Thread: Checking in!

Hello, Everyone.

My name is Buddy and I have shaving with a straight razor for almost one year. Recently, I have been having some issues and began to research them, which led me to SRP. I am hoping to be able to discuss some of the issues with some experienced users and get the most out of my straight razor experience.

Can anyone tell me why I can only get a couple of good shaves from my razor before having to hone it again. I have read that you should only have to hone it every few months. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Buddy

Hi and welcome to SRP!
We are pleased to have you join in!

About the problems you have with maintaining your edge shave ready for more than a couple shaves.
Could you give us some more info about this?
What razor is it, how was it honed originally, on what stones, or by who?
How do you do your daily maintenance of it? What strops, any pasted strops?

A picture of it would be awesome as well!

That was a lot of questions, but to give the best answers possible, the more that is known about this the better the replies on how to fix it!

I hope one or more of the super experts on here chimes in.
They are more or less magicians when it comes to steel and edges

Good luck with it, and again, welcome to SRP

Thank you for the quick response.

You certainly ask very pertinent questions. Forgive me for not including this information to begin with.

I have attached pictures of both my razor and strop. As you can see, it is a Solingen razor and a Bismark strop (#1066). I was the one to originally hone it on my Norton combination (4000/8000 grit) waterstone. I do use a strop paste, but I can't remember what brand and I am away from home, so I can't answer that.

As for daily maintenance, I strop the razor prior to every shave and between passes (I currently am using a two pass technique) on both the canvas and the leather side. Other than this, I ensure that it is dry after use, that is all.

Thank you for the added info and the pics!

So, this razor has been honed by you, and then served you well for more or less a year?
And now, all of a sudden, without any change in routine it has lost it's ability to hold an edge for more than a couple of shaves?
This is how I understand your current problem with this razor

I must say that this has me banging my head against the wall, I can see no logical reason for this behavior from your razor.

Again, I hope the SRP's finest chimes in with their vast knowledge on honing and restoring.

The only thing I can think of to do, is to check the classifieds section here on SRP, once there go to the member services page and see if there are anyone mnear you who could take a look at it and help you out identifying this strange(to me)problem.
Another way to find help is to look in the members map page and see who lives near you, try a pm to one like that if you find any.
The last thing I would recommend you do, is check if there are any meet-ups in your area planned in the near future.
If you can find one of them, I can tell you from experience, that you will be glad you did. There are always some real knowledgeable people who are happy to help out with stuff like this.

And hey, if you are anywhere near me, I'd be happy to hone it up for you and test if I could find anything wrong with it.
Naturally at no cost at all, except shipping it to me, I'll cover the return!

Hi Buddy, and welcome to SRP!

I am no grand master, but this is something I've been learning and figuring out myself. I can go about 20 good shaves on a well honed blade, and some of those I was still figuring out my stropping technique. There are several threads in the stropping forum that talk about how to strop and how long you can go. Some of the experts can go indefinitely on canvas and leather strops alone. How they do that, I don't know...but I'm working to figure it out.

If Birn and I understand the issue correctly I can only guess that over the course of the year the bevel on your blade has worn down and you will need to reestablish a good bevel in order for you to get consistent shaves again. IF, on the other hand, you've been struggling with this for the past year and it has never shaved well for more than a few shaves, it could be the bevel, but I would point to your stropping technique as well.

A well honed razor can shave about a half dozen times without stropping before it becomes truly uncomfortable (average to thicker than average beard). YMMV, and considerably so. Since you honed this razor yourself, only you can know how experienced you were when you started out. If the bevel was never properly set it could shave okay a few times and then need help again. If the bevel was properly set it should shave well unless your stropping technique is off, then it will need help again. If it shaved well for a year, (only needing honing every 20-50 shaves) then I'd assume the bevel was properly set and your stropping technique was fine and the bevel has simply worn down over time and needs to be re-set.

Only you can say.

Hope it helps!

Peace,

Good point Jim!

The bevel is probably not even close to set at this stage.
The fact that is has gotten worse could indicate to much pasted stropping, and rounding of the bevel as a result.
That makes the 4K honing probably lacking.
Ideally, if this were the case, a good bevel setter would be in order.
You have a 4/8K combo, and that is not ideal for bevel setting.
I really would advice you to seek help with it at this stage.

If you do want to try to reset a bevel with it, count on it taking a good long time.

