Thread: Newbie Question....Touch up hone, or good stropping session?

So I started straight shaving about a week ago, and have been shaving every day since. My first shave I made the mistake of angling the spine too far from the face, and though the shave was super close, I got razor burn bad and dulled my blade as well. I stropped with my friends cheap strop that he bought for reasons unknown and had just been hanging in his room for a couple years with no use being that he doesn't grow facial hair. Any way, his strop started cracking even though I had oiled it with a light natural oil, and even rubbed it down real nice like with my palms. After that first stropping session I conceded to using the nylon side and then moved to paper which is a pain because it is so short. That seemed to work alright, and I figured it would be good enough until my big daddy strop came in, but there was a mix up with shipping not sure how it happened, but I am sure it was my stupid computer's fault (need to reformat.) But alas, my last shave sucked, The bladed pulled to much to go against the grain, and even across the grain was irritating. I feel overall confident in my shaving technique in the moment aside fro the tip of my chin maybe, but I feel I am no longer shaving in such a way as to prematurely dull the blade. So, my question (after my rant of a background,) is to whether or not I should do a touch up hone, or just to an excessive nylon then paper wrapped block session and then go crazy when my strop finally arrives.
Thanks for the input, kinda been learning from trial and error so far been too impatient to wait for answers thus far, but this one doesn't involving anything remotely exciting so I should be able to restrain myself lol.

Sounds to me like you need the hone. Also it sounds like you need more than a touch-up. Depending what it needs and the condition of the blade you might be able to get it up to snuff on a 12K type or 8K but that's assuming the bevel is in good shape. if you need to rework that you need a 4K or 1K.

Ok, so should I kill the edge and start fresh or just do a quick touch up and go from there? I like the idea of the touch up, but not wanting to be too lazy lol.

I would try Stropping first and see what happens. When that stops working, I use a 3 x 12 inch home made bench strop pasted with CrOx or 0.5 micron diamond paste then back to the unpasted daily strop. When that fails, I go to my hones, then pasted strop, and finally my daily strop. I try to minimize removal of metal from a setup bevel. If your edge has never been set up by an experienced honer, you may want to send it out. A lot of wear can take place with hones.

Did you start with a razor that was honed by a Pro? Learning how to shave with a straight is hard enough, trying to learn how to hone at the same time could make the learning curve "hockey stick steep"....IMHO..

I got my razor professionally honed at straight razor designs. I did not strop before my first shave and it seemed fine for the majority of the shave. I think my angle was too close to 45 degrees though because I got quite a bit of razor burn and when I stropped before my next shave it sounded far to loud not to have curved back on its self so I stropped longer on the fabric than I had planned and that seemed to do the trick, then when I finally got to the shaving portion, I tried to keep it where if the angle was off it would be where the spine was closer to my skin so under 30 degrees, and that worked well until Saturday. I had finally been able to get a full 3 pass shave Friday, but Saturday I felt it was pulling during the second pass. I have been worried about ruining my razor so I was not wanting to try and hone it myself yet even though I had managed to get to golden dollar razors shave ready from scratch, but those were not my razors and were not being used by anyone so there was no fear of ruining them. I have a free re-honing at straight razor designs, but I don't want to use that until I get a second straight. I just did about 8 passes on a 15k wet stone and then a strop and it shaved my arm no pulling restropped, came here to look for posting now I will go and begin to shave and see if I need to do more.

First pass, felt fairly good until the second half of my face. Didn't feel bad, but not great. Went back to the stone did several more passes, then strop and paper. going to continue this then try a second pass. The razor is sounding very even on the strop now. So hoping I am close.

Sounds like you need a rehone..I've done what you did when I first started..needs a rehone..if your edge is in tip top shape..paste will work much better

You don't realize how much is going on in your post & the real possibilities of what has went on with your razor...could be a number of things or a combination of things. Could you have rolled the edge stropping? You mention touching up the edge...with what? Facial prep method? The list could go on and on to the possibilities of what is going on...you are going thru what we have all gone thru at one time or another.

I mean this as no insult, but one week in...you don't know how to shave yet, you are just getting your proverbial feet wet. My recommendation to you would be to have the razor checked/touched up. This takes care of a few things: Keeps you from shaving until you have a proper strop & keeps you from damaging your razor. With this being said, my recommendation for you would be to send or take the razor to a person who is well versed in the hones. I am north of Paris, TX if you wanted to make the drive (I'm off Tuesday & Wednesday)...or send it to me and cover the shipping back. I will evaluate the razor, get with you & we can take it from there.

Yes I realize that there are many factors that could cause this, but based on the feel when I drag the blade across my palm, I feel it was do to the edge curving back on its self, I would take you up on your offer though you are 7 hrs away and I only have the one razor, so though it is appreciated for now, I think I will just have to tinker around until I figure it out or find a closer option. I did end up putting some time into honing today after doing a brief hone, nylon, then paper strop and shave test. Hopefully I will have my strop delivered soon enough, but until then I guess I am stuck with the paper solution. Also I did not intend to say I had mastered the straight razor, I just feel that after the first shave at to steep of an angle, I at least have it angled to where I should not damage the edge prematurely. I hope this does not come across as defensive or arrogant, because I really do appreciate all of the feed back from everybody on this forum.