Dull Blade

Hi all,
last week when I cut my stop I apparently dulled the blade a bit. It is pulling instead of gliding down my face. Will stroping bring it back or do I have to get it honed?

It depends. Try 50 linen and 50 leather and see how it shaves. If it doesn't improve it you may need to send it out.

A few licks on a barbers hone will do the trick!

unfortunately I do not have a barber hone.

As Jimmy said, try giving it a good stropping. Examine your technique though. If your stropping is off, you could dull the blade further. If that doesn't work, and the blade isn't to far gone, a barbers hone could fix the problem.

I bought mine from an SRP member LarryAndro. I'm not sure if he has any at the moment, but when I got mine, the price was very reasonable, particularly since the he lapped (flattened) the stone for me.

good luck.

lets us know did you resolve your issue.
you have been giving great advices. gl

I think right now my only option is to try a good stropping, and if that doesn't work to send it out to get honed. I hope it works, razor only has maybe 10-12 shave on it.

In case you haven't seen it read the last couple of pages in the barber manual excerpt on stropping and honing in the SRP Wiki help files here.

Do what they say in holding the razor between the tips of the thumb and forefinger and practice flipping the blade. Don't do the stroke until you've become proficient in the flipping with the razor held as they described. Once you do the stroke don't turn the wrist but, as they recommend, flip the blade. This worked really well for me once I got it down.

Thanks for the link, very cool. great advice!

A pasted paddle strop would come in handy for your situation as well as extending the life of all your straight razors before they need to be honed.

Pabster

I'd go:
50 trips Linen
50 trips Leather
Shave test
100 trips newspaper strop
Shave test
Paste
Shave test
Hone

Greetings!!!!

+1 to pabster pasted strop would be cheaper then to send it off to get it honed i built mine from the example on the site and it cost me 10 bucks total including the CrOxEasily make a pasted balsa strop - Straight Razor Place Wiki Good Luck!

what is a newspaper strop?

I 'newspaper strop' is when you just place several sheets of newspaper on the edge of a counter and use that to strop your razor on.

It seems to sharpen the edge a bit and is a good, inexpensive step to include in your stropping/honing routine.

Use several sheets to get some cushion, and try and get the paper as flat as possible (you don't need to be obsessive about it). Use light strokes.