Thread: Dull razor after just 3 shaves

When I correctly rememver Your other posts, You've got the Razor from Lynn - so it should have been honed properly and sharp. Otherwise I would have said that DOVO's are not very sharp coming from the factory.

With a little nick in it, the razor will have to be honed and a finisher-stone allone won't do that (without a doing hundret million strokes). The Edge truely is sensitive. When You hit - I mean touch - anything hard it will be at least bent. Your fingernail is engough. I think You would normally not get a nick from the strop, but hitting the leather's edge permenticular might be enough (did not try). Hitting any metal definitely will.

In my almost endless "hello"-post I had the idea of putting a piece of tape around the edge in order to protect edge, strop, and take some of the "excitement" out of the matter. As Your blade is dull now (probably still sharper than anything else in Your household), You might try that.
Then take it slow - slow motion is fine for the first strokes and the only way You can actually see what happens.
When You start stropping or on the upper or lower turnpoints do *not* lower the edge down to the leather untlil You're not already moving towards You (or away from You respectively). If You fully lower the blade at the turning point, chances are high that You move just a fraction of an inch into the (now) wrong direction and cut the leather.

When I restarted after 15 years I also caught a few light cuts at the turning points, because I once used to be a cool guy who could do it and simply started too fast. I was back on track after one or two hundret strokes, but had cought some very light cuts.
I used fine sandpaper to smoothen them, nailfail would do as well.

HTH

With light pressure on the spine during the stroke there is enough deflection in the strop to keep light contact with the edge. From the library here File:Bart+stropping+animated.gif - Straight Razor Place Wiki .

Bob

Just a couple of thoughts to consider. I hand rub both the webbing and leather side of my strop prior to every use because I read that is how to break in a new strop in the Shave
Wiki. I would imagine if you are doing this and there is some debris embedded in the webbing you would have felt it. I also caught myself flipping the blade on the edge once. I had really been concentrating on flipping on the spine but caught myself doing this when I got a little too comfortable.
In the General Discussion section there is a subforum titled Videos. There are some videos t where the poster has recorded themselves doing a shaving task and asking for feedback. This could be a way for you to find out if your stropping is causing the problems you are having.

Originally Posted by Cros

how do I not put any pressure on the edge put still put some on spine?...

I would say: You can't.
BobH can, all the experienced guys can. But I would say You can't and You should not.
Again referring to my rediculously long post. Stropping actually is quite complex. It looks easy and after having done it a few thousand times also starts feeling easy.
It's probably a bit like trying to apply butter from the fridge onto a slice of untoastet toast that You hold in Your hand.

I'm not sure if "pressure" is the correct term here. Maybe it's better to call it "weight". There should be no pressure on the edge that's for sure. pressure on the spine does not do any harm *if* you can quarantee that You neither put pressure on the edge or lift it from the leather.
Basicly You are stropping with the weight of the razor - the spine guided as if there where a magnet underneath the leather. Not a strong one. Just one that keeps the spine on track. This however is very difficult to accomplish when You hold the strop tight and the razor - in fear of loosing control over it - also.

I would state that, compared to an experienced guy with let's say 10 or 20,000 strokes, *any* beginner is putting too much pressure and force into the whole "stropping system". It's fear, tension, thinking, controlling, correcting - All of us had to go through this.
We all can give the one or other advice, but it only comes by doing it.

For me, I always found it helpful to listen and feel what leather and razor are trying to tell me.

Just a couple of hints about stropping

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...st-2012-a.html


The first stage of stropping correctly is to "Do no harm" the next stage of stropping is to "Improve the edge" it takes time a practice to get to the second stage

Originally Posted by shooter74743

You take a sharp pin and lightly run it over the edge from spine down. The sharp metal will grab if the edge is rolled. You will need to do this on both sides. Use no pressure or you will damage the edge. All you are doing is feeling the edge, visualize the edge having a bend in it like the letter "J".

Just did the pin test as you suggested. It confirmed that the area around the little chip is rolled towards one side. The total length of the rolled is around 1/2". Sigh... well nothing else left but to buy a new razor and while I am at it maybe even 2 or 5

You are going to need some stones since shipping is out of the question for you. Your current razor is out of the fight, just out of commission at the moment. Instead of "5" razors, might I suggest one or two and a set of stones like a:
Chosera 1K
Norton 4/8K, Naniwa 3/8K, or Shapton 4 & 8K

Razors will dull (the average human whisker is like cutting a pure copper wire of the same diameter) over time, get dinged and the such...you will (considering the shipping costs you incur) have to learn to maintain your own razors. Just a thought...we here on SRP are quite good at assisting one another spend their hard earned $$$.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

You are going to need some stones since shipping is out of the question for you. Your current razor is out of the fight, just out of commission at the moment. Instead of "5" razors, might I suggest one or two and a set of stones like a:
Chosera 1K
Norton 4/8K, Naniwa 3/8K, or Shapton 4 & 8K

Razors will dull (the average human whisker is like cutting a pure copper wire of the same diameter) over time, get dinged and the such...you will (considering the shipping costs you incur) have to learn to maintain your own razors. Just a thought...we here on SRP are quite good at assisting one another spend their hard earned $$$.

Thank you Scott. I ordered a Coticule from Belgium and hope to learn to use it. It is a yellow side only stone and hope it will do the job of bringing my shot down razor back to life I watched tons of stropping videos last night and I see where I went wrong with my technique.

I didn't mention naturals for a reason with you learning to hone. Naturals can be a bit quirky to learn. Any honing veteran here on SRP can give you a "recipe" to follow with synthetics, this really isn't so with a natural as your coticule and mine WILL be different. Don't get me wrong, you can learn to produce a good shaving edge from coticules & I hope you have a smooth journey...my personal journey with coti's has had a bumpy road. There are others here who swear by them, but I will bet you a dollar that they are honing on vintage coticules & they have gone through quite a few stones to get the ones they currently use. They are quiet the versatile stone I just admit...

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Naturals can be a bit quirky to learn. Any honing veteran I will bet you a dollar that they are honing on vintage coticules & they have gone through quite a few stones to get the ones they currently use.

Scott, are you inferring that vintage coticules are of a better quality compared to the new stones? I have heard that it is harder to do harm to the edge on a coticule compared to synthetics, as if you don't raise fresh slurry, the initial one can serve to remove only so much metal, so over-honing is not that great of an issue. Is this true in your opinion? I am really-really-really scared of over-honing, I am just kind of a person who tends to overdo everything