Thread: Re-visting the Chinese Hone

Not sure if this is the right thread for this question, but it is kind of a follow-up on the previous discussion...
I ended up getting up to 80 passes last month, 20 at a time with shave-tests between. Nice and sharp. However, one month later the razor was pulling again. I went straight to 100 passes on the PHIG today, stropped the razor, and had the best shave of my life. Everything is great except... why so soon? I read that refreshing should be a once every 3 months issue.
The usual culprit seems to be stropping technique (the razor is a Bismarck, which I have read hold their edge well, so it shouldn't be a steel problem). Possible I guess, but I feel that my stropping is ok. Assuming that's not the issue, what else could it be? The way I wipe it with tissue after shaving? The way I wipe it with cotton when oiling? (I do both of these with the same general idea as stropping, pulling the razor away from the edge across the material). Any ideas?
I was also wondering... as the rate of refreshing seems to be measured in time... what are the assumptions? I have only the one razor, and shave 6 days a week with it. Should I still be assuming that a refresh should only come around once every 3 months? Or might once a month be expected?

That's really tough to figure out. Really it could be umpteen different things. Beard growth, how the edge is honed, on which stone its honed, stropping technique, shaving technique etc etc. I'm thinking since you're using it much more then guys with massive rotations that only use their razors maybe once a week, your rate of touch up will be much higher.

Just touch up when it pulls and all will be well

A month is not bad depending on your technique, beard, the individual razor ...

Cheers, Steve

So, the finish stone always get the blame, kind of like blaming a bad paint job on the wax.

Yes stropping is often the culprit, but even then stropping only reveals edge issues. If the edge is weak from aggressive low grit honing, those issues are magnified by improper stropping, lifting the spine just once can roll a weak edge easily, which then breaks off.

How the blade was honed and with which stones and excessive pressure are often causes of edge issues. You can often tell, by looking at the edge, and determining the cause by what you see and then… fixing that.

Yes sometimes doing a lot of laps (hundreds) on a finish stone can “Fix” some issues, but really you are doing a form of one stone honing, and is no guarantee of averting edge failure.

These stones are hard and very capable of producing a fine shaving edge, but because of the hardness and slow cutting, edge preparation will dictate the finish. A proper edge is built, one step at a time. When I use them, I do so after a 12k super stone edge.

Look at the edge and fix the cause of what you see, otherwise you are just guessing…

Maybe invest in a CrOx pasted paddle, that is my goto when it starts to pull and then onto the stone when the paddle stops working

Originally Posted by ffourteen

I ended up getting up to 80 passes last month, 20 at a time with shave-tests between. Nice and sharp. However, one month later the razor was pulling again. I went straight to 100 passes on the PHIG today, stropped the razor, and had the best shave of my life. Everything is great except... why so soon? I read that refreshing should be a once every 3 months issue.