Thread: Sharpening the razor

I'm glad i found this thread, i was on the verge of giving up and selling my whole kit, life just seems too short to spend an hour each day trying to get a razor sharp enough to shave.

I don't know what goes wrong, in teh past I have had some great, clean shaves, I have a couple of razors that never seem to want ot quit, then for a the past two months they all pull and hurt and even though I can get a good clean shave eventually the chin is just a horrible stubbly mess.

I went back to my DE out of frustration and fell in love again. Okay, not quite as close, but clean and ready to go in under 5 minutes.

So I reckon my problem is the stropping, I have 3 strops, all good makes, and none of them have a flat surface, you can see where the blade has moved along them in a certain light and it covers about 1/3 of the surface at any time. It's always the stropping that makes the blade duller. One is almost as it came new, one has been soaked, rubbed with glass, lathered, sanded, treated and rubbed by hand daily, one is half way between the two, no difference, they all behave the same way and seem to dull the blade.

Not so long ago i could strop fast and light and get a killer edge, for about two days, now i can't even shave with the edge.

Personally I find the hair test great, i use a chest hair and if it pops that all the way along I will get a good shave, if it splits or doesn't cut then no chance.

I have all teh kit, some really good old razors, hones: coticule, thuringian, barbers hone, chinese 12k, norton 4/8k, tam o shanter, i can get a great edge honing but that's it. Even the Cro Ox isn't helping now.

I am glad to see i am not alone, it seems straight razors have more mood swings than . . . well let's not go there, but I'm sure they have PMT most of the month.

Practice, practice, practice.