Thread: Razor Dulling?

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to Straight Razor shaving, and so far I am loving it.

I picked up one of the Dorvo kits from SRD. The first shave went pretty well (better than expected), and each shave since has become slightly easier. However, I've noticed that the blade seems to be becoming slightly more and more dull with each successive shave. Even from day one it never passed the HHT test, though after reading up on that it seems that is not necessarily a major issue so I didn't worry about it too much. But as I continue to shave I notice in the trickier areas the razor seems to get "hung up" more.

As I understand it, the razor should not really be dulling this quickly. I've had the razor for a couple months now but really only have a couple weeks worth of shaves on it as I do not use it daily. I strop the blade about 20x both before and after I use it, so approximately 40 strops in between shaves, which seems to be about the recommended amount. Am I not stropping it enough, or am I screwing up the blade while stropping?

Stropping consists of moving the blade in an X pattern, spine first, across the strop. Rotating at each end on the spine, not the point. That being said, the various nicks on my strop would indicate I certainly need to work on my stropping more.

So... regardless of the cause, what do I need to do in order to "repair" my blade or am I better off leaving it alone for now, as it is still capable of shaving? Should I be looking at picking up a honing stone at this point, and if so which grit should I be looking at? I see people talking about honing stones from 4k, 8k, 12k, 16k, and natural japanese stones which I have no idea of the grit on. I'm assuming the angle on the edge is fine and that I just need to refinish the blade. The highest grit I seem to be able to actually find is the 8k, but that sounds like it's more of a rough finish for a razor.

That sounds normal to me, especially when you are new. Yes, your stropping might not be optimal. Don't you get a free honing with your SRD purchase? I'd use that, and then buy a felt strop and some CrOx to keep the edge going.

Hostage67,

+1 on Blixs' observations & suggestions.

There are so many variables involved WRT edge life, that it is impossible to state categorically that this edge will last this long etc.

The shave is the real test and indicator of the state of the edge

For me, aside from the dialy stropping on linen & leather, I touch up my edge weekly on a hard leather paddle strop that has had 0.5 micron CrOx powder rubbed into it. Once a month the edge geta a refresh on a stone (currently Naniwa 12k). The exact number of laps is dependent on the blade, and I tend to do 10 - 20 laps then shave test. If it needs some more laps subsequently then it gets them

This protocol works very well for me; others may say that is excessive

Good luck !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

I am relatively still only a beginner also and have only had my razor less time than you have but have shaved with it every time. I really stuffed up my edge without knowing it also, if you have nicks in your strop chances are the blade has been dulled as a result. I was persevering through my shaves thinking my technique was getting worse when in actual fact the edge was getting worse.

I purchased some Chromium oxide paste and some balsa wood and stropped the razor on that and it did the world of good, refreshed up the edge that it actually cut the whiskers, thank goodness for that.

As of yesterday I purchased a Belgium Coticule bout as my first hone and gave the razor several strokes on that before stropping it on the Chromium oxide again and then finally my leather strop.

Not sure if this is the way to go with sharpening the edge but I took a bit longer to shave this morning as the razor is so much sharper than it was previous that I had to be more careful, especially placing it horizontal under my nose.

I'm with Blix here. Its no unusual (Tom Jones) for this to happen when you first start shaving and its usually easily solved with a touch up honing and then some CrOx to keep the edge going after that.

Once you're comfortable with stropping and giving the blade a few swipes on CrOx when it starts to dull you'll be able to keep a blade going for ages!

well if you want to touch ur razor up and keep it going for almost a lifetime they you should get a barbers hone, antique stores or at yellowdog.com they are not expensive (20-35$) and they will keep your razor running for a long time as long as you dont nick the edge or drop it. If you get one put some shave lather on it and do 4-5 passes on it and then strop on the linen and leather and give it a test shave you should be good to go. if you do more than 5 passes you may overhone it and be worst off than you were before,

if you have any questions feel free to pm me and if i cant help you then someone one here will be able to.

Thanks for the input guys, sounds like it's fairly normal then and I just need a high grit hone to touch up the edge as suspected. I'll probably pick up a 12k Naniwa stone...

Naniwa Super Stone

And use that to touch up the edges, I can pick up the lower grit ones later as needed.

Good move. And remember that free re-hone from SRD if you aren't completely satisfied using that 12k!

Originally Posted by pcg

Good move. And remember that free re-hone from SRD if you aren't completely satisfied using that 12k!

Ya, that's why I figured I'd attempt it first, that way if I screw it up I can still get it professionally done .

Good move. Good thinking! Nice to have that fallback. :-)