Send for a Re-hone or Grab Dat Dere Stone?

So,

A handful of shaves in, I lathered up my face and began. But nothing shaved. With research, I figured the problem must be me. Who would have thought? So, I must have been obviously stropping incorrectly or not enough. Or both. I carefully studied the articles and videos for strop technique and practiced. Then I went to work. Using a homemade denim strop, I kicked it up from 30 passes to 50. Few more shave attempts, but got nothing. Read some more and realized that's not nearly enough stropping. Increased to 150 today, still denim. Still nothing.

I have a certificate from Lynn for a re-hone. Which would be best, having him take a look at it for a re-hone or grabbing a cheap barber stone and trying to get the edge working again myself (saving the re-hone in the event I can't make it work on the stone)? I have no experience sharpening anything. Finally, I would prefer to stick to denim if at all possible.

Thanks

I'd send it off to be honed again.

And get a leather strop, only denim isn't enough.

You need to invest in a strop, I would like to know what kind of beard preparation routine you are using. Lynn is good for his word, but maybe there is another issue to be addressed first.

I also dulled my razor with bad stropping to the point where no amount of stropping (on leather) was helping. I was able to bring the blade back almost like new using CrO and FeO on balsa.

How were your first few shaves? If they started out good and then got bad and you haven't changed anything, then I think it's the strop. Edges take longer to dull normally, and the change is slower. Bad stropping can dull a razor in one shot. Leather strops with or without linen are the standard for straight razors. You can get a reasonable one for about 30 or 40 dollars. I think you would be better off getting a reasonable strop, practicing a little bit with it then sending the razor to Lynn if it doesn't shave well. He will be able to tell you what went wrong with the edge. When you get it back, you can be sure it is in the original condition as when you got it. By yourself, on a random barber hone, and honing for the first time is unlikely to give you the results that sending it out will give you.


-------Michael

+1 on getting a leather strop. I have the Illinois strop 827 Russian leather made in USA that I use. It comes with a linen strop attached. Works great for me!

I would hold off on homemade stuff until you know what you are doing and have perfected your technique.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ping-king.html

Get yourself a strop. If you want to shave with a straight you must have one. There are more affordable ones out there but I recomend spending what u feel comfortable with on a quality strop . It wil save you time , money & headaches in the long run.

stroping will make or break your shave. you might try stroping your razor on newspaper , lay it down on something flat and hard and give it 50 laps gentle presure. if that dosnt work send it back and get the best strop you can afford.never having sharpened anything may be a plus, you wont have to unlearn anything. a razor is unlike sharpening a knife.if you do want to hone your razor yourself then get a norton 4000/8000 , its the workhorse of stones.a razor hone will keep a sharp razor sharp but i wouldnt want to sharpen a dull razor with only a barber hone

If you don't want to spend a lot, get the whipped dog poor mans strop kit....... but most def get a leather strop. Denim won't do it alone.

PS, 150 passes on any one medium is kind of overkill IMHO, my usual stropping routine is 20 linen and 60 Leather before the shave then 20/20 after....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ulyssessteel

I have no experience sharpening anything.

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Then you should not practice honing on something that needs to be properly honed. Best to learn to shave & strop first, hone later.
Try practice stropping on a single sheet of newspaper held by a clip. Most but not all mistakes will become obvious.

Thank you all for the suggestions and info. The shaves did start as good when I first got the razor, so yeah, pretty sure it's me. I'm most likely going to send it back to get re-honed and will go ahead and grab a leather strop as well. If Lynn mentions what the specific issue might be, I'll report back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ulyssessteel

Thank you all for the suggestions and info. The shaves did start as good when I first got the razor, so yeah, pretty sure it's me. I'm most likely going to send it back to get re-honed and will go ahead and grab a leather strop as well. If Lynn mentions what the specific issue might be, I'll report back.

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theres a nice one for 60 bucs in the classifieds here fyi