Thread: Question about stropping and honing

Is it necessary to hone and strop? If I'm ready for a shave and my blade pulls, should I hone and strop, or can I do one or the other?

Generally speaking, it is necessary to do both. The question is about the frequency with which you do each.

Stropping is basically done before (and sometimes after) each shave. Good, correct stropping can prolong an edge so it does not feel like it is pulling (assuming it has been honed well) for quite some time - some people claim up to a year or even more.

Honing on the other hand is a far less frequent activity - generally you only need to hone when required: edge has gone, no amount of stropping is helping. If you are one of those who is very good at stropping you may not need to hone at all for a year or more (see above re stropping). Even then, the razor probably only really requires what you might term a "touch up" on a higher grit hone - something to refresh the edge rather than reset a bevel. The latter is usually only required once in a razor's shaving life unless you ding the edge or otherwise physically damage it in some way.

Just to add a little to the complexity (but hopefully not too much) you can combine both honing and stropping with a pasted strop. In fact, a pasted strop is really a hone used for touching up the edge - it has little to do with stropping besides the fact that abrasive paste is added to a strop and the action of stropping is used.

So to summarise: yes, stropping and honing are necessary but not with equal frequency. If the razor is pulling, it may be necessary to hone but initially I would try stropping the beejeesus out of it and see if that helps.

James.

Thanks a lot. I will definitely keep all of this in mind.