Resting razor edges?

Hello, I know a lot of shavers rotate razors. I had figured this was to reduce wear on any one razor, lengthen the time between hones, etc. I was browsing wikipedia, and on it's straights page it says:

"Experienced straight razor aficionados often advocate stropping after each shave and allowing the blade to recover its edge for several days before reuse. Historically this necessitated a collection of several razors sometimes sold in a sets for a week's use."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor

This makes a little sense to me, as I recall that steels has a metal memory, and I think that if this is a legitimate reason then perhaps stropping before and letting the edge "set" might have some merit.

I had just been stropping before the shave, so does anyone have any insight on whether or not stropping then resting an edge could have any benefit?

-Baran

Some of us believe this is true , and some of us don't . As for myself , I don't know and I don't really care . I currently have 6 razors in my rotation , and I shave every other day , so it's a non-issue for me . I only strop my razor right before I shave , stropping after shaving doesn't make sense to me . If I only had 1 razor I would simply strop it before each shave .

I believe the reference was mis-transcribed. I believe you either can strop or simply allow the razor to rest. That has been my experience. I find stropping more effective than simply resting the razor. I prefer atleast 48 hours if I don't plan to strop.

I have no problem with people that don't believe it though. It wouldn't be worth arguing about.

Damn! this is a great thread. What if you have over thirty on rotation?
Help me... I cant' seem to get enough. My rotation means I get back to razor about once a month. Can I be saved?

Fire, start shaving twice a day :tu

yea this is one of those things people always like to discuss but there is no consensus either way. I've used the same razor day in and day out for months without resting and I didn't notice anything bad going on.

You shouldn't trust the wikipedia articles on shaving and shaving related things. It's a horrible mix of "I'm sure I've heard someone say this once"-bits (and don't give the whole discussion behind something).

havent been shaving with one of these long enough to see a difference, but ive been working with metal for a long time. just putting the blade into hot water during the shave will change the blade from when it was resting in a room at a much lower temp and i read that thats done all the time here by several members. so if changing the temperature of the blade which will change all sorts of things dimension wise, flatness wise, and probably sharpness wise, and its still not a problem, then i cant see how just resting it is going to change things that much either. also an older blade would be in a much more relaxed state than a new one so that would change the outcomes however so minor as well

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Originally Posted by Firebox

Damn! this is a great thread. What if you have over thirty on rotation?
Help me... I cant' seem to get enough. My rotation means I get back to razor about once a month. Can I be saved?

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I had over thirty razors in my rotation, too. - and still aquiring more... :shrug: It got confusing for me, so I have selected seven of my best for my new rotation and put the rest away, and out of sight. I'll probably eventually sell most of these that I have put away. Got to stay away from Ebay!!

I'm not sure, either, in regard to letting the razor rest or not. I have shaved several days in a row with the same blade that I've really liked, and I have'nt noticed any deteriation in the quality of the shaves. I suppose if you have enough razors for rotation, yes, let them rest. - but if I only had one razor to shave with, I don't think it would make any difference, although, that could depend on the characteristics of each individual razor - the type of steel and the type of edge it has. Some edges, especially those taken care of by pasted strops, may need a 48 hour rest due to the more delicate nature of the edge. :shrug: Who knows? Whatever you're comforitable with.....

Steve

I absolutely do not buy into the concept of the need to let an edge "rest" for a certain period of time before using it again. My thought is that it was the "marketing scheme" of razor manufacturers in the past to get people to purchase more razors. After all, how are you going to sell more razors to a saturated market when your customers only need one razor for several lifetimes of use? If a razor needs to be rested for a day or two before it is at its optimal condition then how could you explain the fact that barbers in the past could shave MANY different customers in the same day with the same razor? If you want to have several or many razors in your collection then by all means go for it. It is very fun to collect and shave with different razors. I just don't think that you should base your decision on the "need to let the edge rest" myth because I don't think that it is true.

I agree with heavyduty, barbers in the past had 2 razors, one for shaving throughout the day and the other one in case the first one got dropped and broke....
Also they would strop after and before each shave to clean/condition......
but again this is just another speculation....
Dovo as well have in their website that a blade should not ever be stropped after a shave with out letting it rest for 24 hours....come on....the damage that the wiskers coudnt do to the edge coudnt be done by the strop....again...barbers sometimes got years of daily use with the same blade, daily shaving and stropping....
Any metal engineers in the forum are welcome to step in and set us right once and for all....

Baran, you've waded into it now ...

I think that resting the razor is something that barbers primarily advocated. These are gentlemen who performed many shaves per day and probably found that the edge either didn't perform as well and/or retain its edge as long if it was used too many times in one day. (either that or they were trying to sell more razors to their customers which could be true too) Letting the blade rest overnight was recommended for and by them and it's not something you should worry about at all unless you shave more than once per day. Men got by on just one razor for centuries and you can too. (provided you live that long :D)

As for stropping after the shave, it has been determined (once at least) that it does little to 'reset' the edge. It appears to be more beneficial to simply strop amply before each shave. See for yourself if you like:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...and+experiment
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...and+experiment
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...and+experiment
Stropping after the shave may help clean the edge and that could be beneficial to avoid corrosion.

Those that support the "metal memory" theory (and I would be one to some extent) believe that the edge has a shape it will find again after several hours and thus need to be stropped again before the next shave.

That's as 'bottom line' as it gets and even this post s fraught with opinion. I'm sure there'll be more to come.

