Thread: Trouble Shaving with the SRP Wedge Razor and Other Wedge Razor

As stated previously, the collective wisdom about stropping can be found here: Razor stropping - Straight Razor Place Library

If it was actually Thiers Issard who wrote these instructions, they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Personally, I do 10 passes on linen after the shave to remove residual water from the edge, then 30 on linen and leather before the shave. I use a Straight Razor Designs English bridle extra long. When I use a shorter strop, I do five or ten passes more.

What hone's are you using?
I ask this because my Wedge razors have given me great results after honing on my coticule & then finishing on my Chinese 12k.
But I do feel the Sheffield wedges are a lot softer steel than my vintage American blades.
Once you get them sharp enough &adjust your technique to them your shaves will improve.
I have got a fair bit of time on my hands at the moment so if you feel you would like some mentoring with anything please feel free to pm me .
I'm in Basingstoke.
Cheers Paul

Pretty amazed that instructions accompanying a SR would say stropping is only necessary after 7 shaves. I think all here strop before every shave and also after every shave. The number of strokes and on what material may vary though. Personally I do 20 linen and 60 leather before and 10 on felt after to dry the edge/bevel after I have wiped down the blade.

Shaving with a near wedge is a different experience from shaving with a Solingen full hollow. I have a few near wedges in rotation and find I like to have a slight bit more of a gap between spine and face with them. It's not much of a difference but it is there. I hone mine on Naniwa stones and they shave smoothly enough for me. A good lather really helps with any shave too.

Bob

This advice seems rather counter intuitive, considering when I was a young man getting a haircut at my local barber all I heard was the hiss and crack of strops going before each customer and sometimes for the same customer. Barbers used to strop like crazy.

Originally Posted by ECD

Does everybody Strop on the leather & the felt after each shave and then again before you use the razor again or do you just strop the once or do you leave it for a few shaves then strop.

I've played around with this to some extent. I always strop on linen/leather before a shave if I've used the razor previously. Now, having read in a very old shaving book, that there is no need to strop before the shave if you've stropped after your last shave, I tried that for a few weeks. Seemed to work fine. In essence you've stropped before the next shave, if you stropped immediately after the last one.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but yes, always strop before the shave. I strop on leather only after the shave to remove any micro gunk and/or moisture that maybe in the striations of the edge. I note that Robin strops on linen after the shave. Whatever works. I think stropping after is a good thing, as is stropping before the shave.

Send one of both blades out to Steve. See if he will assess the current state of them before he hones them. You'll be able to compare when you get them back, but I'd be curious to what he thinks of them as they are now.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

This advice seems rather counter intuitive, considering when I was a young man getting a haircut at my local barber all I heard was the hiss and crack of strops going before each customer and sometimes for the same customer. Barbers used to strop like crazy.

+1 on that. When I was a kid, talking 50 + years ago, I used to watch the old barbers strop with great interest. Have you noticed that not all of them stropped exactly the same way ? Essentially the same, but they seemed to have a different style of going about it. Some long strokes, others short and quick. I've seen more than one strop a razor in between passes on a customer.

This is a thing that has puzzled me for quite some time. On the one hand there are the advocates of dainty slow controlled stropping or hey your gonna roll the edge. And then there's these characters my childhood barbers who beat the blade with subtlety of a stone mason. Some fast and loud moves on the strop before a shave . It was all quite entertaining.

Originally Posted by puketui41

I'm in the same boat. I've honed my share of razors and only have trouble with wedges and 1/4 grinds. I have one that i've managed to get to a level I'm happy with, but the other two, I've checked the bevel, reset the bevel, tried dropping back down to 8000# for twenty strokes then re-polish, then drop down to 8000# and re-polish testing each time to see if there's any improvement. I've tried slurry, pasted strops, less stropping pressure, more stropping pressure, you name it. I always seem to end up at the same place: a sharp razor with what in my experience is a well developed and polished edge that just doesn't shave as well as hollow razors

Humble retraction. I started thinking about what I posted here(probably should have thought before I posted), if one near wedge gives a good shave, why not the others? So I pulled out one of my old nemeses today and had another crack. Turns out it was the bevel after all, just not quite set. Learning every day.

Originally Posted by puketui41

Turns out it was the bevel after all, just not quite set. Learning every day.

It is always the bevel. People shaved with edges off 8k Nortons for a long time. Yes, a bit of polishing after that adds either keenness or comfort, sometimes both. But that is just fluff. A properly set bevel is something whose importance many people underestimate.

Be bold, take on the challenge, go for it

I too had a problem with my SRP razor soon after I got it. When I first got it I shaved without stropping and got a fine shave. I stropped the razor before the next shave and also got a fine shave. The next time not so good, pulling. Not happy. Some observations I had was that the strop was showing some unusual wear on the edges near and far on the side I was stropping from. I believe I was getting that from the spine of the razor. I do have another wedge razor which is a W and B Sheffield and I have no problems stropping that razor. My SRP razor is the heaviest of all my 20 plus razors though and it definitely is harder to strop. I probably dulled that razor stropping it. I put it up for a couple months. I eventually picked it up again and I was going to hone it and decided to just run it on my CrOx felt strop. I cleaned it off, stropped it, slowly......and then shaved with it. Great shave! Happy again although I do believe that the spine still has some sharp edges that catches the edge of my strop. I may have to run some very fine sandpaper over it to smooth it out a bit. Stropping a heavy razor is still not as easy as my other razors.


Mike