Hello From South Florida!

Hello! I've been lurking for a while, and decided it was high time I joined SRP. Thank you all for making this such a great community!

I'm a high school math teacher, and I started to learn how to shave with a straight this summer. So far I've completed 38 open-blade shaves, 31 with straight razors, and 7 with a Feather SS shavette. I'm trying to learn how to hone with a progression of synthetic wetstones.

About me:
1. I dull razors very quickly. Sometimes after one shave. So I'm guessing my stropping stinks, but I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

2. My honing skills are not good yet. To put it mildly.

3. Every time I get discouraged, I give myself a great shave with my shavette, which is very forgiving, and a great tallow-based soap, and I get psyched about wet shaving again.

4. I like silvertip badger brushes. I have a synthetic for travel (it dries quickly), and it works, but for a luxurious shave, give me a badger brush.

I'm looking forward to building my skills until I can begin to provide useful advice on these forums!

Welcome from a fellow Floridian, although I'm from North Florida. Stropping and honing are both skills that seem easy at first glance but turn out to be much harder than they look. I don't know what kind or how many razors you have but since you also have the shavettte you may want to consider sending one off to have it professionally honed. There are people here who can help you with that. That way at least you don't get discouraged and you keep from cutting yourself as much. Don't let lack of skills interrupt what is a daily drudgery turned fun hobby because that's what we do around here. Make a mundane thing like shaving into an art form (IT'S INGENIOUS!) Don't sweat it. You'll improve over time. If you've been looking around for a while then you know everyone here is pretty helpful, in addition to the fact that there is a great wealth of information already on the site. The search tools are pretty good at helping you find things but if you can't just ask and someone will help you. There are some very helpful videos on honing and stroppng. Look around. Read a lot and have fun with it. That's why we're all here.

Here's something helpful for getting good results with your honing.
https://shavelibrary.com/w/Pyramid_honing_guide

For me this made a difference like night and day.

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Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Here's something helpful for getting good results with your honing.
https://shavelibrary.com/w/Pyramid_honing_guide

For me this made a difference like night and day.

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Thanks for the advice, and the link. I'd read the Pyramid Honing article before, but I really needed to re-read it and look at the pictures again.

I've been letting my mind run wild about honing quick fixes, instead of focusing on practicing the basics (elbow up, for instance). And yes, I've gotten, shaved with, and quickly damaged, edges from several respected honemeisters.

That experience is what led me to purchasing the whetstones - I'm so good at dulling edges that I'm going to have to learn to sharpen them, if I'm going to shave with straight razors.

Hello and welcome to SRP.
Enjoy your time here on the forum and have fun learning.
Watch as many videos as you can stand and take your time.

Pete <:-}

Welcome and i love the name!
It takes time and a keen edge to lean. Trying to learn to shave and hone is going to slow down the enjoyment as it takes longer to learn to hone properly than it takes to learn to shave. And that takes many months. Do what you have to but know that we are here to help you along the best we can.

Hello from a Canadian retired high school math teacher/ straight shaver.

If you are quickly dulling your professionally honed blades then a) you have a beard made of steel wool, b) your honemesiter really wasn’t that good or c) you are stropping incorrectly and damaging the edge. My guess is c). I found starting with a paddle strop and watching this video https://youtu.be/bvhK-eLRK94 helpful when I was starting out. See if you can find a mentor nearby who can help you with technique.

And, welcome to SRP.

Hmmm...:confused: That really does sound like more of a stropping issue than a honing issue to me. Jerry is right It takes a long time to learn to hone but I think it takes longer to strop PROPERLY than we realize it does. I had a similar issue where I dulled razors really quickly. It seemed like I would get one or two good shades out of it and then I had to hone again. Over time that went away but I'm not really sure if I can point to one eureka moment when it all came together. That's why the hmmm...:confused:
I guess a few things really come to mind.
1 Make sure you have a good quality strop that is wide enough. I use a 3-in wide Kern Juchten. I wanted one that was wide enough to be able to get the whole blade with one lap.
2 Make sure your form is good. This is something that is just learned over time but the thing that helped me the most was something I read that had an audio file attached. It might have been one of Tony Miller's instructions. Not sure but he mentioned the way it sounds. You should hear what sounds almost like tearing a sheet of notebook paper if the blade is contacting the strop correctly.
3 Spend some time on the suede side of the leather. The suede side does more of a honing than the smooth side. I normally do 20 laps on the suede side and 40 to 50 on the smooth side every time I shave with it and more if it has been sitting for a while or if I've just run it over the stones.
4 Hone your razor after you shave as well as before. After you've cleaned your razor and dried it well (I hope you are cleaning and drying it well after every use because if not that could be the problem) run it over the strop again. I don't run as many laps after but I'll usually do about 20.