X

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Originally Posted by fishlessman

havent been shaving with one of these long enough to see a difference, but ive been working with metal for a long time. just putting the blade into hot water during the shave will change the blade from when it was resting in a room at a much lower temp and i read that thats done all the time here by several members. so if changing the temperature of the blade which will change all sorts of things dimension wise, flatness wise, and probably sharpness wise, and its still not a problem, then i cant see how just resting it is going to change things that much either. also an older blade would be in a much more relaxed state than a new one so that would change the outcomes however so minor as well

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This strikes me as the most pertinent thought I have yet heard on the subject. I hereby adopt it as my official opinion on resting the blade!:):bow

-Michael

Haha I suppose I Really have waded into it.

I think that I am more convinced that this is more a ploy to sell more razors. I think Xman is right with his idea that if there is metal memory, it would just reset the stropping anyway.

I really should have made the connection, but many knifenuts (kitchen knives) know that you hone before you cut, not after, as it doesn't do much. This was pretty much just accepted, and I never thought it through or I Would have realized it should be the same in this situation too!

On the after shave stropping question I never do it and in the few years I've been straight shaving I still always get the same BBS shave every day so I don't worry about it.

As far as resting goes, I'm old enough to remember when I was a kid and went to the barber and they still gave shaves on an everyday basis and used the razor to trim your sideburns after a haircut also the barber usually had about 4 razors sitting in barbercide. He couldn't use the same razor on every customer because after use it had to go into barbercide so he had to have a few he alternated. However those few were used countless times during the day every day. Also the barber stropped on the leather before every use even if it was to trim your sideburns for 10 seconds and then back into the barbercide it went. Barbers never stropped after use by the way.

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Originally Posted by bjrn

You shouldn't trust the wikipedia articles on shaving and shaving related things. It's a horrible mix of "I'm sure I've heard someone say this once"-bits (and don't give the whole discussion behind something).

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This is true of any article on Wiki, so never take it as fact from there.

As for resting blades, I know theres a huge difference between razors and other knives but as a chef and I'm hoping Dwarven Chef (I hope I got that right) will agree with me here. Our knives are extremely sharp, not enough to shave with but almost and when your working on a carvery or whatever and need to steel your knife (That would be the equivilent of stropping as such) you don't have time to rest it, you just keep slicing away. Same with when working in a butchery you would need a couple dozen knives if you were to rest them coz you generally steel your knife for every animal which is normally more than 100 in a day.

Whats the point of resting a razor after you have stropped/shaved with it? It defeats the purpose.

These are just my opinions. I had to use my theory based on the use of chef knives, since I only shave with a feather and have yet to shave with a "real straight.

Okay, my few absurd thoughts. I'm not sure that metal memory and stropping afterwards does anything that keeps the blade any sharper. Then again, materials at the microscopic level can behave differently than at the macro level. I strop on cloth 7 times and on leather 10 times after shaving. At least it dries the blade for anti-corrosion and doesn't hurt the blade. I agree that if you keep using a blade all day (as a barber might), stopping afterwards doesn't make sense. However, at the end of the day and the barber put up the 'closed' sign, I'll bet quite a few barbers cleaned up and stropped their blades as part of their preparations for the next day.

In the end, I'm not sure any of us know for sure, but I like the never ending discussion of this. It makes for a great cup of coffee conversation! Me, I'm a romantic and a little full of myself and part of my reason for using a straight razor is for the nostalgic, estoric and elegance of the whole straight razor shaving thing. Ain't it great! :nj

Iv'e also tried resting &using the same razor for weeks at a time & imust admit that i didnt notice any difference.So it just might be an old marketing trick(although i do tell my wife we at least need a razor for every day of the week).Paul

I agree wiki is not a textbook, I just wanted some expert opinions ;)

The knife thing pretty much does cinch it for me, though I might try two of the same type of razors with stropping before and one after. Never know what might happen :P Also I'm pretty sure I could get my dojo paring sharp enough to shave with but the shape :cry:!!

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

yea this is one of those things people always like to discuss but there is no consensus either way. I've used the same razor day in and day out for months without resting and I didn't notice anything bad going on.

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From my opinion it varies with the blade. Some blades, esp. the stainless ones, I can use for months, just strop them with the palm of my hand. Other razors are more demanding on the stropping department, some demand a strop every shave, some even need a diamond strop after 5 shaves or so.

When we give our razors the opportunity to rest themselves, where is the best place to do this? Are they simply put in a dark place such as a drawer, do they require both peace and quiet - a drawer in a little used room, or perhaps something padded upon which to rest their weary parts - a small pillow in a drawer in a little used room? Perhaps a radio in the little used room tuned to a station softly playing dulcet music to help set the restful mood.

Having rested, how are we to wake them, with a shake to the scales or a softy whispered suggestion to once again rise, shine, and shave? :shrug:

;) Bruce

I do think in barbers' cases use throughout the day may have had an effect, but for us - I don't really think it matters.

I am not the one to talk, though - I don't shave every day, and have more than enough razors, so this is not currently an issue for me

Cheers
Ivo

Given the Age/Use ratio of most Straights, seems to me they have rested enough already.......Hone 'em, strop 'em, and put them to use!!!:tu

Bruce - I think you need to get them special alarm clocks, or they will get micro ridges on the edge!

Ivo - If resting does do anything, I think you are right, that at one shave a day and probably not even the same razor every day (or week with some of you guys!) it probably doesn't effect us.

Orgborn - Good point! Some have already rested to peaces!:nono: