Thread: Refreshing recomendations

Hope it works out for you. Might take a little bit more time, but I find that the longer I go without touching a synthetic the more I enjoy my edges.

I don't wait for me edges to degrade, after a couple of shaves I use pasted strops. After two refreshes on the pasted strops I go back to my 12k/16k stones for a quick refresh.

To be clear, there is a difference between a "degraded edge" and an edge that you have noticed does not quite shave as you expected. I realize that it only is a matter of degrees, but I don't want to give the impression that I am suggesting that you wait until a great deal of loss of performance happens before doing a touch-up.

On the contrary, I refresh as soon as I notice any sort of change in the edge at all.

I have a few hones to touch up with. I have two great & well rated Barber hones. A Raven & a John Primble Hardware. Both of these will touch up real nice with just water & 6-8 very light strokes.
I now have a 16K Shapton glass hone that I finally feel really comfortable with. Also I have a small Coti. that I use sometimes to touch up a razor. I use the coti under running water & oh what an edge. I sometimes do 6 rounds with no pressure on my Coti. after the 16K Shapton to just smooth out the edge a bit.
With touch ups & finish honing very light to no pressure has worked best for me.

Slawman

Originally Posted by Utopian

To be clear, there is a difference between a "degraded edge" and an edge that you have noticed does not quite shave as you expected. I realize that it only is a matter of degrees, but I don't want to give the impression that I am suggesting that you wait until a great deal of loss of performance happens before doing a touch-up.

On the contrary, I refresh as soon as I notice any sort of change in the edge at all.

Exactly. Don't wait until its dull and pulling, but when you notice a drop in the keenness of the edge.

I have a staple of about a dozen razors, that get rotated over say 3 months. If I have a shave one morning with one of them that feels a little less than normal I tend to maintenance hone the whole 12 at the one sitting. So I support the maintenance honing regimen. It keeps things consistent and in perspective. I use the Suehiro Gokumyo 20 k for the re-fresh.