"Shave Ready"

Let me start by saying I felt this question could have gone in a number areas and landed on Beginners because I think it's probably something most if not all beginners wonder so here goes.....

We all know that shave ready is of the utmost importance when shaving with a straight razor and much care and technique go into maintaining a shaveable edge...i.e. Leather and fabric stropping, barber hones and honing.

My question is how often? I know you strop before EVERY shave and number of laps seems to be a personal preference and it seems ppl take their razors to either pasted strops or barber hones once a month or so (is that correct?) but I have read any where from 4x per year to Once a year for honing. So what is it or is it all personal preference??

Thanks

This may make me sound like a smart ass, but you hone when the razor is no longer sharp enough to give a comfortable shave. There is no magic number of shaves or months.

That's true, and the intervals will space out more and more with experience.

There's no magic number. When it needs a touch up, it needs it...

That's pretty much it. Razors with hard steel may need less frequent touch ups but it also depends on your care & experience.

I seem to be getting 60 shaves per blade before needing a touch up, but ymmv

BenjamanBarker,

+1 on what the other posters have said.

I tend to err on the side of 'little and often' in the touch-up of my edges.

I will give the razor a brief (5 -10 laps) touch-up weekly on a CrOx pasted hard leather paddle strop, and monthly (5 - 20 laps) on a Naniwa 12k.

Have fun !

regards

Russ

Gentlemen,
Since I rotate 40 blades, my touch-ups come when I feel the razor needs it. A sweet little barber hone is part of the shave den and it does the job when necessary.

As has already been said, it just depends on whether the shave you get is still comfortable. You could need to touch up once per month or once per week. So many variables exist it's impossible to put an exact amount of time on it.

Enough's already been said by other members, but the steeper the angle you shave at the shoprter your edge will last, then if you have a coarse beard, even shorter, then as said your down to how good the edge is you've put on it, how hard the steel is and what stone you finished on natural/synthetic, coticule, naniwa, etc, and sometimes different razors react differently to different stones, so you can see how giving exact numbers of laps and days is very difficult.

If you shave and you end up with razorburn or you feel the edge isn't cutting as fluidly as you would like, give it a wee touch up.

kind regards Alex