Thread: Premature dullness: strop technique suspected. Angle? Pressure? Fix?

I would highly suggest toning down on the pastes a bit. Overuse of pastes will create a wire edge, and paste will not be able to fix the resulting damage. Sometimes too much of a good thing isn't very good, especially for razors.

Typically it should take no more than a dozen laps, depending on the type of paste. Start at 5 laps and test. As Lynn always says, less is more. Definitely sage advice when it comes to pastes and sprays.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

I would highly suggest toning down on the pastes a bit. Overuse of pastes will create a wire edge, and paste will not be able to fix the resulting damage. Sometimes too much of a good thing isn't very good, especially for razors.

Great info here am slowley beginning to think that all these potions are maybe not a good thing.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Great info here am slowley beginning to think that all these potions are maybe not a good thing.

Thanks

It's not that they are bad, just that they should be used to refine an edge. If guys are using paste constantly to fix quick dulling edges it's time to re-examine why the razor is dulling so fast; stropping and shaving technique being the most common issues.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Thanks

It's not that they are bad, just that they should be used to refine an edge. If guys are using paste constantly to fix quick dulling edges it's time to re-examine why the razor is dulling so fast; stropping and shaving technique being the most common issues.

When my hone guy died 5 yrs ago (williams Cutlery,4 bux ea) I had to learn myself,I fell into the newbie trap that since honing was a major learning curve, Pastes and sprays were a good thing Not.
I never use them anymore,they may have a place in the scheme of things,just not for me.

I have over stropped on pastes. What I have found is when you over do it you can definitely get a wire edge. That's why I like the hht. If you don't pass hht, you may have that wire edge and 5 more laps may be enough to remove it. I do hht after the 8k and since I'm not an expert, I may be over honing at times.I used to scratch my head and now if it doesn't pass, I will give it 5 more and sure enough that was all it needed. It may not be scientific but I have found it works for me.

Originally Posted by SingingSteel

Theory 2: too much pressure. To deal with the aforementioned strop tackyness, and just because I'm still not fully familiar, in order to keep the spine and edge of the blade in contact with the strop I find myself using a bit of pressure.

Too much pressure is bad when using a strop. It is much worse if abrasives are involved. Coupled together your razor's edge would be all kinds of wrong.
Correct honing would fix that. Incorrect stropping will take you right back there in a short time.

Also, if you bought a strop that needed that much oiling are you sure it's not a piece of rawhide ?

Thanks for all this feedback.

Well, I'm not yet possessed of hones nor honing skills, and the grits came with the Whipped Dog SR starter kit: the strop, neet foot oil, chrome oxide, iron oxide, balsa wood grit strop. The instructions did suggest that the grits shouldn't be necessary until after a few months -- I am aware that the dullness seems due to my own newbie technique errors. Nonetheless, I was extremely careful with the grits not to use any pressure.

Suspending the strop seems to have solved many problems. The problem was not the strop, it was the fact that I hadn't suspended it, and the horizontal surface was causing me to compensate with too much pressure, which was also the source of perceived sluggish strop draw. While I may have used more oil than necessary, it doesn't seem so much as to have saturated the leather. All stropping issues seem solved by suspending the strop.

Post grits, the edge feels and performs like it did when it first got honed, at least for today's shave. Thanks for the HHT reminder -- I'd forgotten, and that would have been wiser after five or ten passes at a time. Let's see if this edge endures. I presume wire edges quickly disintegrate into ragged nightmares...? How can you tell if you've got a wire edge without a microscope? What does become of wire edges? If I have in fact created an unstable wire edge, then I guess I'll have learned my lesson the hard way, and will have to get this blade rehoned.

Ryan82: what shaving technique can prematurely dull a blade?

Originally Posted by SingingSteel

Ryan82: what shaving technique can prematurely dull a blade?

Not answering for Ryan but overly high angle will do it. It's akin to dragging a knife edge over a chopping board.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Not answering for Ryan but overly high angle will do it. It's akin to dragging a knife edge over a chopping board.

Ahaa. Not something I've done, though, so that one's off the list of potential causes.

Improper shaving technique would include high angle, excessive pressure and straight-down cuts - this will dull and edge quickly.

This assumes that your stropping is indeed effective and the razor itself is sound (good steel, good geometry, properly honed).

Yes, I realize that there are many factors to consider, which makes it very difficult when you are new. Concentrating on one factor at a time will make the diagnosis A LOT easier.