Thread: Kinda confused

Guess Ill start off with my honing progression
I start with naniwas 1/5k then progress to my welsh slates (claimed as 8-12-15k but who really knows thats the order I use them in and it seems to work really well) Then I use pasted strops, Dovo Red and Black paste, then linnen and leather stroping.
Ive gotten very nice edges doing this. But a while ago I had one that ddint give me a great edge, I could shave but the was too much tugging going on. I took it back to the pasted stops but no improvement. Decided I'd have to go back to the stones but didnt do anything as life gets in the way sometimes. Now the weird part, couple weeks ago I decided to give it a try again and took it to the pasted stops and shaved. Turned out to be a great shave, have put it back into rotation and used it a couple of times since all very very satisfactory.
Anyone ever have this kind of thing before where you just leave it for a whiel then come back do nothign really different but end up somehow having things work?

No I haven't had that problem---not really but have been many a time that I just can't seem to get a good edge so it gets set aside for another day when I'm not stressed or tired.

One thing that I would like to see you try is to skip any and all strops and give your edge a little test shave (just a stroke or two) and then strop 50 on cloth and 100 on leather and give that a little test shave------Then and Only Then try your pasted strops and another test shave. You might be surprised with the results.

Just a thought.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

No I haven't had that problem---not really but have been many a time that I just can't seem to get a good edge so it gets set aside for another day when I'm not stressed or tired.

One thing that I would like to see you try is to skip any and all strops and give your edge a little test shave (just a stroke or two) and then strop 50 on cloth and 100 on leather and give that a little test shave------Then and Only Then try your pasted strops and another test shave. You might be surprised with the results.

Just a thought.

I'll try that next time I take a blade to the stones

I think Roy has a pretty good idea. If your bevel is correctly set you can get an adequate shave from a 1K and a good stropping. I suspect that your edge was very very close to being there and the strops took care of what was lacking. Sometimes walking away for a little while and coming back with a fresh outlook later is all that is needed. I have had several blades that have challenged me and the ones that worked out to be the easiest were the one that I cam back to later instead of trying to fight them.a

Might be your strop chakras were off that day. I know I have had that happen. Roy seems to have a great suggestion. I don't use pastes on my strops so I can't chime in on that.

Maybe a different soap? People tend to underestimate the importance of prep and a good lather on their shaves. I didn't think about it until a couple of years ago when I started experimenting with different soaps. I blamed the poor shave on my blade and it was just crappy soap.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I think Roy has a pretty good idea. If your bevel is correctly set you can get an adequate shave from a 1K and a good stropping. I suspect that your edge was very very close to being there and the strops took care of what was lacking. Sometimes walking away for a little while and coming back with a fresh outlook later is all that is needed. I have had several blades that have challenged me and the ones that worked out to be the easiest were the one that I cam back to later instead of trying to fight them.a

I'm thinking either this, or you had a miss-stroke on the strop and subsequent rounds on the paste whittled away/fixed the damaged bits. That's about the only two ways I could imagine the above scenario happening unless something was off in your shaving prep that threw that first test shave out of whack.

Your forgetting the possibility of honing elves at work while you sleep.

Originally Posted by tintin

Your forgetting the possibility of honing elves at work while you sleep.

Or in my case, I forgot that I re-honed it LOL.

I've been honing and maintaining my own razors for a few years with great results.
But I still have to send one off to one of to a Pro's now and then...most of the time a case of "don't make it worse".

The best "get your mind right" exercise for me has been the 1K challenge: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...r-1k-hone.html

It helped me to remember "first, we set the bevel" - and knowing that I was going to have to shave off of it made me invest the time and attention...

Good luck and keep us posted...