Thread: Good evening from Albuquerque

Good evening, just received my new straight razor from Jim, at vintage blades this afternoon (Jim included a free styptic pencil with the order, which was a nice touch! LOL). I have been using a safety razor for a few years now and switched to a Dovo Ebony Silver Steel razor. I picked up the razor, one of the hanging strop (already have a nice shavemac silver tip badger brush). I purchased Lynn's how to shave DVD as well. I do have a couple questions after watching the DVD.
1. The razor has to be stropped before use each time, how often does the razor need to be honed?
2. I was checking out the stones that were suggested in Lynn's DVD, and was going to purchase the norton 4000/8000 stone, the 12k natural finishing stone (Chinese quarried), norton prep stone, and the leveling stone. Do I need to get all those, since the Dovo I purchased was professionally honed by Lynn, before I bought it?
Thanks for the info!

Originally Posted by dcarrington01

. . .
1. The razor has to be stropped before use each time, how often does the razor need to be honed?
2. I was checking out the stones that were suggested in Lynn's DVD, and was going to purchase the norton 4000/8000 stone, the 12k natural finishing stone (Chinese quarried), norton prep stone, and the leveling stone. Do I need to get all those, since the Dovo I purchased was professionally honed by Lynn, before I bought it?
Thanks for the info!

1. The razor needs to be honed when stropping doesn't get it sharp. How many shaves is that? -- depends on your beard.

2. If you start with a sharp razor, and strop it correctly, theory says that all you should need is the C12K (or a barber hone). Something with a really fine grit, to just take off _ a little bit of steel_ and correct the slightly-rounded edge caused by the strop. Many of us get hone acquisition disorder (HAD), though.

3. You may decide to use pasted strops to extend the time between honings. The general rule:

. . . . When the leather strop isn't enough, use a pasted strop (0.5 micron CrOxide works nicely for me);

. . . When the pasted strop isn't enough, it's time for honing.

Extensive material on all this is in the Wiki on this site.

Charles

welcome!!

I've been thinking along those lines too, but I have to get more experience shaving to invest in stones. Some folks make honing an art. I don't really know if I could master it. Of course, any job is only as good as the tools used.

Again! Welcome,

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

1. The razor needs to be honed when stropping doesn't get it sharp. How many shaves is that? -- depends on your beard.

2. If you start with a sharp razor, and strop it correctly, theory says that all you should need is the C12K (or a barber hone). Something with a really fine grit, to just take off _ a little bit of steel_ and correct the slightly-rounded edge caused by the strop. Many of us get hone acquisition disorder (HAD), though.

3. You may decide to use pasted strops to extend the time between honings. The general rule:

. . . . When the leather strop isn't enough, use a pasted strop (0.5 micron CrOxide works nicely for me);

. . . When the pasted strop isn't enough, it's time for honing.

Extensive material on all this is in the Wiki on this site.

Charles

Thanks for the info!

Welcome to SRP!