Thread: The journey begins...

I have been using straights since June now and have three blades in rotation. I am at the point where I feel that one of them is ready for refreshing or honing (happy to be guided on terminology here).

I don't have lots of disposable income to buy lots of stones or strops and pastes here, but I do have a Naniwa 12K and a paddle strop with green crayon stuff on it CrOx I think.

My question is, do I need more or will this be enough for me?

At this point I am not talking about getting a butter knife up to shave ready, but rather making a razor that I can already shave with do the job better, or more easily.

I guess another question would be that if I only ever buy shave ready razors will I need anything more? Or worded differently will there come a point when refreshing this way simply won't be enough?

Thank you in advance for any advice, also thanks to everyone for getting me this far already. This seems like a hobby that will be life long now, I can't imagine going back to any other way of shaving.

Try the crox first, half dozen laps. If it is still not there 6 to 10 laps on the naniwa. Pretty much all you need to maintain them.

Theoretically, no.

But, you must learn to strop.

Once you have mastered stropping, you can maintain a razor indefinitely with just leather, linen, and occasionally stropping on Chrome Oxide, or touching up with the 12k. Make sure your Green Crayon is in fact pure Chrome Oxide and not, Green Polishing compound.

You have all you need, for now to maintain a razor.

Get a good linen and leather strop, strop on linen to clean, then leather to polish.

Go slow, keep the spine on the strop, stop forward motion, before you flip and use just enough pressure to keep the razor flat on the stone.

Pori,
Congratulations on what you have accomplished so far. You already have gone 6 months with your 3 razors so it already is obvious that you are doing well maintaining your razors.

You did not mention having any strop other than a CroOx pasted paddle strop. Do you have another strop? Hopefully you do have a non-pasted one for daily use.

I have maintained a set of razors with nothing but a barber hone for well over a decade. You can do the same with your Naniwa 12k. The key to it is to touch it up as soon as you notice any diminishment in the quality of the shave. A phrase that used to go around here a long time ago was "It is easier to keep a razor sharp than it is to sharpen a razor." That is your goal. When it doesn't shave as well as it used to, that is the time to touch it up with just a few (5 to 10 at most) strokes on your 12k. There should be no reason for you to ever need to use any other hone.

Again, it sounds like you are doing great!

Hey,

You have loads of options.

If you want to send the razor out, and fancy a day trip there is a guy called Gary Haywood in Nottingham.

The Straight Razor Specialist - Razor Sharpening, Honing, Whetstones and Strops. Razor Sharpening UK, Razor Honing UK, Razor Sharpening Nottingham, Razor Honing Nottingham

He runs a barbers shop and as well as offing honing services, He also sells a reasonable selection of gear. I'm sure if you book in and take your razor he will show you some tips as he fettles it. He also has some rocks called coticules that he is a specialist in, So if you do pop in have a good chat about those.

The 12K is a really versatile stone. If can do a fair bit more than just finish. One guy on here has even gone so far as chip removal and a 1 stone hone with one. If you decide on more rocks then there is a huge choice but it's only going to be worth doing this if you plan on expanding your razor collection and need a way to make ebay purchases shave ready. Once you have 5-6 razors sending them out can start to get expensive.


For decent chrome oxide look no further than a local model railway/airfix shop. There used to be a shop called antics in Sheffield but it has since closed, If you search for airfix stockists and give them a call they should be able to tell you over the phone if they stock the humbrol weathering powered. Humbrol av0005 chrome oxide green is pure pigment grade chrome oxide. I've been using it for years, If you mix it with a bit of light mineral oil into a paste it can be far easier to apply. The Humbrol container is good because it's got a secondary internal cap that also doubles as a mixing pot. In store it's normally £3-4.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humbrol-Wea...thering+powder

Personally I can use a crome oxide strop and regular plain stropping and keep a razor good for many months. Normally the only reason I get the hones out is because I have a free day and fancy a play! It's nice to have the rocks and be able to use them but it's not essential If your razor is already in good working order.

With proper technique you should be able to refresh a blade with your pasted strop. In my experience I eventually need to go to my 10k stone to get the edge where I want it. You should be able to do the same with your 12k. With 3 razors you can try the stone and strop on one and send one off for professional touch up to compare the two.

As long as you don't roll the edge while stropping you should be good.
If you have gone 6 months I think you are doing just fine!

Thank you all for the advice. I should have said that I do have a leather strop, it has the poly webbing back. I have a linen one coming at Christmas.

My CrOx crayon came from shavenation.com so I assume that it is the right stuff.

I have seen Gary's shop online so I might give him a shout.

Yeah if you got it from Shave Nation you got the right stuff.

Showing my ignorance here but what is "crox"? As you are probably aware I'm totally new to straight razors, but I'm having a ball.