Thread: Resting The Blade

Is there any merit to resting the blade. I'm actually thinking in terms of getting a better hone. I wonder if once the best edge has been achieved in a honing session, it might not be better to give the blade a few days and apply the finishing touches. Are the fins in better position for refinement if they rest? The reason I ask is that I have consistently found that doing the few touch up passes on the 0.5 micron paste a few days later actually seems to get better results than doing it right off the Norton. I think only careful examination with a powerful microscope will answer my question and I haven't one.

X

Originally Posted by xman

Is there any merit to resting the blade. I'm actually thinking in terms of getting a better hone. I wonder if once the best edge has been achieved in a honing session, it might not be better to give the blade a few days and apply the finishing touches. Are the fins in better position for refinement if they rest? The reason I ask is that I have consistently found that doing the few touch up passes on the 0.5 micron paste a few days later actually seems to get better results than doing it right off the Norton. I think only careful examination with a powerful microscope will answer my question and I haven't one.

X

I've never heard resting discussed in this comtext. It usually comes up as a question of whether you should shave with the same razor two days in a row. THere is a German theory that says you should not because you need to give the razor a chance to rest. Most experienced str8 shavers debunk that theory.

However, I have heard one plausible explanation supporting it. The microserrations makeing up the fin are bent out wards during use, making the razor edge seem wider (less sharp). Steel has memoy, and if you let the razor rest, those microserrations straighten back up. If, instead, you strop the razor immediately, you fatigue certain microserrations, which break off, ruining the straightness of the edge. I have never seen any proof of this. And I have never had a problem shaving with the same razor two days in a row.

I have also never noticed that when I strop with paste makes a difference as opposed to whether I do.

I could see the above theory supporting what you do. Honing disrupts the microserrations, causing them to spread. If you let them come back on their own, you will have very little stropping to do. If you strop while the microserrations are stil disrupted, you may have to strop a lot more. You may also break some microserrations through pasted stropping, causing the condition of the edge to deteriorate because of microserrations breaking off.