Thread: Touch ups and shave strokes

I don't know if it's only ATG shaving, but those of us w/ tougher beards (some hairs on my chin are nearly as thick as mechanical pencil lead-- the really thin kind, smaller than 0.5mm, but still... ) probably have less tolerance for dulling before the comfort starts to degrade to an unacceptable level. At least, that's true for me. My sideburns/cheeks are much lighter & I can still get a reasonably good shave there when it starts to get unpleasant in tougher zones.

Hey, I'm surprised to what I read here!...

Some of you say they hone there razors once every 7/10 shaves, that means nearly once a week!

It's really surprising to me.

I can read nearly everywhere that a razor should only be honed once a year, not more, and only stropping, sometimes with Crox (15/20 shaves) should be enought...

I'm affraid about your razors if you hone them so often, you'll soon have 1/8"...

And what to think with the past : most people in the first half of XXth century only had a razor and a strop, no honing stone. They went to a honer once when needed, but what the hell this would have been if they had to do it weekly...

Originally Posted by Bbr6704

I can read nearly everywhere that a razor should only be honed once a year, not more, and only stropping, sometimes with Crox (15/20 shaves) should be enought...

I'm affraid about your razors if you hone them so often, you'll soon have 1/8"...

And what to think with the past : most people in the first half of XXth century only had a razor and a strop, no honing stone. They went to a honer once when needed, but what the hell this would have been if they had to do it weekly...

Are you basing your judgement on experience or just what other people are saying?

And second, how do you KNOW for sure that people in the first half of the 20th century never had a stone?

Did you ask them?

I'm basing on both experience and reading on forums about straight razors and honing (coticule.be)... If you strop enough between each shave, you don't need stone that often.

And for the people in the first half of 20th century, I know the exeple of my grandfathers and girlfriend's granfather, no one out of the four had a stone. A second element would be you can easilli find old razos, very less oftne old stones... A thrid would be, in the past you had many honers going for villages to villages, they had work to do, enough to get a fulltime job, this would not have been possible if everybody had a stone...

In the old days, lots of barbers touched up customers' razors, so I don't see how we can determine how often our ancestors touched up their blades based on whether they owned razor stones. They probably did it when it was necessary & that was that. You also don't find as many antique strops for sale as razors; presumably our ancestors still stropped, though...

Be that as it may, beard & steel & probably even grind types play a role here too, all things being equal (assuming proper shaving/stropping technique here). Someone w/ a light beard who only does 1 pass WTG, using a quarter hollow harder steel razor like a TI or Le Grelot will probably get more shaves out of his blade than someone w/ a very heavy beard who does a full shave (including ATG) w/ a full or extra hollow softer steel razor. And then we have corrosion to think about: does our hypothetical shaver live near a body of saltwater or in the middle of the desert? How much stropping does he do post-shave? Does he oil his blade afterwards? What kind of fabric strop does he use (does he even use one?) & is it treated w/ anything? How is his beard prep? Does he count pasted stropping as a "touchup" or only honing?

Also, some shavers will have less tolerance for pulling; for them the comfort factor goes earlier & they touch up more frequently (probably much lighter than someone who lets the blade go longer).

And finally, light touchups like we're talking about remove very little steel. You won't get to 1/8 anytime in your lifetime doing this!

I am a 5-7 day guy. I have a patch of beard on each side of my mouth that seems like there are major nerves attached to them and it if very noticeable when my razors performance drops very much. I could continue going but why? When all it takes is 5-10 stropping strokes on a paddle strop, felt piece for me, with your favorite stropping material to give you close to that "off the hone" cutting performance. I keep a felt pad in the bathroom so it is not big deal for me. I will say that after 1 or 2 paddle strops I go to the stones. If you have 2 razors that means a month's worth of shaves. I like honing to much not to go to the rocks for a 15 or 20 minute session once a month. There is nothing like a razor freshly of the rocks.

Take Care,
Richard

I didn't even think about the fact that an atg pass, regardless of its effect on the blade relative to other types of passes, is an extra pass. So, that's 7 extra passes per week over someone who does only 2 passes every day. I'd think that certainly influences the frequency of touch ups.

Could even be worse if in fact, stoke numbers are a big factor in edge life, since ATG is usually lots of short overlapping strokes.