Thread: 2 Questions

I'm going to get started straight razor shaving and I'm planning on buying a Dovo from classicshaving.com so that I can get it honed by Lynn.

Now I realize that it probably differs from person to person, and razor to razor. But does anyone (Lynn preferably) have an estimate of how long the razor will stay sharp enough to shave with? I want to get some shaving under my belt before I get into the world of honing. Also, buying a razor, strop, and honing gear all at once would probably break my budget at the moment. So buying the honing gear will probably come at a later time when I have more funds set aside. If anyone has had a razor honed by Lynn let me know how long you went before honing again.

Second question: I've heard that some people strop their razors before AND after their shave. Is stropping after the shave necessary?

Thanks everyone!

How long a razor stays shaving sharp is dependent on several factors. The main factor will be your honing skills. Many razors are dulled due to poor stropping technique. Second is your beard coarseness. I would expect as a beginner you might expect your razor to last as long as three months. A second razor will extend your times between honings and you can still have one on hand if one is out.

Originally Posted by tweiga

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Second question: I've heard that some people strop their razors before AND after their shave. Is stropping after the shave necessary?
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After isn't necessary. Many do it to make sure the edge of the razor is dry and clean after shaving. I use one or two laps on newspaper after shaving for the sole purpose of making sure the edge is dry.

Forty to sixty laps on the leather strop before shaving is often enough.

You could try it both ways to see if you like it.

I don't have the link right now, but there was a thread awhile back Ithought it was called the great experiment, but that did not show up under the search. At any rate some one was trying to answer this by shaving with different razors that had been honed to the same degree, then stropped differently. I lost track of the thread but I know there was some interesting info in it. Hopefully someone else remembers the thread I am talking about and can give you the link.

Originally Posted by Chander

I don't have the link right now, but there was a thread awhile back Ithought it was called the great experiment, but that did not show up under the search.
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Hopefully someone else remembers the thread I am talking about and can give you the link.

Is this it? Stropping.doc

I remember that thred really well since I was the one who performed the experiment. Its called "the grand experiment". As I recall I also put it in the resource area. But to save you all the reading (unless you want to) it indicated that stropping 60x was the most efficient for razor maint. and you could split that 30 before and 30 after. same difference.