Thread: Will it ever sharpen?

Thanks guys for all of the input. I am going to reach out to Lynn as well and probably send it back for a rehone. I am concerned early though. I was very careful in most of my stropping technique - or at least it seemed I was. If I did something to dull it enough to require a rehone so soon then I will probably need some hands on guidance. It would seem that it is a very fine difference in stropping technique. I am ok to not get out honing stones and instead send the razor back to Lynn. If the problem can be solved with the strop I would like to work that first simply for the learning opportunity.

Just got off the phone with Lynn at SRD...what fantastic customer service and a great guy to get info from. We decided that I am going to take another try at the shave to make certain that my angle of cut is in check. If its a no-go still he is going to assis me with the recommended rehone. Part of the experince here is I need to establish more of a personal feel in the edge to make a sharpness determination. I love the new shaving challenge and am looking forward to the months ahead. Thanks to all who have helped.

Send it back to SRD with the free honing certificate, next time don't worry about tests or even stropping. While there is nothing wrong with doing 250 laps when stropping correctly if your doing it wrong your just damaging a very find blade. You will never get a straight to feel as sharp as your feather blades, they have platinum or Teflon coatings that make them slicker than a ducks backside. Don't worry about getting it sharp it will be from SRD just wipe off oil, prep for shave and shave. You already have all your experience from wet shaving so you only have one major hurdle to clear and if you keep at it you will. Don't worry 80% of first timers (myself included) get their first razor from Lynn and say "there's no way this is sharp enough" the first lesson is that it is and you are wrong, then it's just a matter of watching videos until you get it.

Edit: looks like I'm a bit late

Yep...this might just be getting used to the feel of a straight against the skin. I will recheck the angle and see if the pulling becomes a cut.

- Vicenzo


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Originally Posted by Mastershake

This was the problem I had with my first razor, I rolled the edge and tore the crap out of my face not knowing I had messed up the edge (my lather wasn't the best either, but the rolled edge was the #1 culpret).
Be careful not to use too much pressure when stropping, I learned the hard way.

On rolling the edge, just how unforgiving is this? If one was to roll the edge just once and relatively lightly is that enough to dull the blade and therefore no amount of stropping will correct this?

Originally Posted by planetocean

On rolling the edge, just how unforgiving is this? If one was to roll the edge just once and relatively lightly is that enough to dull the blade and therefore no amount of stropping will correct this?

Stropping wouldn't fix it in my case, I had to take her back to the stones.
I used a couple reverse strokes (just like stropping) on my 800 stone to remove the roll and then honed her up as usual. I finish with a 4000 water stone and then a strop with polishing compound.
She turned out fine in the end!