Thread: Irritation after honing?

i have gone the better part of a year now without much irritation once i learned how to shave properly. now that i am learning to hone, i seem to get quite a bit of irritation when i shave with a razor i just honed.

what does everyone do to disinfect after honing? nothing, alcohol, peroxide, spit on it?

i am thinking this is where my irritation is coming from. at the least all shave ready razors will be getting an alcohol bath tonight.

vgod

Originally Posted by vgod

i have gone the better part of a year now without much irritation once i learned how to shave properly. now that i am learning to hone, i seem to get quite a bit of irritation when i shave with a razor i just honed.

what does everyone do to disinfect after honing? nothing, alcohol, peroxide, spit on it?

i am thinking this is where my irritation is coming from. at the least all shave ready razors will be getting an alcohol bath tonight.

vgod

I get irritation after honing if I don't strop a hundred passes or so on linen then leather right afterward. Is your hone ill? Maybe disinfect the hone?

The edge can be a little rough right after honing, stropping on news paper, linen, then plain leather (50 to 100 laps) should fix the problem.

I haven't heard of hones carrying anything that could irritate your skin but you never know. Wipe some alcohol on the blade and let it evaporate, maybe add in an antibacterial soap wash and hot water rinse.

See if any of that helps.

Could it be that the edge is a bit sharper and removing more skin cells?

i guess i can add that i normally do 10+ laps on the cro-ox after the hones, then paddle leather for 30-40 laps, then hanging leather for 50-60 laps. did not include, should have.

i am not worried about catching anything from my ancient str8s, just cannot figure out the irritation. almost more of ingrown hairs which i never get, or small bits of acne.

or maybe it is my soap. i will go back to col. conk and get rid of that variable.

vgod

Are you stressed out?

It's very unlikely that you caught a bug from the stones.

I usually use barber hone - newspaper, and always use alcohol on my razors right before stropping. No problems so far with that method.

Ingrown hairs? Have you just started shaving ATG?

You didn't say what hone you were using. Sometimes if you use a very fine media like .25 diamond it will leave a harsh edge the first few shaves which can give some irritation and if you use a coarse hone and try shaving with that the razor might not quite be shave ready so those are possibilities. Usually when a good shaving razor starts to deteriorate the comfort factor is the first thing to go before the shave starts to turn poor.

nope, not stressed out.

nope, been shaving ATG for most of the time i have been shaving.

using king 800, king 4k, norton 4k, norton 8k, 4 side paddle coticule, leather with cro-oxide.

i have not shaved in a few days trying to let some of this clear up. i will shave again tonight with the old soap and see how that goes. i really think it is the soap.

vgod

btw, thanks for any advice or thoughts so far and coming.

That's really strange. There shouldn't be any irritation especially when using cro-ox as this puts a really smooth shave on the edge. You seem to strop after honing. Basically when I finish honing my last steps are cro=ox followed by 40-50 laps total on my strop. I've never encountered any irritation. On the contrarary. I get the smoothest shaves ever. It always puts a satisfying smile on my face. Unless you're using some 0.25 diamond paste which can sometimes feel harsh for some people but you're not mentioning any 0.25 use.
I forgot to mention but whenever I completely finish honing a razor after the last stropping part I always give that razor a complete polshing/cleaning treatment with Maas or BlueMagic metal polish. The polishing helps get rid of any particles that might be stuck or sticking on the blade's edge.