Thread: Questions About Edge Longevity & Honing

You're right, it's not a big deal to refresh the blade on a barber hone - or a pasted strop or some other type high-grit finishing hone. As I mentioned above, one of my razors that had about four months of shaves on it recently received a quick touch-up on a barber hone. But if the razor doesn't need refreshing then why would you put it on the barber hone anyway if it won't make a noticeable improvement and has some risk of worsening the edge (bad mood, sleepiness, etc)?

As for why one might want to try and extend the life of his edge, that's another question. In my case I suspected the claims I was hearing around here were wildly exaggerated, but then I heard the same thing from members of my family whose fathers/grandfathers had used straights. So I decided to try and find out what was wrong with my technique that I was only getting 1-2 weeks out of my edges. At this point I've corrected the more glaring flaws and while I'm not really trying to make my edges last as long as possible, neither am I in any hurry to rehone them before they actually need it, because constantly refreshing my edges was actually disguising problems with my prep, stropping, and shaving technique that affected not only the life of the edges but also the quality and comfort of the shave.