Thread: strop vs hone

What you say is right, I think all of us have fiddled with our hones and gave razors a rub on a stone after 10 days, sometimes sooner. Wy do we do it? The unknown. It's also fun, and lets have a pentrating glimpse of the obvious and admit we have an obsessive hobby. It' good fun. I know I'll never get a superstone + naturals wonder blade.....but we try. Go hard boys

I find restropping after every shave works well. Further, I find that a quick session on a pasted strop with chromium oxide allows far longer between hones.

Eventually, the 'v' shape, the bevel, is going to need to be repaired and the strop won't do it. Providing there isn't any damage, I've found that an 8k synthetic hone suffices to repair the bevel and doesn't take overly much work to achieve. With this said, I imagine that due to damage to the razor either obvious or minute, a touch up hone will no longer suffice and its probably worth investing in somebody who has a selection of gradient hones who will be able to help out.

Between an 8k synthetic stone and a pasted strop, I've kept my razor shave-ready but likely there will come a time when that wont suffice.

Originally Posted by bobski

Such a controversial field. My 'information' comes from a professional metalurgist who directs methods of metal plasticity, to get bevel meeting consistently, every time, no mucking around, he develops a method and his company provides consistent saleable products, Specified. No snake oil, and other imaginary fonts of info. hand made products, using natural stones, make things variable, but in the business world replication is required. Dovo are the perfect example, when they arrive the are the same, close, but need 15 mins attention, no more. All I'm saying, is like Dovo, there is no magical solution. 8 strokes on a 12 k naniwa, and have a shave.....No more, or use a dozen stones to dull everything and start again to reach the same result. Super sharp is great no doubt, but a comfortable smooth shave neeed not be micrsopically perfect, it needs some useability, repeatable useability, not back on the 16k every four shaves. Do it by all means, but I don't need it. cheers

The great thing about this sport is that it's so customizable to the individual. From soaps to blade geometry to strops to brushes to aftershave to prep.

If you've found something that works for you specifically that meets all your needs, then by all means keep using it.

But I'll throw out one thought: I think you're short changing yourself in the comfort department, especially over something so trivial as 5 or so strokes on a hone every so often.

But, again, it's what works for you...

Good luck!

Originally Posted by bobski

I might not be in the right place here, but I am interested in opinions on

Please take no offense but if this is your first instinct then you're right you should start a new thread so as not to hijack the OP's question.

Originally Posted by admeasel

Hello all,

I'm totally new to all this... I've placed my order (except for a blade) and am waiting for everything to arrive. I just have one question. How do you know when it is time to hone/send it out to a professional vs just re-stropping it? I've seen somewhere where it said you can go anywhere from 2 months to 12 months before another honing will be needed. That's a big gap for guessing!

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew, Keep in mind stropping and honing are 2 different things. Stropping (non pasted) should be done before each shave as a normal prep to shaving. Honing is only done once the edge dulls to the point where you experience excessive pulling or poor shave results (assuming you have good technique) and pasted stropping does not improve it. This is when you will know it's time to hone. As for the length of time between honing well that depends on many things but frequency of use is the main determining factor.