Thread: Honing/Stropping is Where the Rubber Meets the Road!

When I first began using a straight razor, one of the razors I bought off eBay was a 11/16 carbon steel J. A. Henckels 401 razor. When it arrived, it was in beautiful condition and looked totally unused. The first time I put it to my face, it easily cut hair but "boy, oh boy" was the journey awful! I felt like I was shaving with a broken beer bottle. I tried sharpening it on a Swaty barber stone and then stropped it over 200 times. I repeated this several times without having any success with the comfort of the shave.

Shooter74734 came to the rescue. He generously offered to hone it free of charge to help out a Newbie. When he got the razor, he said he didn't think it had ever had a bevel set on it. When it came back it, was vastly improved. THANK YOU SHOOTER74743. I certainly plan to hire him to hone some of my recalcitrant razors in the future.

While the 401 was improved, it never matched the smoothness of my Wade & Butcher or Thiers-Issard Le Grelot. Then last week I lucked out and got a mint 13/16 carbon steel J. A. Henckels 72 1/2 for a great price on eBay. With the very first shave, this new Henckels jumped all the way to the front of the line in terms of smoothness and to beat a Wade & Butcher is no small feat. That got me to thinking more kindly towards the 401. Perhaps, Henckel razors were a lot better than I had been giving them credit for. So, I stropped the 401 another 200 laps on a SRD paddle strop. Finally, things fell into place. The 401 not only shaved closely but it did so with a new found smoothness. SUCCESS AT LAST!

Moral of this story? Don't be too quick to judge the quality of a razor. It may be that it needs a good bevel setting and a lot of quality time on a strop. What I had judged to be barely a "C" razor has proven, with help from Shooter74743, to be an "A" razor. Good honing and stropping simply allowed the greatness of the razor to be realized.

Now I have a new goal "to make sure every razor in my collection is properly honed and sharpened before I glibly assess its value."

Happy Shaving!