Thread: How many shaves from an extra hollow ground razor?

Hello,

I have a Prima Klang and I'm curious to know how many shaves you get from it before you need to touch it up? For me the answer seems to be 3 (though each shave occurs with about 2-3 days growth and the third shave was not good). Is this because I'm new and I screwed up the edge? Or is the edge on extra hollow grounds just that sensitive and combined with my coarse beard that's what I should expect?

Thanks,
Adrian.

was this razor shave ready when you got it? i can shave up to 2 months and only need a slight touch up. are you stropping the blade. you may need to have the blade honed by someone and then work on your stropping and see if that helps. i have a fairly stiff beard and am not having any problems like you say..good luck

Yeah it was. Got it from SRD.
I didn't strop it the first time because I wanted to have an idea of what a properly honed and stropped felt like to shave with. The next two times I did. I did nick my strop twice the second time. The third time, the stropping seemed to go fine.

No matter the blade or grind as long as its a quality blade and your technique is good you should get at least 10 and probably many more shaves from it before needing a touchup. We know its a quality blade so that leaves either the blade not being where it should be on sharpness or a technique or stropping issue.

Just to add one more piece of information. I have one of those Radio Shack microscopes and I looked at the edge. It seemed fine. No chips, the scratch pattern seems regular and it doesn't appear that the edge is rolled (I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that if the edge were rolled that on one side the edge would have a bright line and the other side dark??).

I, too, was wandering how many shaves to expect before touching up. I only have one honing stone, a Chinese 12,000, and spent a good part of an afternoon honing it to get it sharp and with an even edge. That was two weeks ago and it still seems to be adequately sharp.

Like you I purchased the pocket microscope from Radio Shack in order to really tell what was happening since pre-honing my blade was leaving some skin irritation.

Prior to honing I found that there were micro-serrations and an uneven edge. After bread knifing and many laps with the Chinese 12,000 the edge was even and the serrations were gone. I have checked the edge over the last two weeks and the edge is still even and there are no serrations.

Since it is the weekend, I will probably touch up with 15-20 laps on the Chinese stone. Having to soak the stone for 1/2 an hour before honing makes me not want to do this very often. Not to mention that the small number of laps makes it seem a lot of prep for the little work that is done on the stone.

as long as you check the edge and didnt see any chips etc you should be ok.i should say dont wait 3 day then shave.i usually shave every other day.second prepartion for the shave, pay att to it.go head strop 30 ,50 laps and try shave again.only wtg and xtg see what happens.i hope you are keeping angle below 30 degree. Chinese stone doesnt need to be soaked in water before use.gl

I rotate thru 3 razors, and I need to touch up about once every 3 months, so I guess I'm at ~20 shaves before I need to touch the rock (darn things shave so close I don't need to shave every day...). I strop 60 laps prior to each shave,

-Chief

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Chinese stone doesnt need to be soaked in water before use.gl

I thought you had to soak it. I got that from the paper that came with the stone. I realize practical application doesn't always match ideal or seller covering his @$$.