How to start honing and stropping correctly.

Sooo... I shaved with a Dovo I bought from The Art of Shaving for about 2 months, and put a bunch of nicks in my strop, plus, had people give me crap for not using strop paste. I stopped for a few months and am ready to get back on the horse. I am planning on getting my razor proffesionally honed so I know what a shave ready razor should feel like. Having said that, I have two general questions.


1.) I want to purchase a set of naniwa 5k, 8k, and 12k wet stones so I can learn to hone myself. I would love opinions on how often i should need to hone if i am stropping correctly, and if I should use each stone every time, or just the 12k for touching up until i need more work.

2.) I understand correct stropping technique in genereal, but what are some opinions on the correct use of strop paste? Normally I would shave every other day and use the cloth, then leather right before my shave. Should I just condition the leather? Should i put past on the opposide side of the leather and canvas? How often should I ust the paste? OR... if i have a 12k hone, is strop past even nessesary?

Thanks for taking the time to help and i look forward to all your help!

Welcome to SRP!
Which strop paste? your daily use strop should never have any abrasive pastes applied to it. very occasionally some neetsfoot oil or strop dressing if it starts to get dried out, but with normal use rubbing the strop with your hand before using is sufficient to keep it supple.

1) sorry i have never tried the naniwa stones so i cannot answer specifics for them. i usually use shaptons and when i rehone a razor i rarely go below the 8k stone usually i just use the 16k. how often you have to re-hone depends a lot on the steel of the razor, some of mine last 30 shaves some only 15
2) i strop just before shaving 20/50 or so (20 laps up and down on the linen (cloth) followed by around 50 on the plain leather)

enjoy,
jim

Hi, welcome here.
I'm giving you my answers, but be aware that many different appraches exist and that means that somehow you can get your desired result in more than one way.

1. IF you strop correctly AND if you shave correctly (low or no pressure) you might need a touch-up once a year. The first time I decide to touch up a razor that has been hone by somebody else I'm likely using the complete naniwa set. Then for following touch-ups I'd use the 12k only. The first time YOU (unexperienced) will attempt a touch-up you will probably need a second razor to shave with in the meantime that you succeed with the first one.

2. Daily stropping is on leather only, canvas could be once a week. Pasted strops are a good alternative to hones, a very good alternative if the razor has some geometry problem because the flexible strop follows better the blade/spine profile than a rigid hone. A good combination is composed by: leather only, canvas only, pasted canvas.

Welcome to SRP

I don't know if you have checked out the Library section here on SRP but it has some very good info Category:Straight Razor Maintenance - Honing & Stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki .

You need to touch up a razor on a finishing stone, such as a Naniwa 12000, when you feel the razor tugging/cutting poorly and a good stropping does not bring the edge back. There really is no fixed period of time. You only need the other stones of lower grit to reset a bevel and bring it back up to shave ready sharp when touching up on a finishing stone won't do it.

Do not put any paste on your strop that you use before your shaves. If you want to use pastes put them on something like a balsa stop and use it after your finishing stone. Using a conditioner on the leather is a debatable issue. You can rub the smooth leather side of your stop down with the palm of your hand before each stropping secession and/or a very small amount of something like Neats Foot Oil rubbed in every now and then would not hurt either, key is a very small amount used.

Have fun and get back up on that horse.

Bob