Thread: When is your Straight Razor Sharp

I was not sure what stones he has. When I am "popping" arm hair, my bevel is set. I am not sure if his "popping" is tree topping or scraping at skin level. Sooner or later his razor has to have had enough metal removed in order for both sides of the edge to meet and have it shave by accident. He is at least not wearing out his wrist joint stropping on untreated vinyl any more. Yes I agree if he has a 4K to return to it until he is truly "popping" arm hair, as in severing effortlessly, not abrading until separation occurred.

Originally Posted by Barry2

But nothing seems to work; that's why I tried a few bizarre items. I know that most of you guys are confident in the leather strop, but why won't a leather belt work just as well? I have a few of those. So why buy one ?


- - - And why would leather be effective while vinyl is not ? Some guys swear by lapping on news papers or on their jeans. My experience tells me that this is not a science and even with a microsope, nobody can tell you what is happening. There are a lot of guesses, and speculation, but nobody knows for sure.

I think I can help explain this I work with leather. The belts that hold up your pants are treated with a varnish made up of miner oil & beeswax to make it look good . Same stuff we use on saddles to preserve them because saddles go out side. Strops stay in the barber shop or bathroom. The leather strop like Russian horse leather will work best because of the hair follicles. Either the breed of the horse are because of the cold weather produced more hair follicles. It is these follicles that straighten the fin of your razor and prepare it to shave better. Any horse hide , bull hide, or quality leather will work well. I use a pledge furniture wipe off mine. It conditions the leather well while allowing the follicles to breath. Wipe your strop on the leather side length wise a couple of time let is set 20 minutes and wipe it off again lightly with a clean white cotton cloth ......LIGHTLY. Like you were wiping the toe of a dress shoe or boot. Dress belts that hold up you pants have products rubbed into the pores so it can take on a clean shinny look. Get you a good strop one under 20.00 will work.

Originally Posted by Brent375HH

I was not sure what stones he has. When I am "popping" arm hair, my bevel is set. I am not sure if his "popping" is tree topping or scraping at skin level. Sooner or later his razor has to have had enough metal removed in order for both sides of the edge to meet and have it shave by accident. He is at least not wearing out his wrist joint stropping on untreated vinyl any more. Yes I agree if he has a 4K to return to it until he is truly "popping" arm hair, as in severing effortlessly, not abrading until separation occurred.

I'm assuming scraping at skin level. I agree that eventually it will have had enough to make the ends meet. I just don't think he's there yet, and I'm not sure he knows what a truly set bevel should feel like when it makes arm hair 'pop' - I didn't. Like I said previously though, I've gotten a blade very, very close to set - but still not right - and it passed every tactile 'sharp test' I knew to throw at it. At least by my inexperienced standards.

It passed the naked eye edge test, no sheen anywhere, stuck to my thumb pad like no pocket knife I've ever owned, it glided smoothly and effortlessly over my thumb nail, it popped arm hair at skin level, and even caught them mid length and popped them - the arm hair version of an HHT. But it wouldn't shave more than a few times before wanting some licks on a barber hone, or a trip to the paste. This isn't right, it should be a touch up every few months, not every few days. The reason - very small chips my thumb nail couldn't feel, that I could see under my loupe but kept telling myself were small and inconsequential, and the bevel had no white sheen when looked at from the broad side, but when looked at top - down at 60x I could see just a very slight white sheen. The bevel was so close I almost felt personally insulted that the steel hadn't conformed to my will already, like the razor had somehow done this to spite me.

That is the problem with tactile tests - until you've gotten a blade correct, your frame of reference is the best edge that you have achieved with the equipment you have. If your best edge was never right from the ground up, your calibration for these tests is going to be off. You can calibrate yourself by sending a razor off to be pro honed so you can compare and contrast, or purchasing a set of DE blades and performing your tests on those. But until you've done that, or as stated gotten one right by trial and error, you don't know what you don't know.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yes, but he does not appear to be interested in shaving at this point. He's busy trying all the ways that don't work, and polishing bevels that don't meet to form an edge does NOTHING to get him closer to shaving. If he doesn't want help, and truly believes that Gillette is the only repository of knowledge of how to create a sharp edge, then that's fine for him. He'll either figure it out on his own or will give up.

Either way, we are wasting our time if he doesn't care to listen to experienced-based advice.

Instead of leather, I did 40,000 strokes with plain yogurt on my iphone; absolutely worst stropping combination ever. I then switched to 'mixed berry greek' and got better results, but still not satisfied. I might move onto using rainbows and unicorn breath. I wish Gillette would speak up, is he a senior member?

To all of the newbs in this forum: DISREGARD EVERYTHING FROM BARRY2, STROPPING IS ~NOT~ THAT HARD.

Sorry, but your posts are really frustrating - and at this point, they really don't contribute to a healthy forum. You have Experts willing to sit down and demistify and HELP you with your situation, but seem to illogically place a large amount of focus on irrelevant things. I agree with Utopian, I don't think this is about straight razor shaving anymore. Place your strengths elsewhere please.

Marshal :

Ok, but if one wants to make sure that the bevels meet at a point, how can you be sure? Even with a microscope, I am guessing that it might be difficult to tell because of the reflections.

Barry, you can take a sharpie and mark the edge on both sides. All the way down the blade. Do a stroke on each side and look at the bevel. Is all of the sharpie gone at the edge? If so, your bevels are meeting. Just need a magnifying glass for that. 10x - 15x is adequate. Heck, I can see it with my wife's 1.50 readers. The microscope and loupes are for more detail. Nice to have but not required.

Actually it is easy to tell because of the reflections. The edge formed by the two bevels will not reflect light if they meet perfectly. Only defects in the edge will reflect.

kelbro :

Hey, that's good advice. thanks.

Originally Posted by kelbro

Barry, you can take a sharpie and mark the edge on both sides. All the way down the blade. Do a stroke on each side and look at the bevel. Is all of the sharpie gone at the edge? If so, your bevels are meeting. Just need a magnifying glass for that. 10x - 15x is adequate. Heck, I can see it with my wife's 1.50 readers. The microscope and loupes are for more detail. Nice to have but not required.

What ????? 10x15 let the force be with you that sharpie washes off of everything easy right ????

Originally Posted by AlienEdge

What ????? 10x15 let the force be with you that sharpie washes off of everything easy right ????

91% IPA. Kleenex. Sharpie gone.