Thread: Please help me understand the basics maintenances

Hello all,
I'm new here in that form and also in the wet shaving hobby (I just shave my 15 years beard last week).
I order a Dovo ASTRALE straight razor and Illinois strop and norton 4000/8000 stone.
I sow a lot of YouTube videos but I still didn't get it. What is the right maintenances to make?!
1.How many passes I need to do on the linen side of the stop before shaving and 2.how many passes on the leather side?
When do I need to hone the razor.
3.How many passes on each side(4000/8000).
(I sent the blade for a professional honing directly from the store)

Thanks you in advance,
Haran


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Hi and good to hear you have converted to regular shaves.

Since you have a professionally sharpened razor you don't need to hone it for months unless you ruin the edge by stropping wrong.

There are different philosophies to stropping. I'll give you mine: Just strop 30 back and forth passes on the leather side before shaving. Period. Some do more, some less. Americans tend do strop more than us Europeans do (I observe that by reading in several forums).

Now the rest: You can use the linen side to clean the edge before using the leather. I do that maybe once a week, when I dont forget. Some do the linen every time. How many passes is individual. I consider linen unnecessary for everyday "sharpening". I do use linen after honing. When I've touched up my razor, I go on a Crox-Strop for 20 passes and then for 50 on each linen and leather.

But, like I've said, at the time you should just go 30x on leather and enjoy your shave. When the razor starts tugging and you feel that the shave is not close enough anymore, then you'll have to open for the even wider world of honing and maintaining a sharp edge with stone and strop.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

Originally Posted by OldSalt

Hi and good to hear you have converted to regular shaves.

Since you have a professionally sharpened razor you don't need to hone it for months unless you ruin the edge by stropping wrong.

There are different philosophies to stropping. I'll give you mine: Just strop 30 back and forth passes on the leather side before shaving. Period. Some do more, some less. Americans tend do strop more than us Europeans do (I observe that by reading in several forums).

Now the rest: You can use the linen side to clean the edge before using the leather. I do that maybe once a week, when I dont forget. Some do the linen every time. How many passes is individual. I consider linen unnecessary for everyday "sharpening". I do use linen after honing. When I've touched up my razor, I go on a Crox-Strop for 20 passes and then for 50 on each linen and leather.

But, like I've said, at the time you should just go 30x on leather and enjoy your shave. When the razor starts tugging and you feel that the shave is not close enough anymore, then you'll have to open for the even wider world of honing and maintaining a sharp edge with stone and strop.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

Thank you very much for your answers -OldSalt


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As mentioned you will not need that 4/8 for quite a while with a pro- honed razor. I do 30 linen 60 leather before the shave, but I like my strops and stropping so this may be more than needed. I don't notice a difference in the shave if I do 40 leather.

Practice stripping with a butter knife and a rolled up newspaper with a clip. Once you get the hang of it, 1 you'll be less likely to damage your strop. 2 you'll be less likely to dull your razor.

Clean and dry your razor after each use. Oil the pivot periodically? Once a week or month depending on humidity.

Enjoy.

Originally Posted by JTmke

As mentioned you will not need that 4/8 for quite a while with a pro- honed razor. I do 30 linen 60 leather before the shave, but I like my strops and stropping so this may be more than needed. I don't notice a difference in the shave if I do 40 leather.

Practice stripping with a butter knife and a rolled up newspaper with a clip. Once you get the hang of it, 1 you'll be less likely to damage your strop. 2 you'll be less likely to dull your razor.

Clean and dry your razor after each use. Oil the pivot periodically? Once a week or month depending on humidity.

Enjoy.

Thank you


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Originally Posted by JTmke

As mentioned you will not need that 4/8 for quite a while with a pro- honed razor. I do 30 linen 60 leather before the shave, but I like my strops and stropping so this may be more than needed. I don't notice a difference in the shave if I do 40 leather.

Practice stripping with a butter knife and a rolled up newspaper with a clip. Once you get the hang of it, 1 you'll be less likely to damage your strop. 2 you'll be less likely to dull your razor.

Clean and dry your razor after each use. Oil the pivot periodically? Once a week or month depending on humidity.

Enjoy.

I don't even know if one can overstrop a razor so I don't think doing more than necessary will do harm to the edge. To be honest, I sometimes don't even count the laps but just guess, beeing sure to do enough. You get the feel with practice.

Very good advice.

@Haran: When the razor dulls you can go on the 4000 for about 50 back and forth laps pushing the edge forward, that is the other way around than stropping. Then do the same on the 8000 side. After that try a Cromiumoxide Strop for around 20 laps (pushing spine forward now, dragging edge) and then 50 linen and 50 leather laps. Don't fool around with a hanging hair test. I set the spine of my razor on my arm, lift the edge slightly above the skin and shave my armhair. If the hairs pop easily, your ready to go. If not, try step 1 to end again and maybe add another 20 laps on the stones or so. Harder steel, like a Gold Dollar, can make more laps necessary. This should satisfy your curiosity for the beginning.
If you don't have a Crox Strop you can try what I did. Just smear the green crayon on the inside of the linen. Be careful to hold the leather far enough away so you won't scrape the leather when flipping the razor on each lap. It works well for me and saves me a messy strop in my drawer.


Best Wishes
OldSalt

Originally Posted by OldSalt

I don't even know if one can overstrop a razor so I don't think doing more than necessary will do harm to the edge. To be honest, I sometimes don't even count the laps but just guess, beeing sure to do enough. You get the feel with practice.

Very good advice.

