Thread: can't be sharp enough right?

good advice here. i notice an uncomfortable pulling when my beard isnt prepped. as already stated good stropping, pulling and contorting of face and good lather......... have you tried putting your strop on the edge of a table? no sag there and so long as you roll your straight on its spine it wont round either.

Originally Posted by razormonkey

Hi guys!

Very frustrated and not sure where to pay attention to right now.

I sent my ebay special off to be honed, got it back last week and tried my first shave after stropping it, didn't get very far as

Most likely overhoned blade

it felt more like it was pulling the hair out rather than cutting it so strokes were very very short as i was never sure if the pain was hair coming out or face being cut into, needless to say i gave up.

never do this

found some time to have another go today, stropped it somewhere between 40-60 passes, did feel a little better but not much.

Need to be rehoned

where am i going wrong?

all above i said because you do have a good blade.It is not crappy pakistany or some cheap blade.
Now i think your blade honed someone which is very good honer(takes responsibility) .why i think so . Not easy to overhone the blade.takes time.
That person tried make perfect work that is why it happen.
Try to contact person and resolve the issue. SRP is a nice community i am sure you will get help. if you still have problem pm me.GL.

thanks guys!

i certainly can't cut hairs from arm by holding it 1/4 inch off my skin, it just combs them, sounds like the blade isn't sharp enough after all, maybe i will focus my attention on my stropping and see how that goes, hope i didn't roll the edge before even starting, failing that i'll drop my honer an email, but he did come highly recommended, and the razor was completely unusable before he got his hands on it, came back looking good.

Originally Posted by razormonkey

thanks guys!

i certainly can't cut hairs from arm by holding it 1/4 inch off my skin, it just combs them, sounds like the blade isn't sharp enough after all, maybe i will focus my attention on my stropping and see how that goes, hope i didn't roll the edge before even starting, failing that i'll drop my honer an email, but he did come highly recommended, and the razor was completely unusable before he got his hands on it, came back looking good.

arm hair is different will not give fair assessment about sharpness of blade.
do this.
strop only using weight of the blade.
if your blade gets very sharp and cuts in first pass then dulls that blade is overhoned.

but surely if it won't cut my arm hair, which is quite fine it will never be sharp enough to cut my facial hair which is nowhere near as fine, so the fact that it can't cut that hair must mean it's not sharp enough?

how can a blad be over honed?

if it is, how can it be corrected?

Originally Posted by razormonkey

but surely if it won't cut my arm hair, which is quite fine it will never be sharp enough to cut my facial hair which is nowhere near as fine, so the fact that it can't cut that hair must mean it's not sharp enough?

how can a blad be over honed?

if it is, how can it be corrected?

its actually easier to pass HHT with a coarse hair....

Seriously, contact the vendor that honed for you. If it is indeed overhoned, it needs a trip back to the hones.

Try cutting the arm hair with the blade on the skin. If it won't do that it certainly won't shave facial hair. Since it was professionally honed I would bet it isn't overhoned. You may have rolled the edge with incorrect stropping or it may be inadequate skin stretching, incorrect blade angle ? It is hard to diagnose without seeing and feeling the edge.

hmm, well it doesn't cut arm hair with contact on the skin either too well.

so far i have only tried the sides of my face so am quite confident i'm getting my angle of 30degrees right.

a video of jockeys said that the blade should feel sticky to touch as it bites into the skin, this isn't happening either.

i'll have a look at some more stropping vids and info and have another go stropping before next shave.

do all you guys use a pasted canvas strop? i have a strop with both leather and canvas but have bypassed the canvas so far.

The impression I have from the experiments of mparker762 is that the canvas or linen is sharpening to some extent while the leather is polishing. Try 50 or 60 on the canvas followed by another 50 on leather and try the arm hair again and see if there is any improvement. If not send the razor back to be honed again and don't strop before you shave when you get it back. That will help you know if the problem is technique or incorrect stropping. Just IMO.

We often tell straight users that they can roll a cutting edge by incorrect stropping. This is true. I think I'm going to perform some experiments, purposefully rolling an edge, and seeing what it takes to recover the edge.

Anyone else purposefully rolled an edge while stropping to see the effect, and to determine best way to recover?

This is one of the most common type messages on SRP. The thought I had is that maybe we aren't helping enough when this happens in giving specific instructions in edge recovery other than "send it back for rehoning."

I am speaking generally here. For example, JimmyHAD's latest post is about recovering the edge, and is a good post.