Thread: Razor Care Between Shaves

Hi, Everybody. I am new to SRP. I tried to restore two straight razors. One was probably made in Pakistan, the other was an antique Boker. The Boker was handmade and ground.The spine and edge could not be brought in one plane even though I tried to create new bevels etc. So all that was in the end waste of time. Now I shave with a Dovo 6/8 half hollow ground and am enjoying it though it does take longer than the conventional shaving methods. The new Dovo came shave ready but not really very sharp. I used newsprint with chromium oxide to do about 20 laps which was a great improvement. I am fixing to buy more straight razors but meanwhile here is a question. Do I need to let the razor rest 24-48 hours, then strop it over linen and leather (50 and 100 laps respectively) between shaves?

No. The razor doesn't need to rest before stropping.

I'm not sure what you mean by shave ready but not very sharp. If its shave ready then it should be super sharp. Maybe it needs to be honed?

Michael

Welcome to SRP!
Sorry to hear about your restoration troubles. what type of hones are you using to work your razors?

resting a blade is an old concept ... you only shave once a day so no need to worry about it some times i will use the same razor every day for a month or more. as for stropping 50/100 is fine i tend to use 20/50, i always do it before shaving, YMMV.

As you noticed the dovo factory edge is not really a good shaving edge. no factory edge is. you best bet is to buy your new razors form a vendor that has their razors professionally hand honed.

enjoy,
jim

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

No. The razor doesn't need to rest before stropping.

I'm not sure what you mean by shave ready but not very sharp. If its shave ready then it should be super sharp. Maybe it needs to be honed?

Michael

Thanks. I will have my next razor professionally hones or buy from a vendor who hones it before shipping.

I used Norton 220, 1000, 4000 and 8000. The razors I tried to restore were too challenging. I was persistent because long ago I used to grind and polish telescope objectives as a hobby. Anyway for nowI will concentrate on taking care of new razors and learning to shave and enjoy. Thanks for advice.

I have a particular fondness for vintage bokers and have not found any that would not take an edge and long as the blade was intact... honing is very different form any other sharpening or polishing of an edged tool.

enjoy,
jim

You sure have the right set up. Those Norton hones are great and the 220 should be perfect for heavy restoration down the road. I would buy a couple of vintage razors from ebay for around 20 bucks with the sole purpose of practicing honing. Stay away from the Pakastani junk and stick to something ground in Germany. You can find one in good shape for around 20 if you know what to look for. Learn to hone a good blade first then get into the restoration when you get it down. As stated above SR's are a completely different animal when it comes to honing. Jumping straight into restorations is kind of like trying to run before you learn to crawl. Keep at it! Btw you may get a lot more responses if you post in the honing section.

Originally Posted by syslight

I have a particular fondness for vintage bokers and have not found any that would not take an edge and long as the blade was intact... honing is very different form any other sharpening or polishing of an edged tool.

enjoy,
jim

Thanks for for advice. The Boker razor I was working on had been hand ground without the use of spine as guide. This is unusual and the best way I can explain the shape is to recall that modern razor blanks are ground by guiding them between closely spaced spinning grinding wheels while the blank is resting on the back of the spine. This guarantees that later if the spline is used as guide to create a bevel, the width of the bevel will be uniform alone the edge. This is because the two sides of the spine and the edge are all parallel lines. My antique Boker, acquired from e-Bay was not shave ready and had a couple of obvious chips. When I put a fresh bevel on it using the spine as guide, it became clear that the shape of the blade near the edge was quite wavy because the bevel width varied along the edge from less than 1mm to about 3mm. I tried three times to put a fresh bevel and work all the way to Norton 8000k. Never got a serviceable edge. So I finally discarded the razor. The Pakistani razor was also slightly crooked but I tapped it with a hammer, put a fresh bevel, honed it and could start shaving but the edge deteriorated before I finished shaving. So I discarded that one too.

Originally Posted by ccase39

You sure have the right set up. Those Norton hones are great and the 220 should be perfect for heavy restoration down the road. I would buy a couple of vintage razors from ebay for around 20 bucks with the sole purpose of practicing honing. Stay away from the Pakastani junk and stick to something ground in Germany. You can find one in good shape for around 20 if you know what to look for. Learn to hone a good blade first then get into the restoration when you get it down. As stated above SR's are a completely different animal when it comes to honing. Jumping straight into restorations is kind of like trying to run before you learn to crawl. Keep at it! Btw you may get a lot more responses if you post in the honing section.

I have taken your advice to heart regarding restoration of razors. I bought a new German razor and currently use it exclusively to shave. It is fun and I plan to buy another one and for a while restrict myself to stropping and touch up using a little Cr2O3 on newsprint, which I learnt from SRP. My reply to Jim below has details of my experience with restoration. You might find it amusing.

people are sometimes cruel to a good blade.