Thread: New to straight razor honing

I shave under my nose outwards. Pull my nose to the side, stretch my lip down and out then do a stroke from near the base of my nose out across one side and ending just past the edge of my mouth. Always keep it sliding.

Originally Posted by mike1011

So the canvas side is used for a Pre strop to prepare the blade for the actual strop. I think I'll have to try and find some more info on that just to understand what is going on there from a scientific point of view.

This seems to be quite misunderstood, so here's the science. The canvas is abrasive. Not as abrasive as a hone or a pasted strop but enough to remove the microoxidation as it forms. And oxidation is what kills the sharp edge of a razor.
Leather is not very good at that, I mean it's better than not stropping, that's why razors stropped on leather can remain sharp for more than the 2-3 shaves that a cartridge or DE (blades which are not stropped) last. But if you want to prolong the time between touch-ups you want to use canvas. Linen is a bit more abrasive than cotton, and putting chalk or graphite on makes it a little more abrasive, but still orders of magnitude less than say diamond or chromium oxide.
Also the canvas part of the old strop tended to be treated with something, nowadays if you get illinois strop is not the same treatment, they have a plasticky feel now, but functionally ends up working similarly. Also as you use the strop the oxidation builds up on the canvas and it turns gray even black in few years. I think this makes it a little bit more abrasive (it doesn't matter that iron oxide is softer than steel abrasion still works), but haven't done the experiment to prove/disprove it yet.

The modern polymer fabric that you can find on strops these days seems to work just as well as cotton/linen. Feels very different especially when brand new, though.

You don't have to strop after the shave, but doing so can ensure that there is no residual moisture on the edge, so the steel oxidizes at a slower rate (it still does as long as it's in contact with air, but the moisture is a catalyst which speeds the process by many orders of magnitude). You can do it on the strop, or on a towel, the goal is to remove the moisture, how you do it doesn't matter much.

My shave yesterday didn't go so well and I ended up with a small cut on my top lip, nothing major and that hemo stick stopped the bleeding. It came about because I was forcing the blade, it just didn't feel like it was cutting like the first couple of shaves despite a good stropping (which I think was actually the problem).

So last night I decided to have a go on the 12k stone to try and "refresh" the blade. Before I started I watched Lynn's you tube videos on using the naniwa stones. I figured it it all goes horribly wrong I can always send it off to get re done and honing was one of the big reasons I wanted to get into straight razor shaving.

I'm glad to say that it went really well and after the 40 circles etc on the 12k stone I followed up with 100 canvas strops and a good 200 hundred on the leather side. My shave tonight was the most comfortable yet !

I Think what I had done wrong was my stropping, a combination of not having the strop tight enough and also too much pressure. I suspect that somewhere along the line I have rounded or folded the edge.

Thanks to this site I have managed I think to fix my mistakes so thank you all. For such a "manly" thing this straight razor shaving really is quite a delicate art

Mike, I was really glad to hear that things are going well for you now! I can see where improper stropping could cause the issues you told us of earlier. You did the exact right thing in refreshing that blade with your 12k stone IMO. Lynn's videos have been amazing! I hope to meet him one day, and thank him in person! Thank you for the follow up post on your progress! I hope your wife's finger continues to heal!

Originally Posted by countrydraftsman

hope your wife's finger continues to heal!

Its healing up no problem thank you despite been pretty deep it was a nice clean cut and knitted together very well, I suppose if your going to cut yourself a razor blade is a good thing to do it with as the cuts are soO clean he he

If I do leave the razor out she eyes it with suspicion like its alive and might jump up and bite her at any moment. On the plus side I won't have to worry about her borrowing it for leg shaving like my old Mach 3 which used to get suspiciously blunt very quickly