Thread: Maintaining Sharpness

Ben

There are a lot of things that determine how often a blade needs to be refreshed on a stone. When I started shaving with straights a short while ago, I managed to dull the blade fairly quickly through poor stropping and shaving techniques. As you improve the time between honing being needed will increase. You should have a voucher for a free honing so you are good to go for a fair bit without a stone. Eventually you will want something to help maintain the edge other than a hanging stop. Take that time and read up here on what is recommended to purchase to maintain your edge. There is no immediate rush but 6 months or more out you may find it necessary.

Bob

I agree that with proper stropping, you should go months without needing a stone. You have a free re-sharpening from SRD so don't buy anything just yet. Learn to strop first. Go slow on the leather, not like you see on TV, and concentrate on each pass on the strop. Most newbies dull their new razor while learning to strop so take your time and concentrate so that you don't repeat the same mistake. Then after a few months start looking at stones. The usual first stone is the Norton 4/8K and that's all you'll need to start. But again, do not buy anything until you master stropping.