Thread: When to hone and strop isn't good enough

Long title I know. But I am new to straight razor shaving. Anyway I have all the bare necesseties. I am wondering though when roughly should I get a pasted strop or 4/8k Norton hone and possible a 12k Naniwa Super Stones. My actual stuff arrives next Monday ha.

So long story when will stropping not do the job and I need to get some supplies. Would u say get a pasted strop with chromium oxide first over the hones. Or does it not really matter?

Thanks
Keith
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When the edge will need refresh will depend on several factors.
Stropping technique
frequency of shaves
beard type
steel of the blade

When you start feeling a bit of pulling and stropping doe snot help, then you can try CrO or diamond loaded strop to try and bring it back to shave ready.
If that does not work then you will have to go to your finishing stone.

Thanks for the reply.


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Hi Keith,

Keith here! From Cali no less... what part of this huge state are you in?

I am a relative newb (5-6months now) myself so I'll prefix what I have to say with, there will hopefully be some veteran shavers/honers who also pipe in.

Eventually, being able to touch up your own blade will become a real useful skill. I have only two blades that I rotate out when one is in need of honing. What I have found is, while you can go quite a while just stropping your blade, the razor edge will slowly degrade over time. How long? That depends on your beard, your skill at stropping, your prep etc. It is a very personal thing and one that I have found is changing over time.

When I first started, my stropping was not as effective as it is now, so the blade needed a honing sooner than it does these days. I have not tried a pasted strop myself but I plan too. There are many posts here that would suggest that it will refresh a slightly degraded edge for some time without need to take it to a stone.

What I have also found is that it takes time and experience to even know when your edge is really degrading. Case in point, I eventually got to a place where I was having consistently good multi-pass shaves for a bit. Then, it seemed that irritation and weepers started to creep back into my shaves. I thought it was my inconsistent technique at first. But when I pulled out my freshly pro honed back up blade my shave returned to excellent. It turned out that my blade edge (that still felt incredibly sharp to me) had begun to degrade slowly over time and it needed a touch up.

My recommendation to you (or anyone starting out) is to send your blade out the first few times for a pro honing and touch up when you need it. There are multiple good reasons for this. One, you get the time you need to REALLY understand what a "shave ready" edge feels like. If you're like me, you may think, "man, this razor is extremely sharp", and you'd be right, but that doesn't mean it shave ready sharp. Also, it will take a while for your stropping to improve and for you to be able to feel the small degradations in your edge to even know just when you personally, will want a touch up. For myself and my beard, I am learning that I want to refresh my edge (whether on a stone or pasted strop etc) about every two weeks, give or take. That is, for me, having the freshest shave ready edge in an ideal world. I can shave sucessfully for a loner period of time between touch ups, but after a two week period, I feel the edge just beginning to degrade and I have to start being more careful with my technique to get irritation free passes.

Two, touching an edge up yourself may prove more or less challenging depending on how you do it. Again, I haven't used a pasted stop yet but I imagine this is a much easier touch up than taking the blade to a stone yourself. How do I know?

I recently got a fine grit finishing stone so I could touch up my own blade. I was not very successful at my first attempts at refreshing my edge. I dulled it considerably, probably because I over honed it and my first honing strokes did not come as easily as it looks on Glen (gssixgun) or Lynn's youtube videos. Now this is just my personal experience. I've been reminded repeatedly by several fine members here who have been helping me, that it takes some time and practice to hone effectively, so I haven't and won't give up. It's just that it may not come as easily as you wnat it to so just be forewarned.

I've seen guys here rave that their first honing went incredibly well. If I could afford to feed one of them. I would gladly have them come live me and hone touch up my edges every couple of weeks.

Needless to say, the blade I so successfully dulled is now out being honed by someone who knows how to get a shave ready edge. When it degrades again, I will attempt a more successful touch up and see how that goes.

So I guess the point of all this rambling is, I would take your time and not get too far ahead of yourself. For a while, even if you find you're a natural born honing machine, you won't even know what a degraded edge feels like compared to a shave ready one. So let a pro hone your first few edges and get used to how a real nice edge shaves and feels. Take some time to get to know your beard and face. By the time that starts falling into place, you'll be ready for the new challenge of maintaing and honing your own razors. That's my 110 cents!

Hey Keith

Thank you for the detailed reply. I am in the central valley near Modesto myself. Well my wife will be happy that I wont "have" to go out and spend $150 on 2 stones ha. What I may do is try is get a pasted strop to see if that'll prolong it. That's a great idea though sending it out the first few times to get professionally rehoned. Hopefully I will only need to do that every like 3 months lol. Otherwise the wifey will.bitch ha. I only have 1 razor to. The dovo 5/8.
May be more wise to invest in another razor at first then a hone mabe?

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I think Utopian had a few razors he maintained for 2 years in a gym locker using a strop and barber hone....

Originally Posted by keith1569

Hey Keith

Thank you for the detailed reply. I am in the central valley near Modesto myself. Well my wife will be happy that I wont "have" to go out and spend $150 on 2 stones ha. What I may do is try is get a pasted strop to see if that'll prolong it. That's a great idea though sending it out the first few times to get professionally rehoned. Hopefully I will only need to do that every like 3 months lol. Otherwise the wifey will.bitch ha. I only have 1 razor to. The dovo 5/8.
May be more wise to invest in another razor at first then a hone mabe?

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That's good to know Haha. Sorry for the dumb question but a barber hone.is basically a finishing hone between like 8 and 12k?

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I think Utopian had a few razors he maintained for 2 years in a gym locker using a strop and barber hone....

Yes i remember reading that as well and i think its more like 4 yrs now!!

So if my next purchase were to be a 12k nawai stone or paddle strop to paste what would u all recommend. This would be for a brand new razor.

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Hi Keith
You possibly need a bit more research to make an informed choice but for most it's best to leave honing a little bit later in the process.

Here's some recommended reading re your question & a tute on deactivating phone sigs
What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki
http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...-tapatalk.html