Thread: Barber honing advice - blade still dull

I also suspect that there are to many steps between the barber hone and the plain leather strop. Try eliminating everything but those two. Once you have a shaving edge then you can go back and try the CrOx & such....one at a time.

OK, so hate to revisit this but I'm still having the same issues. I've tried many combinations of setups with 3 different razors and here are the results.

Razors I used:
A new Dovo (5/8 I think) hollow
A vintage Henckels (4/8) hollow
A vintage W&B (6/8) wedge

All were once very sharp, honed by a pro. All eventually got less sharp (although still shaveable). The Henckels is the only one that seemed to respond really well to my barber's hone; 10-15 laps and it was pretty good to go (not great, but good). The Dovo and the W&B took quite a few more strokes, anywhere from 25-50, testing every 10 or so on the back of my hand for sharpness. Eventually they all got to the point where they cut hairs fairly easily (the Henckels more than the other two), but they were very rough-feeling edges.

Then I took each of them to the CrOx suede bench strop (8" x 2") to try and smooth the edges out a bit. At first I was doing 10-15 stropping passes, this seemed to almost completely dull the edge. I've been doing anywhere from 2-5 recently, which maintains some of the sharpness but still seems to dull the edge a bit (again, testing on the back of my hand). I've skipped the suede bench strop entirely, and the linen, and go straight to my normal leather strop where I do ~30 passes. When I go to shave, the edges cut hair decently well but they're still pretty rough feeling - not so much that I wouldn't shave, but it's a slight bit of razor burn that I don't usually get.

So I'm thinking: what gives? It feels like I'm doing everything wrong here, somehow, or are these just the results to be expected from a barber's hone (good, not great)?

Maybe it's worth picking up a C12k or another barber's hone to see if it's maybe an issue with your specific hone?

Have you tried dropping the pastes out of the equation, going straight from the Barber's Hones to the leather and doing over a hundred passes to smooth out the edge and fine it up?

Originally Posted by ace

Have you tried dropping the pastes out of the equation, going straight from the Barber's Hones to the leather and doing over a hundred passes to smooth out the edge and fine it up?

Haven't done that, never considered doing that many passes on a strop before (I think I'd fall asleep). But at this point it's worth a shot!

Also, thankfully I do have another barber's hone, a much more vintage one, which I sent out to my honer to get lapped smooth. Can't wait for it to get to me.

Originally Posted by ace

Have you tried dropping the pastes out of the equation, going straight from the Barber's Hones to the leather and doing over a hundred passes to smooth out the edge and fine it up?

Good idea...
Less is more in many cases.

Try: barber hone just six very smooth licks follow by fifteen to twenty on smooth leather.
It may be necessary to repeat this a number of times based on your shave tests.

Do let your barber hone polish and glaze up... (unlike a Norton or Naniwa).
If you must clean it use mouthwash or bit of tooth paste and your finger
or a scotchbrite then rinse well three times.

I suspect you will find value in a 4k/8k or 3k/8k combo water hone
and a DMT (COARSE - 325) to lap it flat and freshen the surface.
A combo hone can reduce a lightly rolled edge on the 4k side
and the 8k side can be used in a lot of ways including a fortnightly
refresh like a barber hone. The pyramid method uses both sides and
works very well with such a combo.. see the WiKi.

Less is more...

My thought is that you are ready to hone your own razors. Sending them out every few weeks, to me, doesn't make sense. A year's worth of doing that would buy you a nice honing setup.

(Most of) Those of us who do home our own do not attempt to do so with just a barber's hone.

My advice is to get a coticule from a reputable vendor or member here, read up on how to use it, and put the same effort into it that you have with the barber's hone to learn it's ways, and enjoy sharp,comfortable shaves for the rest of your life. Try to resist HAD. Ohers may have other thoughts

Originally Posted by pcb01

.....
(Most of) Those of us who do home our own do not attempt to do so with just a barber's hone.
....

+1
We can quibble about the right hone because
there are so many good choices.

Map out a plan... perhaps start with a finisher (8K---12K)
and use it to refresh your shavers. A Coticule would be
in the 8k-12k window if it is a good one. When you
cannot get a good edge refreshed yourself send it out and ask the
honemaster if he has an opinion on the razor needing work with a
finer or coarser hone.

Originally Posted by pcb01

My thought is that you are ready to hone your own razors.

That's pretty much what I was trying to avoid with this whole barber's honing idea

I just wanted to be able to maintain my edges for longer in between honing sessions, especially if I am traveling for weeks at a time. Maybe I'm being shortsided but getting into honing seems like... well, a hassle I've recently started cleaning up some vintage razors on my own and if hand polishing gives me the stress it does, learning to hone will probably kill me. Also, I think if my fiance finds any more razor stuff accumulating around my place, she'll start buying shoes again...

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll keep at it until I find something that works perfectly. Maybe every razor hits the barber's hone differently, with a different finishing method? In retrospect that would make sense to me.

Originally Posted by zappbrannigan

That's pretty much what I was trying to avoid with this whole barber's honing idea

I just wanted to be able to maintain my edges for longer in between honing sessions, especially if I am traveling for weeks at a time. Maybe I'm being shortsided but getting into honing seems like... well, a hassle I've recently started cleaning up some vintage razors on my own and if hand polishing gives me the stress it does, learning to hone will probably kill me. Also, I think if my fiance finds any more razor stuff accumulating around my place, she'll start buying shoes again...

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll keep at it until I find something that works perfectly. Maybe every razor hits the barber's hone differently, with a different finishing method? In retrospect that would make sense to me.

I know I've brought this up before, but it's worth repeating. About 99% of the time, All I ever use is an Escher in lieu of a Barber hone. I keep the Escher and a Swaty out by my razors. Like you, I have a very coarse, dense beard. I think that's what led me to straight razors to begin with. All my blades are shave ready.

Barring an accident, all I ever do, is touch them up on my Escher. How bad the blade is, dictates what I'll do on the Escher, sometimes, just a quick touch up with water will suffice, other times, I need to use the slurry stone, and do maybe 3 sets of 10-30 strokes (circles and lapps), diluting once, then plain water at the end.

Like I said, Unless there's a chip, or the blade needs restoration, i.e. cleaning, buffing, etc...This is the only hone I use.