Razor Dulling & Stropping

I shaved with a razor from another one of our great mentors here the other night, and it was a terrific shave for a newbie like myself! The razor is an extra hollow ground 5/8". I finished up the shave, dried off the razor, and put it away outside of the bathroom to get it away from humidity. Because I question my stropping skills at this part of my shaving journey, I decided to not strop this razor unless the shave quality diminished. Well, last night, I decided to try to take this razor for a 2nd spin. Same pre-shave prep and everthing, but this time it tugged/pulled a fair bit. My stubble wasn't as long last night as it was the first time I used this razor - would that make any difference? Did the razor lose it's edge after that first shave, due to it being an extra hollow ground, or possibly micro-corrosion? Maybe all razors lose their edge after a single shave?

I've been going pretty slow with my stropping, both on the canvas side and the leather side, but I don't feel any improvement from stropping yet. I try to do 20 passes on the canvas, and 50 on the leather. If the leather isn't broken in yet (brand new Illinois #127 strop), is it possible it isn't doing it's job? I've just started rubbing the leather side with my palm before stropping.

JMO, but those Illinois canvas strops are very harsh. With 20 laps on that Id say it could have taken a bit off your edge. A soft linen would be ok with that many passes. I think Id only do 5 as lightly as posible or find a softer secondary strop.
This is just one opinion. Microscopically an edge gets jagged by being pushed back and forth durring the shave so stropping straightens, realigns the edge. And if you wait a few days between shaves without stropping the edge can get worse. I always strop a little after a shave too. This corrects the edge before the razor is put away.

As far as whisker length, i get a better shave on two days growth. But everyone's growth is different. When working I shave daily.

Stropping is harder to figure out than people think. Just go easy and slow and it will come.

Much like everything in this hobby Stropping has a learning curve

There are 3 stages of stropping

#1 Trying to do NO Harm

#2 Doing No Harm and trying to improve the edge

#3 Actually improving the edge

I always suggest you leave the "Hanging part" out of the equation until you learn the Stroke and the Flip by placing the strop on the edge of a table or counter

Let me find a great Thread on stropping and link it for you

Damn has it really been a Decade :p


https://sharprazorpalace.com/stroppi...st-2012-a.html

No, normally razors do not lose their edge after one shave. Also, I don't think the length of your stubble was a factor. Even though the first shave was excellent by your standards, you could have dulled the edge through poor shaving technique. Extra hollow ground blades have a very fine edge and are probably more sensitive to poor shaving technique than the heavier grinds.

It takes a bit of time to get your stropping technique to the point where it will maintain the edge or even improve it. You could try increasing the number of strokes on canvas and see if that helps.

Bob

With a strop, on both sides, linen and leather, use slow strokes with light pressure.
Almost everyone that has come to my home for help has done poorly at stropping.
Your best bet is to meet face to face with an experienced str8 shaver.
Try to find someone in your area to show you the ropes.
On the SRP front page is a link to finding someone in your area.
Let us know where you're located.

For your current situation try what has been suggested above. The other option is to send the razor out for a refresh.

Your lather can make a razor pull.

There have been some important things said. Also a poor shaving technique is also very hard on the edge, there is a sweet spot with the angle of the shave that gets the most life from the edge, because it cuts so efficiently, which also leads to a better shave. It could also be that your technique was spot on the first time, but not so much the second time. There is a strong argument for lightly stropping after each shave, also how many effective laps before each shave.

I give my razor 40 on flax and 40 on English Bridal leather after my shave and 60 on Herringbone cotton and 100 on Buffalo leather before I use it again.

What is my next step to take if I suspect I may have been too aggressive with pressure on the razor while stropping? Does it need to go back to a finishing stone or would many light passes on a strop bring the edge back?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lazyMlazyK

What is my next step to take if I suspect I may have been too aggressive with pressure on the razor while stropping? Does it need to go back to a finishing stone or would many light passes on a strop bring the edge back?

