Thread: Straight Razors Dull Despite Little Use

I now have a pasted linen strop, courtesy of @paulFLUS. Thank you Paul!

I have never used one before, so before my shave today I just took a shot in the dark, 5-6 back and forth strokes on the pasted strop, 5-6 on the linen, 10 on the leather.

This was easily my smoothest shave yet. Normally I do my cheeks, then my neck, then the mustache area, then around my chin, usually by the time I get to my chin the blade gets pretty dull and starts to tug badly on my coarse chin hairs, even if the shave started off nice and smooth. This time that barely happened at all, by the time I got to my chin it barely pulled, seemed to cut through without much difficulty.

Each time I pick up my straight razor now it feels less and less like a mystery of "how the f--- do I shave with this sword without decapitating myself" and more like a nice, high-precision manual way of shaving, I'm really enjoying the experience, despite having a neck with all sorts of unfortunate curvature that makes it hard to find good angles.

Hopefully I get my sharpening lessons from the local knife guy soon, I feel like I'm picking up the technique well. I definitely believe -now that I've got a decent technique for stropping- that a lot of my struggle with sharpening was not really in my sharpening technique, but time will tell.

Glad things are working out for you.

Be careful that you don't contaminate your strops with the paste.

I am a bit surprised you can't get through one shave without your razor feeling dull.

I would be inclined to send it out to be properly honed, there's guys here that can put an atom splitting edge on it for you.

I doubt it is actually dulling that fast. More likely it is not all the way there to begin with or perhaps has a rolled edge. The hair on my chin is thicker and more coarse than the rest. That is why if I am testing an edge I go to the chin first. In fact, after a honing or even a touch up I do about a quarter inch test on my chin dry to make sure it is cutting because even a dull razor will not pull as much if at all on my cheeks. In my case at least the chin is the real proving ground for an edge, and that is true no matter if it is a straight or a DE. If you are like most people you shave the cheeks first then go to the chin. It then just seems as though it is dulling when in reality you just haven't gotten to the coarse part yet.

It is also possible that your angle changes at the chin. Pay close attention to your angle in the various stages. You may find that it becomes too steep (obtuse) there especially going around the curves of the jawbone.

Make sure you are doing good quality laps on the strop and enough of them. You will probably find that as your technique improves your speed will improve and as a result your number of laps will increase. In a poll you will probably find that most people are doing at least 50 and maybe 100 in their regular stropping routine...but they have to be quality laps so work on your form before trying to pick up speed or number as more poor strikes will roll the edge more.

From the way it sounds I personally think you just need more time on the cloth and leather. Keep with it though. It keeps getting better.

Originally Posted by STF

I spent a lot of money on loupes, i had 20x 30x 40x 60 times with lights
I was told to get a Belomo 10x, really expensive, like 50 bucks Canadian.
But i wish i had got the Belomo first, it would have still saved me money in the long run.

I will never need another loupe, Belomo 10x, doesn't have a light and it collects the ambient light so doesn't need one.

Push the boat out and treat yourself, I was reluctant to but Im so happy I did.

That is IMHO the very best loupe for honing razors. What I like best is the focal distance. You can stand off a bit from the edge, and not risk contact with the edge of the razor, plus that lets plenty of ambient light in there. Don't bother with the 20x Belomo. It's a whole nother critter. The 10X is the bee's knees. EVERYBODY should have a Belomo 10x even if it is just for removing splinters and bee stingers.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I doubt it is actually dulling that fast. More likely it is not all the way there to begin with or perhaps has a rolled edge. The hair on my chin is thicker and more coarse than the rest. That is why if I am testing an edge I go to the chin first. In fact, after a honing or even a touch up I do about a quarter inch test on my chin dry to make sure it is cutting because even a dull razor will not pull as much if at all on my cheeks. In my case at least the chin is the real proving ground for an edge, and that is true no matter if it is a straight or a DE. If you are like most people you shave the cheeks first then go to the chin. It then just seems as though it is dulling when in reality you just haven't gotten to the coarse part yet.

It is also possible that your angle changes at the chin. Pay close attention to your angle in the various stages. You may find that it becomes too steep (obtuse) there especially going around the curves of the jawbone.

