Thread: What happens when?

Well, I went to a local knife shop, and had them hone the blade to shave ready. He uses a straight razor too. And went back home to shave. But I got half way through the shave, and the blade wouldn't cut through anything. At that point do I need to strop it again? Or what?

Expound on what you mean by "wouldn't cut anything". Are you saying it pulled at hair, or just clean passed over them without pulling at all? Can it bite into your thumb skin if you lightly try to shave a little skin off?

You should strop every time before you shave, and some people do it after they shave also.

he may have over honed it making the edge to thin you might try stropping on a pasted strop then hit the leather about 75 laps if that dont work you might want to think about sending to a honemeister on this site

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

Expound on what you mean by "wouldn't cut anything". Are you saying it pulled at hair, or just clean passed over them without pulling at all? Can it bite into your thumb skin if you lightly try to shave a little skin off?

Passed over.

Originally Posted by jszabo

he may have over honed it making the edge to thin you might try stropping on a pasted strop then hit the leather about 75 laps if that dont work you might want to think about sending to a honemeister on this site

Well he said polish it, so I'm assuming he hit it with a pad. And then stropped it.

What did he hone it on and how well was it stropped?

Sounds like it might be over honed. Strop the hell out of it (carefully) and try again.

X

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

What did he hone it on and how well was it stropped?

I dunno, he said he'd do what he typically does to his straight razors when he gets new ones.

Did you strop prior to shaving and if so how much? A freshly honed razor needs more than 20-30 laps , I usaually do at least 100 on linen and the same on leather after honing.BTW is you razor new or used, if he did what he always does with a new razor, it might not be enough for an older razor thats been banging around for 50 yrs.. He may neven have honed it like a knife, another member here recently let a retail shop hone his razor and jacked it up good, it took me a good while to get it up to par.

Originally Posted by xman

Sounds like it might be over honed. Strop the hell out of it (carefully) and try again.

X

at least im not alone on my therory