge.