Thread: Seems like edge does not last long

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.

Originally Posted by bill3152

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 passes

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!