Thread: Time to rest?

Hi guys,

I was wondering why I do not find anything here about the resting period for a razor after being honed or stropped?

Do your honemeisters believe it to be a myth or am I just searching for the wrong words?

I think it is a myth because I remember using a razor on a daily basis without needing to rest it. However I have a rotation of about 10 pieces (fairly fluid) so most of my razors rest at least a week before shaves, except for a few favourites who get more duty.

I'm a noob, but I did find a dovo site explaining that it takes 24-48 hours for the razor to realign after a shave. I have no information either way about if this is a myth, but since it was from the Dovo site it might be reliable (don't have the link off the top of my head I came across it while searching on google for for info about stropping).

No wonder they prescribe impossible times between touchups. Their maintenance regimen only allows you to shave once in a blue moon

After about 24 hours the steel will find its way to it resting position. Steel has a memory of its shape. If you're using your straight razor for your own face alone (and you should) then there's almost no way you could break this rule since nobody that I know needs to shave with a straight more than once per day. Strop immediately before shave. About 50-60 laps is optimum. Stropping after the shave is optional.

X

I believe the resting period is useful, but that it does nothing that a good stropping wouldn't also accomplish. Some members here recall barbers back in the day shaving one guy after another with the same razor.

This question came up a few months back. It was tossed back and forth, but Joe Lerch's conclusion was that if the edge is significantly out of alignment after a recent shave, then stropping it before it "rests" back into its original shape can cause (presumably minor) metal fatigue. You're giving the metal a workout. Meaning that if you do this all the time, your edge won't hold for as many shaves as if it would if you let it rest longer between shaves. Joe figured this was why his neighborhood barber used to always make a point of stropping mid-shave, even if the razor was still keen; that way the edge never got too far out of alignment and you could go on using it all day without worrying about metal fatigue.

God knows if this is true. This was the kind of question Joe found irresistible though; he had to find an answer. This phenomenon of metal fatigue must be a fairly minor thing however, cause lots of guys use the same razor every day.