Thread: How many passes or strokes?

We discussed the honing steps or methods, the stones and pastes grit, the linen, cotton and leathers, but how many passes or stroke on each of these? Depends on the steel, hollow, size or maker? We all have a honing and strop number of passes or strokes, let me know yours. Thanks Juan.

For honing, until it is sharp. On newly aquired razors, this may take a while. For razors that have just begun to loose their edge due to use, I usually do 10 laps on the 8000 side of my Norton and then check for sharpness using the thumb pad test. When it passes this I do a few laps on a diamond grit pasted strop and call it done.

For stropping, what ever makes you feel good. I generally do 40 on the cloth and 40 on the leather before every shave. Some like to strop afterwards as well, but I don't.

Originally Posted by juannaredo

We discussed the honing steps or methods, the stones and pastes grit, the linen, cotton and leathers, but how many passes or stroke on each of these? Depends on the steel, hollow, size or maker? We all have a honing and strop number of passes or strokes, let me know yours. Thanks Juan.

I use BBW and Coticule for honing-- these stones give "feedback", meaning, the blade develops a suction sensation on the draw when it gets to the right point. Sometimes it takes me 100 strokes... but I hone with a really slow stroke (probably too slow...). You can't really overhone with these rocks, so I don't worry about doing too many strokes.

When done with the hones, I strop on "linen" (actually, my strop has nylon webbing) for 20, the leather for 60. Once in service, I strop about 20/20 before shaves.

-Chief

The short answer is "as many as it takes". The foundation of a shave ready razor is the bevel. If you read this tutorial on setting a bevel in the SRP Wiki here you will see what that foundation should look like. While the tutorial is describing the pyramid method the fundamentals of bevel setting are the same regardless of whether the honer is using the pyramid or progressive method. There is a formula that works for sharpening a razor and polishing the edge. Reading of the methods and tests in the SRP Wiki and applying what you learn and you will soon know how to get a razor shaving comfortably. There is no hard and fast rule for how many strokes. Each razor is individual and as jade industries pointed out in another post, the answer in sharpening is many times "it depends".

+1 It takes as many as needed to sharpen the edge. If you think that you can go by counting laps you are missing the most important part of honing, getting it sharp. Learn how to know if the edge is sharp and when to move to the next hone. If you don't learn these milestones you will always have problems honing your razors to a good edge. The WIKI is the best place to learn this stages.

+1 with Jimmy. Each blade will have it's own characteristics, and there is no magic formula to say how many strokes to do. Experience with your blade (yeah, will require some experiments) will be the best guide. If there is any advice that I can give you is that start with a smaller number of strokes, then add more if your blade requires more.

+2 on what ever it takes.

I try and this varies by razor to get the edge to pop hairs at all grit levels before I move on.

I use linen and leather. 40 - 50 then 80 - 90. It just depends on how I remember the edge the last time I used it. I have a small rotation so this is not a big thing to remember.

I thought that diamond grit hones were not a good idea for straight razors fccexpert. Am I wrong?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The short answer is "as many as it takes". The foundation of a shave ready razor is the bevel. If you read this tutorial on setting a bevel in the SRP Wiki here you will see what that foundation should look like. While the tutorial is describing the pyramid method the fundamentals of bevel setting are the same regardless of whether the honer is using the pyramid or progressive method. There is a formula that works for sharpening a razor and polishing the edge. Reading of the methods and tests in the SRP Wiki and applying what you learn and you will soon know how to get a razor shaving comfortably. There is no hard and fast rule for how many strokes. Each razor is individual and as jade industries pointed out in another post, the answer in sharpening is many times "it depends".

You are right it took me longer to hone a Filarmonica razor than an Otto Busch, both carbon steel. Juan.

Try getting a good magnifier like the Radio Shack Illuminated Microscope. Examine the edges before you hone and then after about 20 strokes. You'll then KNOW what is going on at the edge. Rules of thumb are good but you're dealing with an edge that is about .001" thick and that's delicate.