Results 11 to 19 of 19
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10-30-2006, 08:08 PM #11
- Join Date
- Sep 2006
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Posts
- 48
Thanked: 4I have tough beard hair too and I have had to strop mid shave sometimes, depending on the blade. Normally the full hollow grounds need to be stropped after the first pass and thats it.
Do try finding a 1/4 hollow or 1/2 hollow blade, it is AMAZING the difference in stiffness. The 1/4Hollow Hess "Otto" I got from Randy is amazing, mows through 4 day stuble like it was butter. Plus Randy rocks at honing
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10-30-2006, 08:15 PM #12
Yeah...that Hess is a killer shaver.
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10-30-2006, 08:17 PM #13Originally Posted by Joe Chandler
I don't know what it is that rquires that. It may be the toughness of the beard or hardness of the whiskers, or both.
It doesn't sound like a wire edge, but it can be an edge that's too weak for the beard. One possibility is to compromise slightly on sharpness to get a more durable edge. You have to decide if it's a tradeoff you're willing to make.
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10-30-2006, 08:21 PM #14
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Middle Earth, Just round the corner from Hobbiton, New Zealand
- Posts
- 1,201
Thanked: 8I prefer single grind non full hollow blades. I have several from Joe and Bill and they have only been stropped since I got them.
I shave with two passes and have never had to strop in between. A few times I've shaved and forgotten to strop and no difference noticed. Mind you Bill and Joe ain't bad a honing . I'm also the guy that needs to shave in the evening if I'm going out and need to be smart so my beard is to too light.
Just my kiwi $ worth.
Gary
as an after thought. Buy a razor from Joe and Bill and you won't have the same trouble.
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10-30-2006, 08:23 PM #15
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Posts
- 3,396
Thanked: 346Everybody thinks their own beard is tough :-)
As I see it, the problems with a heavier beard are threefold: (1) the thicker hairs are more difficult to soften all the way through (2) the tougher whiskers damage the edge more during the shave (3) even a little bit of degradation in the edge causes painful pulling.
This means that increases in beard toughness can have a very nonlinear effect on the shave difficulty, so slight increases in beard toughness can cause a much more difficult shave because all these different factors multiply each other.
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10-30-2006, 08:30 PM #16
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Posts
- 3,396
Thanked: 346I've got a few half-hollow and quarter-hollow blades. I'm not convinced that the grind is that critical.
My half-hollow friodur shaves well, but then so do my full hollow friodurs. My 8/8 quarter hollow W&B shaves well, but it needs a mid-shave stropping while my 8/8 frameback W&B doesn't. And all of my lightweight full-hollow heljestrands sail through the shave without needing a stropping. (All this assumes they're finished on the 1 micron paddle).
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10-30-2006, 08:36 PM #17Originally Posted by Joe Chandler
The must be a continuity of the durability of edges all the way from dull to wire edge. It's the application that determines when the edge is too weak. A wire edge is just the extreme where the edge is too weak for anything. After all you wouldn't get that burr on the butcher knife if all you did was shave with it (assuming it was sharp enough).
I've never thought of the condition that requires stropping as a burr, although I could be wrong (it could be a microscopic one). I've visualized it as a condition where the microserrations are bent so as to spread out rather than the edge being bent. They do come back most of the way within a day. Stropping just pushes them the rest of the way. Also, I've always visualized the bending of the teeth, after they return, as being elastic. In other words, when you push them back, there's no fatigue. That would explain why you can strop and just refresh indefinitely. You're not breaking off teeth but jus sharpening the ones that are there.
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10-30-2006, 08:45 PM #18
[quote=mparker762]
I've got a really flexible "singing" blade that needs stropping mid-pass, so I rarely use it except on the weekend.
In my experience, finer grit finishes fare worse than coarser finishes; 0.25 micron edges won't last a single pass even on my best razors, 0.5 micron does better but only one of my razors will go an entire shave with it, even my friodurs need stropping mid-shave. If I stop at 1 micron then the Friodurs will go an entire shave just fine, but my Wade and Butchers still need a mid-shave stropping. I rarely go finer than 1 micron nowadays, and for most I stop at either the 8k or the translucent arkansas.
I've got one razor that stands above the rest, the TI Pierre Theirs LE. With that one I can finish the blade on .5 micron chromium oxide, and it will make it through both passes of the shave without stropping and at the end it will still pop the hairs on the underside of my arm (though not quite as readily as it did immediately after stropping). And it sounds like papabull has hand-forged a razor for himself that performs similarly, so I'm hopeful that I can one day enjoy the sort of shaving performance the rest of you are currently enjoying.
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10-30-2006, 08:54 PM #19
[quote=mparker762]
Everybody thinks their own beard is tough :-)
But I find I have to strop mid-shave sometimes. I like the edge really sharp, and I'll usually end with a .5 strop sometimes a .25. With me being used to that kind of sharpness, and the egdes being honed that fine, it's not a surprize that some razors might need stropping mid-shave. I've never paid much attention, but I don't think it's ever happened with a TI, and all of mine are singing blades.