Thread: Shave ready to honing needed?

On average, how many shaves will a professionally honed "shave ready" straight razor provide before it's time to be honed again? Let's take stropping into consideration.

There is no exact answer. I don't think there is an adequate average either. It depends on

the razor--its grind, the steel, the honing

the shaver--his whiskers, his technique, his shaving ability, and his stropping.

Some people only go a few shaves before wanting a touch-up so that they can have the best possible edge, while others can go 6-12 months between touch-ups. Use of pasted strops can extend this even longer.

Originally Posted by Utopian

There is no exact answer. I don't think there is an adequate average either. It depends on

the razor--its grind, the steel, the honing

the shaver--his whiskers, his technique, his shaving ability, and his stropping.

Some people only go a few shaves before wanting a touch-up so that they can have the best possible edge, while others can go 6-12 months between touch-ups. Use of pasted strops can extend this even longer.

That's quite a LOT.

Have a couple of razors with 70 shaves on them. Heard of much more than that.

Originally Posted by Grazor

Have a couple of razors with 70 shaves on them. Heard of much more than that.

I assume the better you prep the longer your edge will last.

Yes, prep matters but so do the factors listed above Every razor and every beard is different!
When I first started out I was only getting a handful of shaves due to poor stropping technique. I don't count now, but I am pretty sure I am over 30 shaves on certain blades with no loss in shaving quality. The longer you use a straight, the longer your blades will go.

Before I knew better (this is almost 40 years ago) I went at least a year, shaving daily and no honing. 'Pulling' generally meant i had to spend more time on the strop, both linen and leather. I did occasional passes on a barbers hone after that. Also experimented with other stropping techniques and got over 3 years of shaves from that Dovo before getting it sent to a pro honer! But OP question was in regards to 'average' time. 'It depends' is the correct answer. For me, I like a touch up on the barbers hone every 10-15 shaves. When it pulls once I try the green powdery stuff. If that doesn't work I pull out the Swaty.

I do a light touch up every week. I'd rather not wait for the edge to tell me it's time, because that means razor burn.

.the razor I,m posting in the SOTD is my main shaver, it's a Kinfolks, that is going on 8 months since I sent it out, and it gets used 70%of the time, I bring out my customs on the weekends( that's just me) on advice from Glen I do maintenance instead of refresh as it gets to pulling. About every 7 shaves I do 4-6 laps on my naniwa 12k , it's as fresh as when I got it.
My beard is very tough and in the beginning it was not going to be long before it needed work, but now my prep, which is not a full scale ordeal, just making sure my beard is wet and making a great lather plus my technique and stropping has really extended the time between honing. Lately I sent them in just to have them inspected to see how I was doing. So I think they will go a long time with proper stropping and a little tlc. That's why I don't see why new guys are all that ready to hone, it only needs it very rarely. Tc

Until I got a new Ralph Aust a couple days ago, I had gone about 6 months with my SR with nothing more than stropping. I have not seen any degradation in the quality of my shave whatsoever. I do a cold water shave with no prep whatsoever, and do nothing to my strop. Heck I can't even remember to rub my palm on it.