Thread: Anything wrong with frequent blade refresh?

I am now 3 months into straight shaving and loving the experience. I find myself frequently having to strop my edges with .5 chromuim oxide on rough side of the strop to refresh the edge to get a really comfortable shave on my upper lip.

For me, the sharpness test is ATG on my lip. In order to get close and comfortable with this pass, I find myself having to make 5 or 6 passes on the cr. ox. strop, then normal 50 -60 laps on the smooth leather. The results are great, but my question is, is there any down side to doing this?

I have a 7 day set I use primarily, so it's not like I'm having to do this every day, but I only get about 2 to 3 shaves per razor before I'm back to the pasted strop.

I suspect angle of shave may have some bearing, but I am getting no burn and very desirable results with my technique.

Dave

If you are only getting 2 or 3 shaves before having to refresh you do not have razors properly sharpened. No matter how tough a beard you may have you should be getting probably 20+ shaves before the faintest signs of deterioration begin to appear. Many guys go many months before having to refresh. It depends on your beard, your technique and how sensitive you are to the feel of the blade and the way it cuts.

Every time you take a blade to a hone you are removing metal. Probably a few strokes on CrO is no big issue but the solution for you is to practice getting your razor proper sharp.

Sort of agree with the big spender, but sort of not. I do 3-pass shaves on a very tough beard with soft Sheffield razors. I get 6 shaves rather than 20. I had a razor honed by Glen and it deteriorated at about the same rate, although it was much sharper than mine to begin with, so it lasted around 20 shaves. So your exact mileage will depend on a number of variables. Heavy beard + lots of passes + soft steel = shorter longevity.

Anyway, the bottom line is you have to touch the razor up when it starts shaving like crap, and the longer you put this off, the more honing it will take, so you don't really save any hone wear by putting it off. If I touch up every 5 shaves, 5 laps on a Swaty gets me going again. At that rate I will certainly be dead before I've worn my razor down to a stump, so I don't worry about hone wear. I've seen how much work it takes to hone out even the tiniest of chips!

Edit: I realize I didn't answer the question properly. If you do frequent touch-ups on a pasted hanging strop, you will slowly convex your edge into something that cross-sectionally resembles a ballpoint pen, and then it will take a lot of honing to make the cross-section triangular again. I touch up 5 laps on my Swaty, then polish 15 laps on a hard paddle pasted with chrome ox. The hard paddle is not compliant so it doesn't convex the edge. My paddle isn't fancy. It's a thick piece of scrap oak that I flattened with sandpaper on glass.

i have to agree with thebigspendur.
you should your blade get honed properly and used it right way too. try to use scything motion will help edge last longer then 3 shaves.
you like very sharp edge and frequently going to chro2 will make your edge life shorter then you expect.
Please note we are talking quality blade not pakistany etc.
hope this helps.

i used my TI more then 30 shaves then i get tired of it. same razor almost more then months and i stop that experience.
what i noticed after 10 shaves i start to strop more then usual. i am lazy i do 10-15 strokes and shave. but it was getting longer at the end i was making 60 on strop then shave.
gl

I've been using a little 4/8 swede for about 20 shaves and it's still going very strong. I agree with the wise sages of sharpness here... stropping well, and using techniques that maximize cutting power (scythe baby- the Utopian kind ) have helped this razor stay shave ready through so many shaves

Originally Posted by Johnny J

Sort of agree with the big spender, but sort of not. I do 3-pass shaves on a very tough beard with soft Sheffield razors. I get 6 shaves rather than 20. I had a razor honed by Glen and it deteriorated at about the same rate, although it was much sharper than mine to begin with, so it lasted around 20 shaves. So your exact mileage will depend on a number of variables. Heavy beard + lots of passes + soft steel = shorter longevity.

Anyway, the bottom line is you have to touch the razor up when it starts shaving like crap, and the longer you put this off, the more honing it will take, so you don't really save any hone wear by putting it off. If I touch up every 5 shaves, 5 laps on a Swaty gets me going again. At that rate I will certainly be dead before I've worn my razor down to a stump, so I don't worry about hone wear. I've seen how much work it takes to hone out even the tiniest of chips!

Edit: I realize I didn't answer the question properly. If you do frequent touch-ups on a pasted hanging strop, you will slowly convex your edge into something that cross-sectionally resembles a ballpoint pen, and then it will take a lot of honing to make the cross-section triangular again. I touch up 5 laps on my Swaty, then polish 15 laps on a hard paddle pasted with chrome ox. The hard paddle is not compliant so it doesn't convex the edge. My paddle isn't fancy. It's a thick piece of scrap oak that I flattened with sandpaper on glass.

I agree totally . You almost took the words out of my mouth .

Originally Posted by Johnny J

Sort of agree with the big spender, but sort of not. I do 3-pass shaves on a very tough beard with soft Sheffield razors. I get 6 shaves rather than 20. I had a razor honed by Glen and it deteriorated at about the same rate, although it was much sharper than mine to begin with, so it lasted around 20 shaves. So your exact mileage will depend on a number of variables. Heavy beard + lots of passes + soft steel = shorter longevity.

Anyway, the bottom line is you have to touch the razor up when it starts shaving like crap, and the longer you put this off, the more honing it will take, so you don't really save any hone wear by putting it off. If I touch up every 5 shaves, 5 laps on a Swaty gets me going again. At that rate I will certainly be dead before I've worn my razor down to a stump, so I don't worry about hone wear. I've seen how much work it takes to hone out even the tiniest of chips!

Edit: I realize I didn't answer the question properly. If you do frequent touch-ups on a pasted hanging strop, you will slowly convex your edge into something that cross-sectionally resembles a ballpoint pen, and then it will take a lot of honing to make the cross-section triangular again. I touch up 5 laps on my Swaty, then polish 15 laps on a hard paddle pasted with chrome ox. The hard paddle is not compliant so it doesn't convex the edge. My paddle isn't fancy. It's a thick piece of scrap oak that I flattened with sandpaper on glass.

Another +1 on this. Most of my barber's razors are soft Sheffield & that's about what I get. (FWIW, I get 2-3 shaves out of a D/E blade before it starts pulling uncomfortably.) Now, the CS Filarmonica (much harder steel) I had was still going strong 15+ shaves later when I sold it.

I do find that if I only do a quick WTG + a bit of cleanup, my edges last much longer--probably around 20 shaves plus, but I get a much more comfortable shave if I shave closer. My beard lies almost completely flat, so WTG alone doesn't completely get it. I scythe everywhere (you should see me do ATG on my chin! )& am extremely careful about angle/pressure, but my jawline is impossible to get at w/o unfortunately raising the spine a bit more than I'd like. Yes, I've tried every approach to it. Pressure is virtually nonexistent, but obviously this is not good at all for the blade.
Touchups, however are super-light & bring the edge right back, putting me in the more-frequent-but-lighter touchup category. And again, harder steel razors tend to last a good bit longer for me. Can't afford any right now, of course.

All that being said, I do think 2-3 shaves is a bit low, even if you really do have a brillo pad beard and are shaving ATG. You might want to try & see how little crox stropping you can get away with following the Swaty--all you really want to do with that stuff is smooth out an already sharp edge. If you're using it to sharpen a duller edge, they will fail on you prematurely.