Make sure you are doing good quality laps on the strop and enough of them. You will probably find that as your technique improves your speed will improve and as a result your number of laps will increase. In a poll you will probably find that most people are doing at least 50 and maybe 100 in their regular stropping routine...but they have to be quality laps so work on your form before trying to pick up speed or number as more poor strikes will roll the edge more.

From the way it sounds I personally think you just need more time on the cloth and leather. Keep with it though. It keeps getting better.

Definitely all possibilities, the angles on my chin are sharp, and the hair grows in a very inconvenient direction, and is coarser, and I probably use the wrong angle there, and I do it last. My recent shave after using the pasted strop was clearly sharper throughout the entire shave, and I did my chin sooner than usual, 2nd region of my face instead of last (maybe 8th region in sequence.)

I do seriously doubt that 80 strops is actually helpful. I've been looking at metal under scanning electron microscope frequently lately, not edges but extremely magnified view, the tiniest touches to the metal are clearly visible after 30x, super visible as you get more magnified, I have a hard time believing that you would need to spend that much time on a strop to realign an edge with how easy it seems to be to adjust metal on the very small scale. The technique is certainly important, but the quantity I doubt.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

That is IMHO the very best loupe for honing razors. What I like best is the focal distance. You can stand off a bit from the edge, and not risk contact with the edge of the razor, plus that lets plenty of ambient light in there. Don't bother with the 20x Belomo. It's a whole nother critter. The 10X is the bee's knees. EVERYBODY should have a Belomo 10x even if it is just for removing splinters and bee stingers.

I might buy one of these just to have it. I don't like how my loupe has to be super close to the subject to see it well.

You're not just aligning the edge. You are also removing burrs, polishing and reshaping to a finer degree. But to be clear, use light passes and more laps instead of the opposite. I know some people will tell you to bear down on the strop. My experience tells me to do it the other way. But don't take my word for it. Try it and see. Bravery and experimentation is how we learn. For me it is hold the strop taught but not banjo skin tight. Hold the razor loosely in my hand and control with the thumb and forefinger. Do x stroke laps for 20-80 depending on what condition the razor is in (more and more different materials if I have just honed)

Read some posts in the stropping forum and see what people there say then use your mental seive to sort out what works for you.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

You're not just aligning the edge. You are also removing burrs, polishing and reshaping to a finer degree. But to be clear, use light passes and more laps instead of the opposite.

I guess discussion about how much effort I strop with is not at all productive if we have no standard for what "light" means.

I don't put a ton of pressure on the razor as I strop by any means. Initially, when I was having major trouble cutting any hair with my razor, I would use literally zero pressure, the bare minimum to actually cause the edge to contact the leather, and have gravity only as the source of force. My knife guy watched me doing that and immediately told me that I will not get anywhere with this.

I tried putting the razor on a scale to get an idea of how much force I use, it's not 100% but it looks like about half a pound or so. I don't consider this a lot of pressure at all, maybe it is "heavy pressure" or "light pressure" depending on who you ask. I get much better results this way.

As the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding." As you have rightly pointed out the measurements and their scale is rather subjective and hard to quantify. In the final analysis what others say is only relevant to the extent that you can use it to your benefit. I try to use these two dicta as a guide. "We can learn from anyone including a fool," and "Even the brilliant have moments of idiocy."

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

That is IMHO the very best loupe for honing razors. What I like best is the focal distance. You can stand off a bit from the edge, and not risk contact with the edge of the razor, plus that lets plenty of ambient light in there. Don't bother with the 20x Belomo. It's a whole nother critter. The 10X is the bee's knees. EVERYBODY should have a Belomo 10x even if it is just for removing splinters and bee stingers.

I just ordered one, I'm surprised there's no duty or shipping from America to Canada, it still came out to around $50 after taxes, shipping, duties, currency conversion, etc.

I'm excited to see how nice this thing is.

Originally Posted by rickytimothy

I just ordered one, I'm surprised there's no duty or shipping from America to Canada, it still came out to around $50 after taxes, shipping, duties, currency conversion, etc.

I'm excited to see how nice this thing is.

You will love it, especially for razor honing and inspection. Keep it in a good place, because you will ALWAYS be looking for it for stuff. A Carson MicroBrite is cool sometimes, and a USB microscope is nice for taking pics, but for just LOOKING at stuff your loupe is your friend.