Thread: Frustrating problem--razor turns into butter knife

Originally Posted by Johnny J

Hey guys, thanks for the welcome. The heavy beard thing seems to be a genetic complaint. When my father used a str8 40 years ago, he claims that had to hone before every shave (!!!)

I have not tried a stainless (or indeed any) wedge. My harder razor does seem to last longer, though. I have tried skipping the Lithide hone & while the edge is more durable, of course the shave is less comfortable because it is less sharp.

Here's my working theory, though; every now & then I'll be pressed for time (or just lazy) & I don't prep very well. My barbed wire beard wreaks havoc on the edge, which causes me to unconsciously bear down on the blade while shaving and stropping, and so the downward spiral begins.

I'm going to test my theory by prepping more conscientiously, and by paying attention to the amount of pressure I'm using. I've read that some guys only hone once every 6 months! I don't know that I'll ever get there, but I'd like to be able to maintain the edge with just the Lithide.

My loom strop came with a green abrasive coating on one side. I haven't been using it tho because I think it may be coarser than the Lithide, plus it seems to gunk up pretty quickly when I have used it.

AH HA!!!! A loom strop. Chances are you are using too much pressure on the strop. Let the razor rest on the strop and its weight is the only pressure you allow! I would also suggest doing a least 25 laps with this in mind and it will help. That and keep your lithide stone handy. You only need to do three or four laps with it before you strop and you can even use the stone dry. Experiment with using shaving lather on it also. You can do all your blade prep while your lather is soaking your beard. I betcha doing this with the stone and strop along with the prep and you will see a marked improvement. Most of my razors see a stone only every four or five months. I will run them over a barber's hone for three laps about once a month. If you have not tried any pre-shave oil, PM your shipping address to me and I'll send you a sample so you can try it and see if that helps.

What I do for a routine. I shower, dry off except my beard. I place my brush in the lather bowl in the sink and start running hot water into the bowl and let the sink fill up. As the water is filling the sink, I massage in a few drops of pre-shave oil. I then build my lather, lather my face and then place my lather bowl in the sink full of hot water on top of my scuttle. I then prep my razor. After prepping my razor I then transfer the warm lather to the warm scuttle and relather. Then I shave. After each quadrant of my face is shaved I relather my whole face. I only need two full pass for a very good shave. After the shave I rinse the blade in running hot water dry and place in my razor mug not fully closed so it can dry all day. I then rinse out the brush and scuttle. I switch the water to cold, rinse my face, leave it wet and then run a alum block all over the shave area. I let my face air dry as I do deodorant and top knot. By the time I'm done with that my face is dry and I apply after shave then if feel like it, a cologne mist. Viola, this takes me no longer then ten or twelve minutes. Plus or minus a minute for admiring my shave.