Thread: Razor passes HHT before shave but not after.

Probably because 95 percent of the problems novice honers have with edges is directly related to an incomplete bevel set.

Once you know how to set the bevel properly, you stop having problems.

It is also 95 percent of honing, the rest is just polishing and making the edge straighter for comfort.

That razor needs a complete (heel to toe) bevel set.

Originally Posted by gfro

why does nobody ever talk about bevels getting unset or that maybe a razor needs freshening up. You people act as if the bevel is literally set in stone.

What do you mean by unset? Once you set the bevel with a medium stone, the remaining follow-on work is pretty much just keeping the same shape but removing the scratches.

I mean that I get the idea from some people on this site that the razor should go months and months and months with nothing more than stropping once the bevel is set. My feeling is that the blade gets worn shaving my face during the week and I feel that 3 strokes on a 8k followed by 5 strokes on a 12k or just a 12k is needed.

I think what you need is a decent linen, and it's not a bevel issue. Either that, or the strop isn't doing its job. Or maybe even a subpar razor. If you've shaved with a few and that's the conclusion for all of them, then I think it's a linen or strop issue if the razor is properly honed.

When I started, I honed a razor every two weeks. Not heavily, just a refresher hone. I have a decent razor that I refreshed with a vintage linen only (no abrasives) that had probably 180 shaves on it and when I honed it again (because someone wanted me to test a stone), the sharpness stepped down.

Anyway, there should never be a need to reset the bevel on a razor unless it gets damaged or improperly honed (or if you buy it and you set the bevel on stones that are not flat to someone else's stones).

G, once the bevel is properly set, (the bevel are flattened in the same plane and are meeting in a straight, sharp, chip free edge) and a proper progression, (bevel is polished with finer stones, removing the previous stria, maintaining a straight, chip free edge) it should be able to be maintained for a very long time with just proper stropping on linen and leather.

When a razor dulls prematurely it is not because of the beard, it is from improper stropping. To test this, take a properly honed razor and look at the edge with magnification, now shave with it. Look at the edge again with magnification.

Now strop it, and look at the edge with magnification. When did the damage occur?

Stropping is supposed to microscopically, re-align the edge and microscopically remove some metal and re-sharpen the edge. Lift the spine slightly, just once or hit the edge at the flip and you will roll or chip the edge.

If the damage is microscopic, a strop can repair it, if not then a high grit touch up is required. A full bevel re-set is not needed because the bevels are still flat, just not meeting very slightly.

But first, you have to make sure the bevel was fully set to begin with.

A razor can be maintained for months or longer with just linen and leather, depending on the skill of the stropper. Paste can make repairs quicker and be maintained longer- indefinitely, or if the skills are not there, can cause more damage… quicker.

Keep the spine on the strop, go slow, stop forward motion before the flip and calibrate pressure for your strop and razor. A full hollow will require less pressure than a wedge.

A lot depends on your strop and its condition, stiff or smooth and floppy and clean. I suspect a lot of strops are dirty containing grit, from improper bevel cleaning, causing more damage than they are resolving. A dirty strop is a pasted strop, except the “paste” is varied grit.

You have to do what the razor need, depending on your skills and tools at hand. If all you have or know how to use, is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.

Stropping is a skill, way under rated… And really not that difficult to master.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Stropping is a skill, way under rated… And really not that difficult to master.

Super key point there. Iwasaki made the comment that one of his razors had been used over a thousand times by a barber without being honed, which people took as being attributable to one of his super-hard razors, but he was instead emphasizing that the barber properly used a linen (and indirectly a strop, too).

A good linen and strop, one that will step up the sharpness of a marginal stone over time, is key to never having those days where a razor is "starting to pull", and really extending the life of a good or valuable razor to pretty much indefinite.

The aforementioned razor a couple of posts ago still easily passed HHT at 180 shaves, maybe better than it did coming off of the stones. After a y/g thuri (that was better than my labeled escher), it still took three or four trips to the linen over the next couple of weeks to get the razor back to where it was.

Get shave by Iwasaki and show no pain or kill your self !!!!!!!!!! Very disciplined these Kung Fu guys. Just kidding lol

The barber I went to back in the late 40's and 50's once told me that he only honed if he screwed the blade up stropping it

I agree with all the previous posts, however, did anyone consider the while the bevel is set, does the blade have some bad steel in it? I ran into this once and it about sent me over the edge...literally...lol. You may have to hone till you get to some good steel and there are no microchips. Just a random thought.

A razor that microchips will never feel sharp to begin with. Generally, razors that are so poor that they can't be used are a fairly rare bunch. i have had one (japanese even, that said "best silver steel" and all of that stuff) that would shave OK but it never would get keen enough to feel close, no matter what the final bevel angle was or the stone used. It's sitting in my trash can in the basement.

I even tempered it straw to try to knock a little bit of the hardness out of it. no dice.