Thread: Reply to BJ 64 re keeping sharp

Firstly thanks to all who responded to my 1st thread.

BJ64, I recall when I first got my razor I did not believe it was sharp and pretty near stropped the thing to death. Spoke to my local barber from whom I bought the thing and he pointed out a couple of things:

1. That stropping madly with some degree of pressure tends to roll the edge of the blade and you are trying to shave with a curled up edge. So the razor was honed and stropping was done and still is done very lightly. Back in those days stropping paste was unheard of {I've only just heard about it myself} so grinding paste from a spectacle maker was used and that can be got in various grits right up to a polish. Basically I strop the razor before and after with very little pressure, maybe once every month or so use a grinding paste on the linen side and once every blue moon on a hone.
2. The other thing he pointed out was that with a safety razor you have a cutting edge that is about an inch long, with a razor the cutting edge is alomost 3 inches long, so if you are taking a full swipe with the blade you are engaging 3 times as many whiskers, which means you need roughly 3 times as much force to move the razor through them, and of course, you feel this pressure in a far more pronounced way as the pressure is exerted directly onto your fingers.

I sort of took all that on board some 40 years ago and that's basically how I do it. So don't get the amount of pressure you feel on your fingers as and indication of 'bluntness' - look at how the razor takes them off. If the whiskers are coming off clean with little pull on your face - it's sharp

Works for me

Thanks Colin. I have been guilty of going , excuse the pun , hell for leather on the strop. I have a custom Maestro Livi coming my way which by all accounts is shave ready so I should be able to guage my honing skills by comparing that to mine. I don't have a canvas strop just a double leather one. I sometimes wonder if this makes much of a difference.

Thanks Brian

What a very interesting - and important point. Never even considered the physics of this - 3x the width == 3x the pressure exerted on the hairs / blade.

Thanks for the insight!

New to the site and already making big waves, Congrats Colin. Like you I learned most of what I know from my barber, and of course trial and error(ouch!) Its a great site I think you'll enjoy it.