Touched the hone for the first time.
Well, I finally touched razor to hone.
I bought a Whipped Dog Sight unseen back in May and have been shaving and stropping on leather since then. I have went to the balsa strop and CrOx and FeOx a couple of times. Seem to be maintaining the edge reasonably well.
I bought a big CNAT finishing stone(8 x 3 Guangxi) in anticipation of needing a refresh. I lapped the stone and got it smooth and flat. The stone is a bit wedge shaped, one long side thinner than the other by about a 16th of an inch. Debating about whether to try remedy the bad geometry, it will take ALOT of elbow grease...
With my second pro honed Whipped Dog in hand for backup in the event the honing went south, I finally decided to put razor to hone tonight. Before and after HHT is night and day! Shaves seemed to be getting more challenging on the ATG, pulling a bit, etc.
Razor seems much better. Tonight's shave will tell the tale though.
It seems that barring accidents, the degradation of the edge will be gradual and the decision of how often and how invasive the refreshes will be quite subjective.
I feel like that if I do not let it degrade too far between the hone refreshes that mitigate the geometry deterioration from stropping, then I should be able to go indefinitely between full hone jobs...right?