Thread: infinite touch ups?

I was just thinking about touching up razors on a barber hone or very high grit stone and started wondering... If you have a shave ready edge and just touch it up now and again, say on a barber hone, would you ever have to touch another stone? Would you have unlimited touch up, or would you eventually have to drop down a bit and put a new edge on with a norton? How long would these touch ups last for before you had to rehone?

Sorry if this is odd but I want to hear what others think of this.

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

I was just thinking about touching up razors on a barber hone or very high grit stone and started wondering... If you have a shave ready edge and just touch it up now and again, say on a barber hone, would you ever have to touch another stone? Would you have unlimited touch up, or would you eventually have to drop down a bit and put a new edge on with a norton? How long would these touch ups last for before you had to rehone?

Sorry if this is odd but I want to hear what others think of this.

Someday you'll nick the blade and need more.

If you touch up regularly, you'll never need to do more.
If you let it get really dull, you'll have to put in more effort because the edge will get a bit rounded with use and repeated stropping.

A Belgian Coticule could fit the bill here. A nice one could act as a touch up stone wet or lathered, or with slurry (or milk as our Belgian friends say) to do a bit of metal removing.
If you didn't mind spending the time, you could use it with slurry to remove tiny chips!
They aren't very cheap, but if you only want a stone for general razor care these are the boys!
If you are in America I understand member Howard (theperfectedge) sells nice ones (well everyone rates him highly here.
I've got a coticule, I like it. I am considering something coarser and faster to cut a bevel on razors that have no edge at all.
BTW Coticules won't overhone an edge ! So if your a learner(like me) that's one problem we don't have to worry about.
Go on - join club Yellow you won't regret it............

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

I was just thinking about touching up razors on a barber hone or very high grit stone and started wondering... If you have a shave ready edge and just touch it up now and again, say on a barber hone, would you ever have to touch another stone? Would you have unlimited touch up, or would you eventually have to drop down a bit and put a new edge on with a norton? How long would these touch ups last for before you had to rehone?

Sorry if this is odd but I want to hear what others think of this.

I think beyond what others have said it also depends upon the razor.

I have two razors that haven't seen any stones excepting a three to five stroke Swaty touch-up since I originally honed them I have other razors that just need a more stringent honing every so often and don't respond to the fine grit touch-up process at all though the honing they get is very short and sweet only a short pyramidand they are ready to go again.

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

A Belgian Coticule could fit the bill here. A nice one could act as a touch up stone wet or lathered, or with slurry (or milk as our Belgian friends say) to do a bit of metal removing.
If you didn't mind spending the time, you could use it with slurry to remove tiny chips!
They aren't very cheap, but if you only want a stone for general razor care these are the boys!
If you are in America I understand member Howard (theperfectedge) sells nice ones (well everyone rates him highly here.
I've got a coticule, I like it. I am considering something coarser and faster to cut a bevel on razors that have no edge at all.
BTW Coticules won't overhone an edge ! So if your a learner(like me) that's one problem we don't have to worry about.
Go on - join club Yellow you won't regret it............

Thanks, I was thinking of getting a coticule, but i saw the thread on the German hones by English, and now I like the grey black stone he talks about. Im waiting to see what he has to say, he has both.

To my knowledge, no one has maintained an edge on a hone for years at a time with just touch ups. The longest I have heard is from David Uthe who said that when he first started with a str8 he had a chalk pasted linen that kept his edge going for a long time.

If anyone has first hand experience otherwise, please speak up.

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

Thanks, I was thinking of getting a coticule, but i saw the thread on the German hones by English, and now I like the grey black stone he talks about. Im waiting to see what he has to say, he has both.

My pleasure Sir.
The coticule is readily available, It's not just a touch up hone. I have used mine to hone 3 "knife sharpish" razors (that hadn't seen a stone for the best part of a hundred years) to razor sharp with the aid of a smal Dovo strop and I'm the lowest of the low in the honemiester scale.
For what they do, the price is OK.
I've read that many moons ago, all people had were coticules to get their razors from completely blunt to shaveable.
If you have the cash you could try a more exotic stone I suppose.
Let us know what you buy.
Yours M

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

...
If you have a shave ready edge and just touch it up now and again, say on a barber hone, would you ever have to touch another stone?
...

My razors only see barber hones, newspaper, and a plain leather strop, once I get the edges up to par. The exception is a wedge that I dropped and repaired on a 1200 mesh DMT D6E (it's square point now has a slightly larger radius on it). I have one NOS vintage that has seen only barber hones.

I can vouch for 8 months at this point. I would think that as long as your barber hone keeps ahead of the edge's speed of oxidation, they should work well for a very long time.

I'll try to remember to report back if a barber hone ceases to keep one of mine sharp enough.