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Any suggestion on why an edge on multiple straights does not seem to last but a couple of shave. I take time and am very patient stropping. I face prep pretty decently, I have nicely honed razors. Just not making sense to me. I dry razors well do not close them for at least 24 hours strop before and after shave. Looking forward to response or suggestions why. Thank you in advance.
A few questions,
Who honed them, how long are you straight shaving, is your shaving angle very high as that will tear an edge up, and hows the stropping? You have to be honest about all this so we can help you.
SRP member R Boone did honing,I try to keep my angle around 30 degrees or less. I believe the stropping is good. I use a Tony Miller strop. About 30 to 40 passesQuote:
Originally Posted by bill3152
My blades seem to stay sharp for a long time, months. When I strop, I never stop short of 100 laps unless I've just honed the blade and then only 50 laps. Stropping is a rather mild activity, it seems to me, and therefore many laps are required to achieve the desired effect.
30 - 40 is good for the linen side, do more on the leather
That sounds a bit odd to me. Let us know if the extra stropping did the trick.
Where are you leaving your razors laying open? Is the environment damp/humid or dry? It's possible the edge may have micro pitting from rust, but that would be a worst case scenario. Most likely it would be a technique issue with stropping or shaving.
mick
Hi gonzo, don't take this as an affront, but how do you know your stropping is good? I sent one of my razors back to the guy who honed it after about a month for two reasons, one to get a touch up, second to get some feedback on my razor care and stropping, I was told that a small amount of rust had formed ( I could only see it with magnification) and that my stropping was doing no harm.
While this gave me confidence that I was on the right track, I wasn't actually improving the edge either. Perhaps the honer would be willing to aprise your razors and give you some.feedback.
There are a lot of potential reasons for an edge going sour on you too fast. Stropping and blade angle are two. But there could be other elements in play as well. First, some razors I own simply take and hold a very good edge, much more so than others. On the ones that don't, I've made the mistake of pushing the edge a little too far on the hones in the hopes that I would get a keener edge than I had. I've found that when this is done, the edge becomes very fragile and will quickly break down. My Naniwai 12k will do this in the matter of a few passes. I've found that synthetic stones in general can be very aggressive and will take a clean straight edge down to a fuzzy white line in no time. This is probably not your issue if you've had it honed by someone good. The quality of the steel is also something that makes a difference. The name on the razor is not enough to guarantee that its a good piece of steel. I have a Hart, a name brand loved by many, that does not take a very good edge and won't hold one very long. Another thing that will ruin an edge is metal polish. Getting a glob of that on the cutting edge seems to destroy it in short order. If you've used any recently on your blades, it could be a problem. The causes are many. If its happening with all of your razors, it may be something you are doing. If its only one or two out of a handful, it could be the razors.
I would guess it's your stropping too.
Either hurting the edge, like the razors that just came back to me after I honed them 2w ago,
or you not really getting to the edge while stropping, plenty people are to careful.
Get a loupe or such so you can see the edge.
I'm sure you will get it, keep it up and good luck!
Do you strop after the shave?
I recommend the OP to dive into the stacks of the forum because the number of variables are formidable. Good Luck!
Could be stropping or shaving technique, or possibly both.
Stropping has been covered fairly well in this thread, so on to shaving technique. Two of the biggest blade killers are high angle and straight cuts. Make sure you're using a shallow angle. And try an angled heel or toe leading (aka guillotine) stroke or scything stroke. Both are far easier on the edge and much more efficient at cutting whiskers.
I leave my razor in a heat controlled office in my basement. I will try and strop more and see what happens. I know I am not an expert at anyone thing, but the goal is to achieve the ultimate one day. Thanks everyone for some input and great ideas.
My edges last a long time. There's a guy at work I hooked up with a straight (he always used a shavette) and his edge isn't lasting long either. He shaves one time a week or once in two weeks. So I'd be intrerested to hear what others have to say too.
He's suppose to bring the razor back in for me to touch up the edge, so I'll take a look at it. I'm thinking Rust, everytime he's brought it back to me it needs a serious polishing.
Maybe cut back on the stropping a little - I would think that would increase your chances of rolling the edge if your fairly new at this, I think you could probably check that by taking your fingernail and pushing it toward the edge and all along it, to check for a burr? I'm not real good at describing thing's so I hope this helps...
Wanted to edit my post - I'm not sure how much you strop your razor, but before and after to me seems excessive and as Shooter pointed out with his metaphor the more you do it the chance of it happening increases. You could roll your edge at any point during the stropping process, but you need to strop your razor. To me 12-15 strokes on the linen or felt and then 50-60 strokes on the leather works for me, but we all do thing's slightly more or less. Clearly what I suggested earlier came off the wrong way, in no way was I "trying" to suggest not to strop your razor.
Please sir, do not give this advice again. Sure, the more miles you drive a day increases the odds in getting into an accident as well or telling me to stop shaving with my razor so that it will not become dull with use. Stropping is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing you can do for a razor to maintain it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimmy72
I'm in the same boat as Gonzo. I have a new 5/8 Dovo that was sharpened by two leading hone masters full hollow, a 4/8 Richard something or other half hollow that up until recently was fantastic and a recently purchased an excellent barbers notch known as Monty that was working the best until I put a ding in the edge somehow and have shipped it of to NuntoSharp for repair.
I try to pay attn to my angles closely but have not giving much attn to heel angle. I strop on a Russian Illinois strop about 60 times before a shave and about 20 after. I prep well and all but things are going south lately and have been at it for about 3-4 mo.
I prep well and all but things are going south lately and have been at it for about 3-4 mo.
Same thing started in on me at about 5-6 month time frame, seems started getting comfortable and started picking up bad stropping habbits without realizing it. However, I also might lean toward shave technique. Then move to stropping technique. Hang in there.. It will pass.