Thread: Advice needed

Ok so i have been straight razor shaving for close to a year now (enjoyable but frustrating), anyway, to start with i sent all my razors off to be honed, however,when i have felt that they are getting dull (pulling, skipping, or razor burn) I have been using a balsa strop with chromium oxide on one side and iron oxide on the other. Recently I bought a Ezy Edge razor hone.
However, I am confused as to how often I should run the razor over the hone, as reading the forums it seems like some guys are forever honing their razor.
Any advice is appreciated.

I have about 12 razors honed for use. I only str8 shave about 3 times a month, so consequently each only gets usedabout every 3 months or so. I "refresh" on a barbers hone before using, thinking it will remove any oxidation. (I dont oil my blades, but perhaps I should) I would think if you used 1 razor daily, with proper care, you would only refresh on a barbers honecevery 6 months or so.
Ymmv.
Good luck.

When a reasonable number of passes on crox won't bring the edge back, move down in grit and then back up.

OR

Once every 30 shaves do one or two passes on your barber hone, shave test and adjust as necessary.

Jonathan

Originally Posted by FrankD

Ok so i have been straight razor shaving for close to a year now (enjoyable but frustrating), anyway, to start with i sent all my razors off to be honed, however,when i have felt that they are getting dull (pulling, skipping, or razor burn) I have been using a balsa strop with chromium oxide on one side and iron oxide on the other. Recently I bought a Ezy Edge razor hone.
However, I am confused as to how often I should run the razor over the hone, as reading the forums it seems like some guys are forever honing their razor.
Any advice is appreciated.

Yes, some of us may overdo honing, esp when we get started as beginners (to learn) or maybe because we enjoy it. One should hone when the razor becomes noticeably dull, in my opinion. One can't say HOW often this will be, as technique, your beard, etc will play an important part in how your edge holds up. I would say, though, that it's best to take small gradual steps and start from the top so to speak. I do see some people jumping straight re-setting a bevel when it's possibly not really needed. I'd say the fewer strokes on the finest hone (and then test) should be your first strategy.

I myself don't use paste and never have, so can't really comment on that.

Agree with the above. But I do use paste. Probably too much. Have a cotton military type belt that I've pasted that I strop the razor on 5 to 10 times before I use it. (Yes, yes, I know I'm destroying the FIN! But that's life!). (;-)

Originally Posted by FrankD

...
However, I am confused as to how often I should run the razor over the hone, as reading the forums it seems like some guys are forever honing their razor.
...

I would say, start with 5 laps, 10 tops.

- oh wait -

Quick search shows that people with the Ezy Edge say it is too coarse to finish a razor. I would (edit: I typed "would not" here accidentally) advise to use some other barber's hone instead, such as a Swaty. Or pick up a Norton 8K or 4K/8K, that is the go-to hone around here.

I am a fan of the balsa, too, but I was taught to use .5 and .1 micron diamond paste rather than green/red paste, and to use a nice big balsa piece, and strop on the fine side after each shave. I actually cheat a little and go a half dozen or a dozen laps on the coarse side before hitting the fine side and my razors aren't getting dull at all. The guy who showed me never has to re-hone. The things most guys do wrong is continuing to use a balsa strop that has warped and is no longer flat, without re-lapping it on sandpaper, and putting too much paste which gives a slurry effect. Anyway, I will go so far as to say that if you use your balsa strop to best effect, you won't ever need to refresh the edge on a stone.

Be that it may, if your razor seems to be getting dull and you have a good finisher, even if it is just a barber hone, then go for it. The stone is already paid for! If you use a barber hone, my idea would be to hone when it feels dull, go regular x strokes lightly until it feels sharp again, then do the old school barber trick and dab some lather on the barber hone and give it a bunch of very very light laps. Now take this with a gram of salt because I don't even have a barber hone, but I do use my balsa strop faithfully. I have other stones at my disposal but I rely on lapping film for honing now that I have seen what it can do. If I honed more razors I might go for a full set of Naniwas or Shaptons. But same thing applies. If it don't need honing, don't hone it. Routine stropping on pasted balsa should make you never need honing again. At the least, it will make you not need honing very often. If it needs it, do it.

I do not have any barber hones and use pasted bench strops for refreshing. If that does not work for me, I drop back to my 8K Norton and work my way back up through pasted strops to my unpasted daily strop. Sometimes, I must drop back further than 8K, but not often when starting from a previously shave ready edge.

There is a lot of information to be found on barber hones and I suggest a careful review. Most barber hones are reported to be about 8K in performance, but some are reported to be courser than 8K. A few have been reviewed as finer than 8K performance and these are often sought after by users. Certain barber hones are prized by competitive axe men and fetch hundreds of dollars on e-Bay.

Some barber hones are fast cutting and have been reported to degrade razor edges if too many strokes are taken. I suggest starting with few strokes on an unknown or untested barber hone and then checking the results.

One review of the Pike Ezy Edge in excellent condition indicated that a few strokes improved an 8K edge up to at least a 12K level. Very fine performance in the hands of an experienced honer.

Originally Posted by Laurens

I would say, start with 5 laps, 10 tops.

- oh wait -

Quick search shows that people with the Ezy Edge say it is too coarse to finish a razor. I would (edit: I typed "would not" here accidentally) advise to use some other barber's hone instead, such as a Swaty. Or pick up a Norton 8K or 4K/8K, that is the go-to hone around here.

By way of conversation, Laurens, I agree but would say that the number of laps depends on both the razor and the hone. I find my Swedish (harder steel) razors require pretty much double the refreshing laps on a Shapton 16k than my others. My older razors appear to have very soft steel (Bengall, for instance) while others like my Burrell seem harder. My W&B Special sort of sits in the middle of these two.

While of course the Norton 4/8 is a 'go to' hone, in hindsight I would not have the opinion that (all variances in technique, beard etc aside) one may not even have to go down to an 8k grit for maybe a full year. On thinking back to when I started 2 years ago, I now feel I could have bought just the 16k hone and refreshed on that for quite some time.

I'll really have to try some paste soon; I have an old Dovo strop that's nicked and looking sorrowful that has a nice soft canvas that'd take paste nicely, I think...

Good point on the razor hardness, I had not taken that into account. I lack the first-hand experience to comment on that, but will keep it in mind for the day when I own my first W&B

As for the 16K maintenance, do you think you would have been able to do that when you just started out with honing? What with stropping and shaving technique, I suspect a 16K may be too fine to make up for small beginner's mistakes.