Thread: Keeping a shaving journal

Am down to maybe 20 in rotatation,I will never buy another razor as I have the best of the best.
I have had them all pro honed over the past two yrs and can keep them going for the rest of my life on two finishers,shapton 12K pro and my zulu.
All I need to know is how they were pro honed,tape or no tape.
The taped razors live in one roll,the nons live in another,simple for me.

I keep a journal on my computer in the program Evernote. Each razor gets a note and the title includes number of layers of tape and what stone it was last finished on in parentheses for ease of reference. Every time a hone a razor I start a new paragraph, put a date, and detail the honing procedure. If I just refinish it, I start a subparagraph. After each paragraph or subparagraph, I put the results of the shave test. When something works really well, I redo it and if it works equally as well, I highlight it in bold. I also keep a note in Evernote for lessons learned.

I only have 3 razors (6/8 Ralf Aust, 5/8 Boker King Cutter, 6/8 Hart Steel) that I shave with regularly, 1 (Dovo Gentleman) that came with a twisted blade and will not take an edge from me at all and a couple restorations from Craig's List. All in all, I hone 2 of 3 of those razors every day less the 1 Ralf Aust honed by Lynn that I leave alone to clean up the shave if need be and for reference. I do a three pass shave every day because work demands the well shaved look for 12+ hours. I keep the journal because I am trying to improve my ability to hone and finish razors using Nortons, Naniwas, Shaptons, a Zulu, C12k and a Gokumyo 20k, .5 diamond, .25 diamond, CrO3 and several different cloth/webbing and leather stop material combos. It gets confusing for me to remember the 1 thing I changed on a particular razor from yesterday (because I only change 1 thing). I am also able to look back and see what has or hasn't worked for a particular razor and see trends for things that have worked and haven't over all the razors I've honed. I have a plan for each razor that usually lasts a week. So, I'll reset a bevel and hone using a series of stones then throughout the week I will try different finishers or finishing strokes/techniques or different strops or I may just finish it and see what happens to that blade throughout the week's worth of shaves and stroppings. Hope this helps.