Thread: Strange but True !

This is not a Help thread but just to explain a very strange quirk I have with my home made razor and would just like to know if anyone has come cross anything similar to this before with any other razor.
I made my razor back in December and have used it almost exclusively since. I remember the first half dozen shaves with it being so-so but just put that down to it being much bigger than anything I had used previously plus it has a spike on toe and heel.
The razor was shaving fantastically and holding its edge perfectly, must have had 30+ shaves and was still showing no signs of needing a touch-up.
For the first time in over a year I managed to hit the Tap with a razor, this time with the cutting edge and I put a small chip in it . Only a tiny chip and it did still shave just as well but it was bugging me knowing it was there so had to hone it out.
I have been honing for about 15 months and feel like I am fairly good at it now and always manage to get an edge I like. No idea why but for some reason I could not get it right this time. Would pass the TPT and HHT no problem plus pop arm hairs but the shave was rough and pulling.
Tried several times to re-hone plus balsa/crox etc but just could not get it right !
Blade is straight, parallel to spine and the bevel is perfectly even both sides so no problem with blade geometry.
Anyway, gave in after another rough first shave after honing and just decided to leave it. Tried a second shave with this blade and it seemed a bit better, still not great but better. Third shave better again. Fourth shave better again…. By about the sixth shave the edge was perfect, as sharp as ever and shaving effortlessly. I am about a dozen shaves in now and its still a dream to use.
So, any idea whats going on. Anybody else experienced this before ?

Kinda wonder if you had unintentionally put a slight burr on it, and once it came off, you started noticing the improvement?

Good thinking but No. Checked for that.

This is going to sound insulting..ugh. While several people are tuned to the Nth degree about the feel of their shaves, many, IMO are not. If you continue to use the same poor edge, day after day, week after week, your face will get used to it. Not saying that's the case here. Just throwing it out there as something to think about. There's more than a handful of people who thought they were getting good shaves, until they sent the razor off to someone else to hone. Then, when it came back, they can't imagine how they were ever shaving with what they had before.

So, after honing out the chip your razor performed poorly, now a dozen shaves later it is shaving well once again - the only thing that could have changed the performance of the razor is the dozen or so stropping sessions it must have received.

Regards,
Neil

I've recently realized that razors benefit from a lot of stropping after the hone. TBH I've never noticed much effect from stropping, good or bad, and I've only done it because everyone agrees it's necessary. After honing, I'd just been doing 20 laps on linen and 40-60 laps on leather, which is what I do every time anyway. A couple of my razors weren't shaving well, even though they seemed good on TPT/AHT, and I'd put this down to my poor honing. Can't remember what put it into my head to try a stropathon, but I gave one 200 laps on the linen and it shaved beautifully. Just repeated the experiment with the other, with the same results.

Think you guys are on to something. I was thinking it must be the stropping improving the edge but had always believed stropping simply maintained the edge that was already there.
Massive stropathon session after each honing from now on then .
Thanks for your time.

The moral of the story....Strop till you drop. I use 14 razors in rotation and spend a Sunday stropping. After I get going I can't stop at 75 laps on the leather and just keep going till it feels good to stop. After the 3rd. razor my speed picks up and I get in a rhythm. I quit counting and I am sure I am doing over 125 laps per razor. I don't go for speed but it comes and 100 laps takes no time at all. Never felt a bad shave from over stropping . :<0)