Thread: I'm officially stumped

Originally Posted by Bruno

And did you finish on the coticule without water?

Sorry, I took that to mean finish using without water and slurry. I thought it sounded odd, but at this point, I'd stand on my head if it let me get my razors sharp

I gotta say, take with a grain of salt anything you read here--and don't ignore your strop. It might be your problem.

I have an old Holler "Tower Brand" wedge that I worked on off and on for a month with poor results. It has a slightly warped blade so getting an edge in the center was a challenge.

I had honed and stropped and tried shaving with it at least 20 times, nothing but irritation and no cutting of beard or mustache hairs. Forget going ATG.

So, I got frustrated. What the hell. It isn't shaving, I might as well have fun.

I did 200 hard fast strokes on my Red Imp hanging strop. This is the daily strop not a pasted one.

Went back and tried a shave.

MUCH better. Suddenly it cuts chin and mustache hairs. Not the best razor I have but not bad.

Next day, stropped it 100 times and tried again.

EVEN better. Yep, it is improving with just plain leather stropping. Now I can shave without irritation ATG. Still a little rough though.

Next day, Stropped it 100 times and tried again.

WOW!!!!!!!!!! Wiping the whiskers off. Incredible close shave even WTG. AGT under chin and on neck and no irritation at all.

Can't wait till tomorrow. This is my new favorite.

The advice from most people is only the weight of the razor on the strop. Well, I disagree.

Others say only 30 strokes.

Again, it depends. Probably once the razor is shaving, 30 is enough, but I have found that the razor keeps improving for the first 300 strokes or so right after it has been honed.

You gotta learn your strop. It needs to be very smooth and well conditioned, and then you need to practice until you can tell the difference between DRAW and just scraping. DRAW is a nice feeling that happens when the entire bevel is making contact with the leather. Practice slow, but use a little force.

You can strop all day with the "weight of the razor" and get nowhere if you aren't achieving a good draw.

Finally, it just takes lots of practice, because you *might* be rolling the edge with improper stropping technique and not knowing. Someone would have to watch you to be able to see it. It took me 4 months of practice to get to the point where I *understand* my strop.

Hope this helps. Unlikely that it will but at least you have another data point.

Originally Posted by toolarts

I gotta say, take with a grain of salt anything you read here--and don't ignore your strop. It might be your problem.

I have an old Holler "Tower Brand" wedge that I worked on off and on for a month with poor results. It has a slightly warped blade so getting an edge in the center was a challenge.

I had honed and stropped and tried shaving with it at least 20 times, nothing but irritation and no cutting of beard or mustache hairs. Forget going ATG.

So, I got frustrated. What the hell. It isn't shaving, I might as well have fun.

I did 200 hard fast strokes on my Red Imp hanging strop. This is the daily strop not a pasted one.

Went back and tried a shave.

MUCH better. Suddenly it cuts chin and mustache hairs. Not the best razor I have but not bad.

Next day, stropped it 100 times and tried again.

EVEN better. Yep, it is improving with just plain leather stropping. Now I can shave without irritation ATG. Still a little rough though.

Next day, Stropped it 100 times and tried again.

WOW!!!!!!!!!! Wiping the whiskers off. Incredible close shave even WTG. AGT under chin and on neck and no irritation at all.

Can't wait till tomorrow. This is my new favorite.

The advice from most people is only the weight of the razor on the strop. Well, I disagree.

Others say only 30 strokes.

Again, it depends. Probably once the razor is shaving, 30 is enough, but I have found that the razor keeps improving for the first 300 strokes or so right after it has been honed.

You gotta learn your strop. It needs to be very smooth and well conditioned, and then you need to practice until you can tell the difference between DRAW and just scraping. DRAW is a nice feeling that happens when the entire bevel is making contact with the leather. Practice slow, but use a little force.

You can strop all day with the "weight of the razor" and get nowhere if you aren't achieving a good draw.

Finally, it just takes lots of practice, because you *might* be rolling the edge with improper stropping technique and not knowing. Someone would have to watch you to be able to see it. It took me 4 months of practice to get to the point where I *understand* my strop.

Hope this helps. Unlikely that it will but at least you have another data point.

+1.

Usually, my blades continue to feel sharper (and shave smoother) with each consecutive day of stropping/shaving. The no pressure mantra is more of a guideline (created here, btw) to prevent people from dragging the edges into their strops and rolling them. I use a little pressure at first when stropping, but *always* keep the strop tight. Some of the barber manuals (check the links section) even recommend an even pressure on the strop at first without lifting the spine.
Basically, if it works for you, go for it, and don't use enough pressure to *force* anything, and you should be pretty much ok.


John P.

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

I'd stand on my head if it let me get my razors sharp

If I were you I would try as many methods as possible. Read about the way various people hone their own razors and start playing around with techniques. You never know what is going to work for you so don't adhere too strictly to any one persons method. This will take a while, so in the meantime send one to a pro.

Try and keep in mind that the advice we try and give here is general recommendations that are more or less classical techniques that have been used successfully for many many years by an awful lot of people. Certainly there are some people who seemingly do everything the direct opposite and have great success. My advice initially is to learn to do it the classic way and once you have some experience under your belt then you can strike off on your own and experiment and adapt things to your own ways. As they say all roads lead to Rome. As long as the razor gets sharp thats what matters but also remember if you try it some unorthodox way, bad habits are hard to break and if you mess up your edge, well you know who to blame.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

If I were you I would try as many methods as possible.

Should I take this to mean that I should attempt standing on my head to hone?

Thanks for the help guys. I'll try out a few more things and report back.

Does the razor pass the HHT off the 1200 (I'm not sure it's possible off the 1200 grit, I'm just asking)? I've been using a Shapton 2000 grit stone for setting bevels and I use the marker test first, then a combination of the TPT and the edge passing HHT off the 2000 grit stone. Prior to this, I didn't even think an edge COULD pass an HHT off that coarse of a grit but it can and does for me when I feel the bevel is set.

I agree on stropping. I grabbed an old Joseph Allen & Sons that was so dull, I'd probably have to press the edge into my hand with some pressue to cut. I wanted to practice with my hanging strop on a razor that would have little chance to nick it. I've been using a paddle strop and consider myself to still be very inexperienced in stropping with a hanging strop. Anyway, 100 practice passes and although the edge isn't close to keen, I was VERY surprised how much sharper the edge of that very dull razor was!

RE: the slurry on the yellow; I've had bad experience with slurry on the yellow coticule. So much so, that my "cotigura" has sat gathering dust on a shelf for months and months and I doubt I'll use it again. The only reason I haven't posted a "free to a good home" post to get rid of it is that it may slightly increase the value of my yellow should I ever choose to sell it. I found that slurry on the yellow significantly changed the edge in a negative way for me compared to plain water (nice edges there). In contrast, I DO like the Belgian Blue slurry stone I've been using on my Blue stone, but that makes sense to me since the blue IMO is a cutter and the yellow a polisher. The blue slurry seems to enhance the cutting action.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

Should I take this to mean that I should attempt standing on my head to hone?

Yes.






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