Thread: Light honing on a regular basis

To start off I will say that when I did my very first shave with my "real" straight several months ago, I was amazed at how smooth and comfortable the shave was. I will also add that irritation was no where in sight. However, lately it seems that I can't even get through a shave without irritation in some form either the same day or (as is more common) having razor bumps about 2 days later almost like clock work. When I first started out I initially used CrOx to get my razor "shave ready" and then stropped before each shave after that. Sometimes I hear of people getting about 5 or 6 shaves before they touch up a razor when they feel it pulling but I don't think I experienced that problem as it seemed to be shaveable for months. As I mentioned though throughout that time my irritation problem just kept getting worse and I doubt it's a technique issue. My real question here is: would doing 5 or 6 strokes on a finishing hone (like a Naniwa 12k) after about 5-10 shaves really do anything for my edge to combat irritation? It would seem that going to a hone rather than using a very high grit like CrOx would actually dull the blade more than help it. Would a few strokes on such a hone possibly reset an edge slightly that went south by stropping somehow? I'm not ruling out any possiblities but I do use very light pressure when stropping (and shaving!) so I doubt it's that I rolled my edge either, but who knows. I long for the day when I can consistently get awesome shaves with my straight that are comfortable and irritationless as I know it's possible but appears very elusive in my quest so far. Help a brother out!

Thanks guys!

A stone such as a 12k would be fine for doing touchups to bring that edge back as long as it's not too far gone.

Ok, cool. What's confusing though is you mention that it would be fine if the edge wasn't too far gone. What I mean is the blade seemed way sharp and did actually shave hairs. Is it possible for an edge to be that messed up and still shave? If so, then I have wayyyy more to learn than I thought about honing and stropping.

If its just mildly tugging and giving you irritation then you should be fine with just giving it a touchup on a stone such as the 12k. Sometimes what happens as the razor dulls the user compensates for the less than sharp blade by using more pressure without even realizing it. This might be whats causing your irritation.