Thread: Retention of sharpness

Hello,

I've been straight shaving now for a year or so now, and I'm getting pretty good at it. What I've been having dramas with is making the blades retain their sharpness after honing for longer periods of time.

I started out with a dovo spike point which was sharpened by Lynn. I have a pretty tough beard, and my stropping was pretty ordinary, but I still got a good 6 to 8 weeks of daily shaves out of it. When it started to dull, I bought another one off the classifields, and it was also super sharp upon receipt, and I got around 6 weeks out of it, before I had to put crox on to extend the life. I then found I had to crox after 3 or 4 shaves, so I got out the hone.

I fired up the norton honing pyramid, and used the conservative method on both, and then did 10 laps of crox at the end. They were both nice and sharp, but not super sharp like they were upon receipt. Still, I was able to get about 3 or 4 weeks out of them, before they needed another honing or crox.

I really liked the super sharp feeling, so I bought a Naniwa 12k. I have been doing the conservative pyramid, and then 15 laps on the 12k, with 10 on the crox. Still, I now only seem to be getting around 2 weeks before I need to crox, and about 3 or 4 before I need to re-hone.

The only thing that has changed is I have upgraded from the dovo strop to a red tony miller strop. I used to do 40 linen/60 leather with the dovo, but based on the info with tony's strop, I've been doing 20/25.

I suppose my question is this. Is the length of time the blade stays sharp something that is extended with more honing experience, or do I need to use a diamond spray as well before the crox?

Is perhaps more laps on the strop a possible solution? I know it's been said that you shouldn't move up from the 8k until you're getting good shaves off it, and I was, but this issue has me stumped. I've been double checking my stropping technique, and I don't think that's the issue.

Thanks in advance for any replies. I'd be lost without everyone's input on this site.

regards,

craby

I'm not totally sure what will extend the life of your edges. Contributing factors can include: the razor itself, your beard/prep/technique/number of passes, the edge you get on the razor, stropping (linen may be helpful), how well you clean the razor after use, paste/diamond, the bevel angle, and pretty much anythingn else to do with the razor's edge. I'm not sure which factors have the largest impacts or how to optimize any of the variables. I'm not even sure if anyone has done any careful experimentation on any of them (I think there have been experiments with stropping, but I'm not sure).

I think if you can shave daily with a razor for 2 months before needing to touch it up, you're in great shape.

Might be worthwhile getting a few more razors in your rotation and having them all sharpened by a honemeister. This would allow you to have well-honed razors ready to go all the time and give you time to experiment and compare. My guess is it's your honing and/or your stropping. No big revelation there, but you should be able to get more than two weeks out of a well-honed blade if you're stropping correctly.

Originally Posted by craby

I really liked the super sharp feeling, so I bought a Naniwa 12k. I have been doing the conservative pyramid, and then 15 laps on the 12k, with 10 on the crox.

I suggest you cut back on the crox. Crox works great to add a little life to a blade that's beginning to lose its edge; but, if overused, it can dull a freshly honed blade. After using the finishing hone on a razor, I make a couple of passes with .25 diamond pasted hard leather strop, then 2 passes using a crox pasted hard leather strop to smooth the edge.

On its website, Classic Shaving says this about crox, "Properly used on bench or hanging strops, it takes the "bite" out of a very sharp, aggressive edge. Over-use will decrease the closeness of the shave. Yet, proper use will give you the smoothest edge you have ever experienced, with no loss of closeness."

Good luck!

Originally Posted by craby

Hello,

I
The only thing that has changed is I have upgraded from the dovo strop to a red tony miller strop. I used to do 40 linen/60 leather with the dovo, but based on the info with tony's strop, I've been doing 20/25.



craby

I'd bump the lap count back to what you were doing before as that seemed to be working for you. If you've got a beard like mine, 20/25 is not enough. I do 50/50 at a minimum. You might also try doing a few laps after shaving to completely remove moisture (15/15 should be plenty.)

Originally Posted by PA23-250

I'd bump the lap count back to what you were doing before as that seemed to be working for you. If you've got a beard like mine, 20/25 is not enough. I do 50/50 at a minimum. You might also try doing a few laps after shaving to completely remove moisture (15/15 should be plenty.)

+1. I have a TM Artisan, and while it is a great strop it doesn't have magical properties that allow a significant decrease in final laps. Bump your numbers back up. I routinely do 40/60 for hollows, and even more for my wedge, followed by 10/20 before being stored.

As for the member who advocated cutting back on the chrome I will respectfully disagree. I'm a firm believer in the power of chrome ox, and 10 laps sound very reasonable. If you were doing 30 or 40 laps I'd be concerned, but don't underestimate it's power to bring an edge to full potential.

Thanks very much to everyone for their replies. I decided to re-hone my daily shaver again today, and found that I just couldn't get an edge on it. I decided to do some double checking of my stropping technique, particularly that I'm using a new Tony Miller Heirloom, as opposed to my old dovo.

I got my wife to watch the stropping action from the opposite end, and it turns out that although I was making proper contact on the away stroke, the towards myself one wasn't right.

I did some more practice, and increased the number of laps to my usual 40/60, and the razor seemed to sharpen up again. It's not as super sharp as I would like though, and I'm going to post about that separately now.

In relation to the cro ox, I have been using my own balsa paddle. I think I applied too much to the paddle originally, so I gave it a re-sand and reapplied. Oddly, it doesn't seem as effective now, so I might re-do it again.

I've found that although you can shave off the 8k, the cro-ox really makes for a smoother shave. Anymore than about 6 laps makes it too sharp, but after 3 or so goes at it, it didn't last more than a couple of shaves which is why the hones were brought out. My point being that there is a number of levels of variation between how it's used and applied, so perhaps some people are having different results as a consequence. I for one found that it worked a lot more effectively on my new dovo razor than on the old ones.

regards,

That is good news. Now, would you and your wife mind driving around the country and checking out the stropping in everyone else's homes? Stop by my place first, okay? If I asked my wife to check my stropping she would have to go buy a new set of high-heels and she would call them the "check on the stropping shoes".

It soundes to me like your are doing a Pyramid everytime you update the razor. I would suggest you stop doing that, if that is what you are doing.