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In general any damage caused by incorrect stropping can be fixed by proper stropping, there are exceptions of course :p

Place the strop flat on the edge of a table

Do 50 perfect even smooth laps on the Linen
Do 100 perfect even smooth laps on the Leather

Shave and hopefully smile at your accomplishments

Stick with it Kyle. There is a lot of information, I know but take the responses and PMs and read them over and over carefully. You have gotten good advice already. Just take some time to digest and process it. Then just figure out how to put it into practice. It is frustrating at first but it gets easier with time. All of a sudden it begins to click and then things start to come together. Use a couple of those other razors to get you through. You need to figure out what grinds, points and finishes/edges you like anyway. Once you get the stropping down things will level off quickly.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement fellas! I spent my free time last night stropping away at a couple of razors, and snuck in a test shave. It looks like some good progress has been made to the Imperial EHG by putting the strop on a table edge instead of hanging. Stropping like this is like black magic to me....you can't see a change, and you can't hear much going on, but it IS making a change to the edge. Crazy. Got my first strop nick though, but it's not too bad. It's toward the handle end, and mostly avoidable, but one of these nights I'll get out some sandpaper and smooth it out. I'll look into softer alternatives than canvas, like the Herringbone mentioned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lazyMlazyK

Thanks for the advice and encouragement fellas! I spent my free time last night stropping away at a couple of razors, and snuck in a test shave. It looks like some good progress has been made to the Imperial EHG by putting the strop on a table edge instead of hanging. Got my first strop nick though, but it's not too bad. It's toward the hand end, and mostly avoidable, but one of these nights I'll get out some sandpaper and smooth it out.

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Great to hear...the progress that is, not the nick. Remember, to begin with, don't even worry about the blade flip. Just go one stroke, stop, flip gently and reverse. The muscle memory takes a while. It seems sophomoric but it really is true. Think of learning to play guitar or any stringed instrument. You have to learn chords and other techniques but the biggest hurdle is coordinating your hands and your brain.

Do yourself a favor and get a stick of green chrome oxide and make the pasted strop we talked about. That will help a ton at maintaining those edges. That Imperial Extra Hollow is a great shaver with a Thuringian edge and you should be able to keep it really crisp for a long time maintaining it that way

The nicks I put into my strop while I was learning have been fixed, I'm still using it daily.

I put a small amount of contact glue under the flap and pressed it down resonably firmly (with a bottle or something similar) but not so hard that it dents the leather. I used one end of a jade roller that I use for my face because it's stays nice and cold (the other end for my face).

That made a nice tight glue down and no big lump where the glue is.

I then wiped off the excess from the strop and when it was dry I used a block or wrapped the bottle etc with fine w/d to make it smooth.

I did go over the whole strop gently so i didn't just have sanded spots.

I then wiped the strop with a damp cloth to get the sanding dust off it.

Then palm rubbed to get a bit of oil on it after it was dry.

I'm sure there are much better methods but this is mine and it works for me.

I had to fix that strop a few times, still do but very occasionally now.

An extra hollow ground razor has very little support behind the edge. Thus, it is easy to develop some misalignment of the edge during the shave. Stropping helps realign the edge so it shaves better. The effect is surprising. I have tried shaving with a razor I have sharpened and found the edge to be rather dull. However, after stropping, the edge is both keen and smooth. I never would have thought stropping would make such a difference, but it does. Thus, you need to get a good strop and you need to develop good stropping technique.

I have a very tough beard. I love shaving with my Boker Extra Hollow, but I only get a few shaves before the edge needs to be refreshed. Those with less coarse beards can go a lot longer. Some say that they can maintain their edge indefinitely using pasted strops with fine abrasives.

Tony Miller is a member of the forum. He is a great guy and he makes some wonderful strops. If you are economically challenged as many people are these days, Tony makes plain vanilla and plain chocolate strops that sell for $55. They are a great value for beginners. If you can afford one of his premium strops with real flax linen components, then you will not be disappointed, but I suggest you wait until you stropping skill improves before you order one. When you are new to stropping, it is common to nick your strop. Once you master the flip at the end of each stroke, such mishaps are uncommon. You can replace the leather component if you nick your strop badly; minor nicks can often be sanded out.

Many of the "linen" components of strops are either synthetic materials or cotton canvas. Stopping on authentic flax linen is a much improved experience.

The last cut i made to my strop was really stupid. I had spent some time on the stones, cleaned off the razor, turned to my strop and started edge first, umm yep.