Thread: When to refresh?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I have found that most beginners double the time between Honing/touch ups twice, from when they first start shaving

They get their razor and say the edge lasts 1 month

The second time it is honed up it will go 2 months

after the third time it will go 4 months and pretty well that is your cycle


When you first start you mess everything up, from the prep and lather, to the stropping, as you progress you get better at everything so the edge lasts longer and longer

(month intervals are just for examples)


HHT:

Why do we say don't do it???

Because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, first it has to be calibrated, and until you hone, it can't be calibrated, second it doesn't really tell you anything about how the razor will shave..
Third, a newb trys it and fails, and decides the edge is to blame, rather then their own non-existent technique


BTW yer post tells me you need to practice stropping

I don't quite follow what you mean Glen. I never said that there was anything wrong with the performance of the razor, I'm just asking for input to make sure that I'm headed in the right direction for a refreshing hone for WHEN it needs to be refreshed. I brought up the HHT test in my OP because I'm curious as to why a razor would pass the test, and then not, all while having the same performance in TST...maybe that's where some of the confusion is coming from

I read someone talking about someone less experienced needing to refresh more often like you're saying, so that's good to know for sure. I just want to preemptively be aware of it so that when I do notice a decline in performance that can't be fixed with a good stropping, I'll eventually know what to do.

Originally Posted by kwlfca

Ending up with a rounded bevel is one of the reasons that I have already been feeling wary of pastes...it kind of seems like a bandaid fix kind of deal. Refreshing the edge on a paste, at the cost of a good bevel, seems like it wouldn't be very beneficial in the long run...no?

I've been reading about lapping as well, now that you mention that too, both on a lapping stone and the wet/dry sandpaper, and was wondering if the synthetics would need to be lapped as well as the naturals...I'm guessing that is a yes based on what you said.

I've had the Naniwa 12k bookmarked in my browser for a little while now, so it's good to know that I was already headed in the right direction

i dont really think a pasted strop should round a bevel, especially when pastes are used on balsa wood which is usually perfectly flat! i read through this thread a while back:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...xperiment.html
and the results support my thought on pastes, unless i did not comprehend the results well enough
anyways, the naniwa 12k is excellent as many have claimed (i do not have one ), and i myself have a barber hone on the way! gooodluck with whatever decision you make

You had me worried, that razor should give you 30 shaves without needing a touch-up as it's quite hard New York steel. My recommendation on stropping is 40x after the shave and 60x before. For me that is a minimum. Your razor was honed on Shapton GS stones to 16K and finished on a natural finisher...no tape. This is my "go-to" method. That razor left the U.S. with a nice and crisp edge as I shaved with it, stropped it well, disinfected it, oiled it, then packaged it. All you needed to do with it before the shave was wipe off the oil & take it to a nicely prepared beard & I know it would cut any beard like warm butter. If properly maintained, it should do that for MANY shaves. If it doesn't, then we need to identify what else is going on.

For touchups my normal recommendation is a quality barber hone like a Swaty, a Naniwa 12K, or Shapton GS 16K. I have a diamond pasted paddle strop myself, but I have come to prefer just doing a touch-up on either a thuringian or my 16K.

You will find that you will hear of many ways to touch-up a razor that works for different folks. None of them are wrong as they do work for those folks, it's just finding what works for you. There are many paths to a good shave, all that matters is that you arrive there & enjoy the trip!

Originally Posted by shooter74743

You had me worried, that razor should give you 30 shaves without needing a touch-up as it's quite hard New York steel. My recommendation on stropping is 40x after the shave and 60x before. For me that is a minimum. Your razor was honed on Shapton GS stones to 16K and finished on a natural finisher...no tape. This is my "go-to" method. That razor left the U.S. with a nice and crisp edge as I shaved with it, stropped it well, disinfected it, oiled it, then packaged it. All you needed to do with it before the shave was wipe off the oil & take it to a nicely prepared beard & I know it would cut any beard like warm butter. If properly maintained, it should do that for MANY shaves. If it doesn't, then we need to identify what else is going on.

For touchups my normal recommendation is a quality barber hone like a Swaty, a Naniwa 12K, or Shapton GS 16K. I have a diamond pasted paddle strop myself, but I have come to prefer just doing a touch-up on either a thuringian or my 16K.

You will find that you will hear of many ways to touch-up a razor that works for different folks. None of them are wrong as they do work for those folks, it's just finding what works for you. There are many paths to a good shave, all that matters is that you arrive there & enjoy the trip!

Don't worry, I just shaved with it and it performs just as beautifully as the day that I got it!

I'm just investigating for the future! After all, why leave learning about this stuff until it needs it when you could learn about it in advance when you still have loads of time! I'd probably send it back to you when it finally does need a touch up, in all honesty haha I'd just like to properly educate myself before I even try to do any refreshing. Probably watch a hundred and one videos of various SRP members honing too.

Originally Posted by kwlfca

Don't worry, I just shaved with it and it performs just as beautifully as the day that I got it!

I'm just investigating for the future! After all, why leave learning about this stuff until it needs it when you could learn about it in advance when you still have loads of time! I'd probably send it back to you when it finally does need a touch up, in all honesty haha I'd just like to properly educate myself before I even try to do any refreshing. Probably watch a hundred and one videos of various SRP members honing too.

When the razor needs a touch-up, you should be ready. Save your money and pick up one of the three stones I mentioned & have at it. You aren't going to hurt the razor on any of the three stones I mentioned.