Razor Honing Record

The other day I found a 1930-40’s, 7/8 Colibri #70 in the Shave Ready cup. I keep 3 cups in my shaving cabinet. Shave Ready, Test Razors and razors that need more work. Maybe 20 razors, a fraction of the collection. I really don’t have a “rotation”. I shave with new to me razors and keep them in the cups until something new comes along or a favorite comes out of the collection.

I will often clean a “new” razor and hone it before restoring, usually test shave the next day, but if the edge is exceptional, I may shave with it for a week, two or more. Additionally, I test shave customer razors, so at times I run out of beard.

I shaved with the Colibri 70 and it had a smoking edge, shaved a dream. Problem was I do not recall how I finished that particular razor. I am always testing stones, Naguras, combinations, strops and pastes. Customer razors get a pretty standard progression and finish on proven stones and nagura. I experiment with my razors.

So, I have decided to keep a record of razors I hone. Information about the razor, how honed and most importantly finished, stropped and the shave test. I want to keep enough information in case it turns out to be important, but not so much it becomes laborious and I won’t do it.

I know a few of you keep a log/record, and looking back on it, it seems like a good idea, a very good idea, especially for new honer.

I want to make it as easy as possible, so that I will do it every time and I can quickly look up information for reference.

I plan to use a 5x7 journal and write down the information. Here is what I was thinking of collecting. I will keep a Journal with an index using the Bullet Journal index method for quick searchability.

Page Number
Date
Razor, Brand, Width, Scales (for ID)
Bevel Stone
Transition Stone
Finish Stone
Nagura,
Strop, Paste
Test Shave
Notes

What information do you keep, how and why?