Thread: Another Beginner: When stropping isn't enough? Hones/honing?

Hey all!

I have been interested in straight razor shaving for a while now, but have been too intimidated to post here and buy equipment necessary.

However, a couple weeks ago i was buying my mom a new set of kitchen knives at our local cutlery store. I figured, heck, i'm spending $450 on knives, i may as well ask if they'll give me a deal on the cheapest straight razor. I walked out with a cheap Dovo solingen delrin handle straight razor, and a short Bismarck canvas strop/canvas both for $70.

I've been self-educating and youtubing, and have been shaving with it for about 2 weeks now, and feel somewhat comfortable with it, though not with the results. I'm 18, but i've received the hairy genes from my mother's side, so my beard is dense and grows annoyingly fast, one of the motivations for switching to straight razors.

I've been experimenting with technique (pressure, angles, etc), and i have improved somewhat since my first shave. however i am still getting a rather rough and unsatisfactorily close shave. I'm sure some of it is due to technique, which i figure i'll eventually get better at. I'm not sure if my razor is sharp enough.
I've watched plenty of videos on youtube about stropping technique, and i'm fairly certain i'm doing that well enough (there is always room for improvement.).

As far as i can tell, my razor fails the hanging hair test miserably. It'll snip a stiffer hair if coaxed, but it doesn't pop with gravity alone as seen on youtube. Would further stropping/better technique/ canvas stropping bring it to as sharp as it needs to be for a better shave?

I also have powdered Chromium Oxide, Aluminum oxide, and several bench strops (I've got an entire flank of leather, and a 1"x4"x5' in the garage). could i use a loaded strop to take the edge sharper? or would that do more harm than good?

My mother and brother bought me a pre-shave kit for Christmas from The Art of Shaving, which came with: pre-shave oil, a good sized jar of shaving cream, a badger brush, and after shave balm. I am going to try it out tomorrow, and It seems like a lot of work .

I am into sharpening my pocket knives, and like to maintain hair-whittle edges on them. recently I've been oogling spyderco's 2x8 F and UF bench stones for a while, for my other knives to replace my makeshift sharpening setup (M, F, UF rods on the base of a sharpmaker, since i do everything freehand now). Are they fine enough, or otherwise suitable to hone a straight razor?
I don't like the work involved with water stones (soaking, lapping, price), which is why i'm looking at ceramics.

As i understand it, honing shouldn't be necessary more than a couple times a year, so i'd like to have hones that could serve other purposes. Now i've got christmas money for it, but not a whole lot.

I welcome any tips or advice you all have,

-Siddhartha

thanks for reading!

Chances are your Dovo needs a bit more than stropping. At least any Dovo I've seen that came straight from the factory needed it.
If I were you I'd send the razor out for honing to somebody who's good at it. You can also get another shave-ready razor from such a person, but that'll probably cost you a bit more than honing the one you already have.
If you insist on figuring it out yourself look at the wiki pages and the honing section on the proper way to hone a razor. I've never used spiderco hones, but other people have. AFIK the way they cut depends a lot on how they're lapped, so that's an extra variable, but generally you would set a bevel on a ~1k grit level hone, then refine the edge on a ~4k grit level and then ~8k grit level, at which point, if everything was done right, it should be pretty good shave.

I've only been around here about 6 weeks, but I've gathered a few tidbits of info. My guess is that your razor was not shave ready when you purchased it. Stropping an unhoned razor is not going to make it shave ready and honing a SR is nothing like honing a knife. Stropping is for maintaining the edge between honings. Your best bet would be to look up one of the many honemeisters here on SRP and have them work their magic on your razor.

I noticed you commented that the shave prep takes a lot of time. That's one of the reasons many of us have chosen SR shaving. It forces us to slow down and enjoy the shave, in an otherwise hurried world.

You can use the same tools and techniques on razors that give you hair-whittling sharpness on your knives.

Well up to now i've been using a rather makeshift setup. I have a norton cryostolon, a cheap $14 hard arkansas, and the med/f/uf rods layed flat on the base of my sharpmaker. i finish with loaded strops (CrOx and AlOx).

I've been trying to assemble a proper setup. I would have bought a DMT 8" C/F/EF and a spyderco for finishing before, as it is a good progression for my knives. However, now that i've got a straight razor, i would like to have a setup that could work for both purposes. Thing is, i don't know whether the spyderco UF is suitable for finishing/touchup of razors, or whether DMT F -> spyderco UF is good enough for restoration.

Your setup will work just fine for straight razors too. A straight razor is nothing more than a specialized knife. You can get more sharpening stones, etc. if you like (most of us do, because it's so fun) but it is not necessary.

Cheers,
Jeff

I do actually enjoy sharpening to begin with, which is why i'm planning on getting a proper set. If i was only into razors, i definitely would focus more towards the higher end, just because even setting the bevel only requires what i would consider an already fine stone.
However i do need a relatively wide spectrum of stones as i sharpen everything from kitchen knives to s30v pocket knives as well, so my budget must be stretched to encompass all that (at least for now).

I want to start with a progression that will get the job done, but has room for improvement later.

my current thinking is this:
DMT 8" continuous C/F/EF
Spyderco F

after reading this rather fascinating thread: I am considering swapping out the EF dmt with a EEF dmt, As it seems like going from EEF to spyderco UF is sufficent for setting a bevel and finishing for a comfortable shave. However for my other knives i'm not sure what going from DMT F to EEF would do for the scratch pattern, other than taking a really long time.

So, just because i don't have any other option, i decided to give stropping another try after reading a lot of the wiki.

I sped up my strokes, and went to about 60. now a head-hair is catching with the weight of gravity alone, instead of just sliding off. my head-hairs are extremely thick, so this might have something to do with it. i feel like the gentleman i bought the razor from might have put an edge on it. he told me he occasionally shaves with a similar dovo himself (though he carries much nicer razors).
either way, there is definite improvement with brisker and longer stropping, but my hand is cramped up. do you see this going anywhere, or does it definitely need a honing?

Oh, i do have spyderco Ultra Fine rods for my Sharpmaker. would it be worth a try to hone it with the rods on the flat of the base (as shown on the instructional dvd for straight razors)?

I would definitely suggest getting it honed by a pro. This way you will know that if there is a problem it isnt the razor. Check the classifieds, there are plenty of people to help you!

I'm a little reluctant. while i see the benefits of having someone touch up the razor, who knows what they're doing, it is a $30 task, which is half what i payed for the razor in the first place, and half the cost of a 3x8 UF or 1/3 of a norton.