Thread: When is your Straight Razor Sharp

Barry2,

Where are you located? If you are interested in real help in person, just let us know where you live and we can see if there is anyone nearby to help you. Alternatively, let me know if you would like to know a little bit of what Gillette knows. I can help you with that.

I bought a razor that came with a vinyl strop. I can't tell you why, but it does not work by itself. Once I rubbed .5 micron diamond paste into it it did then further the sharpness and polish after coming off a 10K. That is the only time I use it.

Daily, I do 20 laps on linen and 40 on a leather strop. My guess is that the vinyl is too soft and just yields to the metal but the leather shapes it. I would not want to prepare a vinyl strop for daily use with diamond paste and I would imagine it would not be best for your razor or face in the long run. I too tried to make it all work on the cheap, but I have no regrets buying a nice strop for daily use on my (now too many) razors.

Wow Barry2. Guess you are stubborn, but that is not a bad thing unless you get stuck in a rut and cannot get out. I have been straight razor shaving for nearly 40 years. I am 71, and razors are a science and an art, an art mostly for (maybe) those participating on this forum. I don't find anything wrong with experimenting, as long as it is not with a razor you are going to use. It is quiet possible that a trip to a barber and see if he would be nice enough to give you a demonstration and maybe even look at your razor for you. Personally I have never used anything other than a linen and leather strop because it is the historical medium used. Now my grandfather on my mothers side used a straight and ground his on a circular stone he would peddle and a water can that would drip water on the big wheel, afterwards he would use his linen and leather strop.
The linen is not like that of a bed sheet linen, but heavier and, will hold a stropping powder, or other medium. I have never used a belt and will not as I believe the leathers are processed entirely different. There is a web site called Best Sharpening Stones, in in the section with lapping film the demonstrate the microscopic differences between a razors edge lapped on the film. I suggest this only as a point of interest to see what lapping film is capable of doing for the edge of a razor.
Might I suggest you go to the library section of this site and read the material there. It is quiet fascinating and informative, it certainly has been for me. I believe Utopian has a strong point in his suggestions.
As for razors I can only afford the ones from antique dealers when I can get them to come down to a reasonable. These razors are still good, if you can find one in decent shape you can refurbish. I would love to own a fine hand crafted razor, but I cannot afford it and given the amount of time I have remaining I cannot see it to be a reality for me. If I were in my early 30's when I started using a straight razor, I would attempt to accumulate the dollars to get a fine razor.
I garner a sense that the gentlemen here are quiet experienced at straight razors and should not be ignored. Even with my age, I can still learn to improve from more experienced gentlemen.
Just a thought along with a bit of babble from an old codger.

Amen Brent375HH. I have to believe the gentlemen of yesteryears knew mostly what they were doing and have passed along their knowledge.

I think Marshall got it right in post 11.

Your bevel is not set,

It can take a while to learn to strop properly. One errant stroke can ruin an edge, especially on a pasted strop, no matter the substrate.

The condition of the razor is not the problem.

Originally Posted by Utopian

The condition of the razor is not the problem.

- - - My guess is that the bevel is or should be obvious to close inspection. I think mine is OK, but may be wrong.

Really?

Want a bet?

- - - Well thanks to everybody for replying. As a matter-of-fact, I went out and bought a strop this week and tried it. I tried probably close to 200 passes on the bare leather without CrO2 But, as previously, it will pop hairs off my arm, but not on my face.

- - - As for the possibility that there is no bevel, methinks that the bevel is not a problem since I can feel the sharpness of the edge and secondly, it would not likely cut hairs from my arm if that was the problem.

- - - Of course, I refer to my experience, isn't that what everybody does ? At least give me credit for following your advice to buy a strop. But stropping is not the only way because some guys use blue jeans or newspapers and I still think that it should be possible to use vinyl.

As a matter of fact, I applied some CrO2 to my dry vinyl and it is obvious that some metal is being removed. There is more than one way to skin a cat, believe it or not.

Take this for what it's worth - I've had edges that not only popped arm hair - but tree topped arm hair, cut it at mid level - but could only shave good once or twice without needing a touch up of some sort. The cause? Bevel incredibly close to set - but not fully meeting, and micro chips at the edge. In short, an imperfect bevel. Remember, your arm is not nearly as sensitive as your face, so cutting hair there is a positive sign but no guarantee. The ultimate indicator is how the blade feels to your face, listen to that and not your arm.

95% of your honing and edge production is actually at the bevel set. If it isn't right at that level, it won't be right as you work through the progression. Sounds like you're knocking on the door to a good edge, just needs a little bit of tweaking. Might not be a bad idea to go back to the 1k (Edit: 4K) for either a joint and reset, or some judicious medium pressure strokes, finishing with just the weight of the blade to finish up the bevel.

Also, bear in mind that the purpose of leather isn't so much to remove metal as it is to straighten the edge. It does remove a tiny bit to a degree, but CrOx is an entirely different animal. CrOx removes metal, and in the case of putting it on vinyl, it's the CrOx doing the real work. Vinyl may be an OK medium for that, but it's only made to look leathery, not behave the same way.

Denim might be a good substitute for linen. I don't think I've read about it being used in place of leather. But, I don't know everything, and won't claim to. I research almost obsessively, but there IS a lot out there.

In any case, I've learned (the hard way) that it's best to start learning with a known quantity, then once you have a handle on the subject (and good equipment to fall back on if the experiment fails) before wading into the unknown.