Thread: To Hone or Not to Hone

This may not be the best place for this post. I don't know. If not I apologize.

I recently acquired a used DD razor from a local shop. It shaves the hair off my arm better then a surgical razor. Though when I shaved with it it was like taking sandpaper to my face. Now there are a couple of different variable here: 1) I have only shaved 4 times with a straight razor. 2) I did not like the shaving cream I used on that shave. It dried out half way through the shave. So it may have been the shaving cream not the razor.

So now to the question. I have four razors including the DD razor in question that I was planning on sending to SRD to have professionally honed. Should I send this razor also or should I just strop it til the cows come home or my hand craps up so bad that I can't make it to work the next two day?

Thank you in advance
Ken

Get it honed, at least the first time. It may have areas of the edge that aren't so good that you're not seeing, and shaving arm hair is not the best measure of shave-readiness!

Once you know the edge is healthy once, you can plan a reasonable plan for when it finally begins to tug again.

Cheers, Steve

Agreed, get the razor professionally honed so that you have a known starting point. You might also get yourself a cheap-o 40x LED loupe off of Amazon ($8 or so) while you are at it. A loupe provides you a visual basis for helping to determine if a razor needs to be honed. The best test is the shave test though. As for your lathering, it may help you to lather up only half of your face at a time. And, if the lather begins to dry out, put a bit of water on the tip of your brush and/or add more lather to get your face lubricated again. This issue also plagued me at the beginning.

I have to chuckle at the 'dry lather' thing, everyone using straights remembers it. I don't remember that dry lather caused irritation, it became sticky and all our lives our brains have learned that if the blade doesn't move, push harder.

That works for everything but straight razors! You have to 'unlearn' the push harder instinct and fix what's causing the razor to not move.

Cheers, Steve

Sounds to me like that razor needs a honing. If it was like shaving with sand paper all the linen and leather stropping in the world isn't gonna fix what's wrong with that edge.

Every new to me razor gets a honing before it touches my face.

The lather drying on the face means you need to shave faster

I am only half joking

New guys go REALLY slow, try lathering only 1/2 or 1/4 of your face at a time, also most of us have found that SR's like a slightly wetter lather...


Shave On

Might be you have a tough beard like I do.
Super hot towel over lather makes the hairs softer and your razor sharper.
At least for me!

I think you got the hint.
Have it honed by a real pro. Then you will know its right. And any problems after that you will know are not the razor.
Have at least two honed so you can use one and keep the other just for comparison when you think the first one is getting dull.
This is just one step of shaving with a straight. Learning angle, pressure, lathering, prep, stropping, etc. It will all come in time.
Good luck and welcome!