Sorry, just a few tips that turned into a dissertation but it sounds to me like stroppng is where you need to concentrate.

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Originally Posted by petercp4e

Hello and welcome to SRP.
Enjoy your time here on the forum and have fun learning.
Watch as many videos as you can stand and take your time.

Pete <:-}

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But I want it all NOW! Seriously, thank you for the perspective.

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Originally Posted by Gasman

Welcome and i love the name!
It takes time and a keen edge to lean. Trying to learn to shave and hone is going to slow down the enjoyment as it takes longer to learn to hone properly than it takes to learn to shave. And that takes many months. Do what you have to but know that we are here to help you along the best we can.

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Thank you for the reality check. I had grandiose fantasies of mastering honing in no time flat. My edges are telling me that it may take a bit longer...

Welcome to the group. To eliminate the razor, send a razor out to someone that already knows how to hone and shave. Once you have one shave with your properly honed razor, we will see if the edge survives your stropping. It is not uncommon for new shavers edges to have a short lifespan. Honing is not rocket science, but mat not be the easiest for everyone to pick up on. It all takes time and trying to learn two new skill sets at the same time is a tough battle. Maybe let someone else hone for a bit.

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Originally Posted by DZEC

Hello from a Canadian retired high school math teacher/ straight shaver.

If you are quickly dulling your professionally honed blades then a) you have a beard made of steel wool, b) your honemesiter really wasn’t that good or c) you are stropping incorrectly and damaging the edge. My guess is c). I found starting with a paddle strop and watching this video https://youtu.be/bvhK-eLRK94 helpful when I was starting out. See if you can find a mentor nearby who can help you with technique.

And, welcome to SRP.

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It's (c). And thanks for the video link. I've watched a lot of stropping videos, but I hadn't seen that one - it was a really good illustration of slow, stable, and steady technique.

Welcome! Sounds like you’re in too deep to go back.

Stropping, for me took about 2-3 months before it really started to have positive effects to my edge. Keeping the strop taught but not tight helps, as well as shorter strokes. I found if I tried to use the entire stropping surface it was more likely for my to roll the edge into the strop at the end of the stroke, it only takes one or two bad strokes to do damage to the edge. Speed and consistency comes from practice and engraining a good stroke into your muscle memory.

Blasphemy I know but, my hanging strops just hang now and I use a small paddle strop charged with CrOx and take about 10 passes before a shave. That's it that's all and I have no reason not to continue. I regularly use just 2 razors and haven't honed them in at least a year and a half, maybe 2
As always YMMV
Mike

Hi and welcome aboard. Might be worth trying to find a local member to help as a mentor. With your strop you can lay your hanging strop on the edge of a table or bench and use like a bench strop. For your honing do get a loupe. Can make a big difference being able to see better. Could use when stropping to to see what effect your having on the edge.

Welcome
Change South Florida to your town

A member may live close by

Welcome to the forum.

Here's a great stropping video Glen (gssixgun; Sr Mod) put together for 2012 "Stroptober:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epnBjEKfFKc

Welcome to SRP and enjoy the fine sport of SR shaving! :)

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Originally Posted by mmmbacon

Thank you for the reality check. I had grandiose fantasies of mastering honing in no time flat. My edges are telling me that it may take a bit longer...

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first you need to master shaving and stropping, thats why you dull edges fast. master those 2 and honing is easy, send it out 1 time a year or 2. im almost 6 years in and have spent less on honing than stones. but hey most guys arent like me. but your putting the cart before the horse. you say honemeisters? maybe they arent? a poor edge dont hold either. and having the right guy hone will give you much smoother shaves "ONCE YOU LEARN TO SHAVE AND STROP" plenty of tough beards out here that can keep a razor shaving along time, it really is about learning those 2 things first. you may not even know what is a good edge yet, like i said before, i have heard plenty of new guys who had razors honed by so called honemeisters.

so back to basics, honing isnt by the numbers, its honed when its honed. and the bevel is where its at the rest is just smoothing the edge. once you learn to shave, then you might find the edge is pretty good, right now your just guessing.