Try it out. Keep going on the 4K until it shaves arm-hair easily. You don't want to move on until it does.
This will take you longer than you think!
Then on to the 8K

And do not finish with the pasted strop. You want it to shave properly right of the 8K and your daily strop.

Gentlemen,

Brilliant! This is exactly what I was looking for. I can already see several mistakes that I have been making over the past year (and, believe me, I have bludgeoned myself severely at times). First, it sounds as though I never set the bevel to begin with. Subsequently, when I do hone it, I almost never use the 4K, but "touch it up" with the 8K only. Second, I was not aware that I should have more than one strop and have been stropping on the pasted strop since the beginning.

Looking back, I can see that I was having this issue for longer than originally thought. I just assumed that I was still "working out" my technique and partly attributed this to my thicker than average beard. Having said that, after "honing" I would get an AMAZING shave only to have that amazing shave diminish over the next couple of shaves.

I shall certainly take your advice on all matters, especially checking out the threads on stropping and honing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Buddy

Buddy,
Glad we could help!

I highly suggest you send off your razor to one of the guys here (classifieds; member services). You may find one is near you and could help you with your honing and stropping technique. Once it's honed you can get your first "real" shave, and your 8k touch ups will keep you up and running potentially indefinitely.

You don't need more than one strop, but you do need a clean leather strop. Most come with a canvas strop attached and the combo is great (that's why they come together). There are several options available that can be narrowed down depending on your budget and location. Since you're a year in already, I'd suggest you don't skimp and get the best you can afford. As one of the mentor's sig lines reads "skimp on the strop and you'll soon be buying hones."

If you do decide to try and hone it yourself, pick up at least a 1k stone for bevel setting, then you can sharpen on the 4k, refine on the 8k, strop on your nice new clean strop and shave to your heart's content.

Keep us up to date on your progress!

Peace,

Gentlemen,

Good news! I took your advice and read through all the forums and posts that I could find on both honing and stropping a razor. It would seem that your are indeed correct in determining that the bevel was not set on my razor. I recently got back home, and after MUCH reading and contemplating, set about with a staunch determination to set the bevel on my razor. (I know, I know......you recommended that I send it off to someone on SRP to have this done for me, but let's face it........none of us would even be on this forum if we didn't have at least a little bit of that "macho - I can do it myself" ego) About an hour and 250-300 strokes on the 1000 grit stone later, I move onto the 4000 grit until it would shave the hair on my arm like I have never seen. I spent another 35-40 minutes on the 8000 grit, stropped it about 20 strokes and went to bed with giddy anticipation of the next morning's shave.

A couple of things that I began to understand.

1. I had been shaving for almost an entire year with a razor that was NOT shave ready. Some days shaving was by far the worst part of my day. Pure misery. I assumed that I was still "working out my technique".

2. I discovered, thanks to you gents and all that posted videos and threads, that my stropping technique was not helping me out. In addition to applying way too much pressure, I was lifting the spine at the end of my stroke to get that singing sound. Of course, this was only exacerbating an already impending disaster.

3. While shaving, I was pressing the razor so hard into my face, that I had no choice but to slice the dickens out of myself (which I did EVERY time, especially my chin and around my lips).

Having said all of this, I must report to you that I experienced my first "real" shave with a straight razor on Monday. How delicious! I used the lightest touch that I could manage and really took my time, being extremely cautious. Almost instantly I could tell that my razor had NEVER been even close to the sharpness that I was experiencing. I only did one pass WTG and got the best shave that I have ever had. There was no issue with my chin or lips.......unbelievable! Apparently, you can still develop good technique with a dull razor.

Here's the best part.......I shaved every day this week with my straight razor (in the past I would have to alternate every other day or two) and have yet to nick myself! My razor was still just as sharp on Friday as Monday. This has been the best week of shaving in my nearly 30 years of doing so.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction so I could discover the delight of the straight shave!

Your Friend,

Buddy

Fantastic!

I completely understand the, "If I'm going to do this, I am going to do it!" mentality. You'll always have that bug in the back of your mind...is it as good as it could be? BUT, It sounds like you were able to correct your technique and take a fresh approach to your honing, and got some great results.

A truly ready blade takes no "pressure" to shave the hairs, just enough to hold the blade to the face. And it sounds like you're there.

Now go help some other new guys get it figured out!

Peace,