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