@Haran: When the razor dulls you can go on the 4000 for about 50 back and forth laps pushing the edge forward, that is the other way around than stropping. Then do the same on the 8000 side. After that try a Cromiumoxide Strop for around 20 laps (pushing spine forward now, dragging edge) and then 50 linen and 50 leather laps. Don't fool around with a hanging hair test. I set the spine of my razor on my arm, lift the edge slightly above the skin and shave my armhair. If the hairs pop easily, your ready to go. If not, try step 1 to end again and maybe add another 20 laps on the stones or so. Harder steel, like a Gold Dollar, can make more laps necessary. This should satisfy your curiosity for the beginning.
If you don't have a Crox Strop you can try what I did. Just smear the green crayon on the inside of the linen. Be careful to hold the leather far enough away so you won't scrape the leather when flipping the razor on each lap. It works well for me and saves me a messy strop in my drawer.


Best Wishes
OldSalt

Thank you so much OldSalt!!!
It is a precious knowledge to me.
I didn't buy the Cromiumoxide Strop.
I don't even know how it looks.
Can you recommend me one ?

Haran


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Best of greetings, Haran, and bravo for choosing quality in a shave. Your questions are good & very appropriate for starting out. Your gear is excellent & quite capable.

You're at the base of a learning experience & it gets better & way more fun very quickly. You'll soon be getting the best shaves of your life.

Rather than try to summarize what others have done better in all the tutorials & videos, I can suggest one or two practical things & maybe more important - some mental/psychological things.

You're new, you're gonna nick. The honorable Lynn helped alot of us by talking about a dab of neosporin on the nick to speed healing & to avoid the nick until healed - or it won't heal. I will sometimes lather up & feel around for the nick and wipe the lather off it so I have a visual marker of where to avoid shaving - so I don't keep irritating it. I've read about products other than neosporin that help prevent any scarring, but don't remember their names.

Your stropping is most critical. I destroyed 5 when learning because I thought I should be able to stop a stroke smoothly and completely while both the spine and the edge were in contact with the strop. It didn't go well. In your stropping, shaving - and later in honing, it will take some time to learn what 'no pressure' means. Its easier said than done - but you'll get there.

There's no rush to learn to get a perfect shave. The skill will actually come whether or not you try hard. Striving for perfection will usually give more nicks and slow your ability to keep learning from each shave.

Honing: learn to shave and strop first. 'Having a 2nd razor can help. It needn't be as costly at that nice Dovo - something humble & not attractive can help alot - especially when the time comes to learn honing. You don't want to make all your learning mistakes on a beautiful razor do you? It also allows you to keep shaving while one razor is out getting a pro-quality honing. Avoid ebay and antique shops like they were the plague for now. Later you can make use of them, but no one can assess how much restoration grinding a blade needs until they can reliably get a fine edge with a known-good blade. Your profile doesn't say where you're located, but there are likely members willing to hone for just the postage costs.

On pressure and shaving - We male types are very used to using tools. Take tool, place on some material, apply force. If the tool requires sensitive touch - we pay close attention to the feel of the tool on our fingers. In shaving, we will tend to apply more pressure if a stroke doesn't leave the skin perfectly smooth. This is self-correcting, with enough neosporin. Rather than take the razor to your beard - think of making the beard *available* to the razor with your stretches & strokes. Instead of paying close attention to the feel of the tool in your hand - pay attention to the feel of the edge on your face. This is the primary feedback and indicator as to how a stroke is going.

You can spend months learning odd and sometimes funny-looking stretches while you find what works best - all with no pressure. The razor shaves just fine without any pressure.

You've found the best place on the planet for learning the art. I hope you have obscene amounts of fun here. There's tons of good will and excellent help.

All best to you & yours, Haran

Originally Posted by pinklather

Best of greetings, Haran, and bravo for choosing quality in a shave. Your questions are good & very appropriate for starting out. Your gear is excellent & quite capable.

You're at the base of a learning experience & it gets better & way more fun very quickly. You'll soon be getting the best shaves of your life.

Rather than try to summarize what others have done better in all the tutorials & videos, I can suggest one or two practical things & maybe more important - some mental/psychological things.

You're new, you're gonna nick. The honorable Lynn helped alot of us by talking about a dab of neosporin on the nick to speed healing & to avoid the nick until healed - or it won't heal. I will sometimes lather up & feel around for the nick and wipe the lather off it so I have a visual marker of where to avoid shaving - so I don't keep irritating it. I've read about products other than neosporin that help prevent any scarring, but don't remember their names.

Your stropping is most critical. I destroyed 5 when learning because I thought I should be able to stop a stroke smoothly and completely while both the spine and the edge were in contact with the strop. It didn't go well. In your stropping, shaving - and later in honing, it will take some time to learn what 'no pressure' means. Its easier said than done - but you'll get there.

There's no rush to learn to get a perfect shave. The skill will actually come whether or not you try hard. Striving for perfection will usually give more nicks and slow your ability to keep learning from each shave.

Honing: learn to shave and strop first. 'Having a 2nd razor can help. It needn't be as costly at that nice Dovo - something humble & not attractive can help alot - especially when the time comes to learn honing. You don't want to make all your learning mistakes on a beautiful razor do you? It also allows you to keep shaving while one razor is out getting a pro-quality honing. Avoid ebay and antique shops like they were the plague for now. Later you can make use of them, but no one can assess how much restoration grinding a blade needs until they can reliably get a fine edge with a known-good blade. Your profile doesn't say where you're located, but there are likely members willing to hone for just the postage costs.

On pressure and shaving - We male types are very used to using tools. Take tool, place on some material, apply force. If the tool requires sensitive touch - we pay close attention to the feel of the tool on our fingers. In shaving, we will tend to apply more pressure if a stroke doesn't leave the skin perfectly smooth. This is self-correcting, with enough neosporin. Rather than take the razor to your beard - think of making the beard *available* to the razor with your stretches & strokes. Instead of paying close attention to the feel of the tool in your hand - pay attention to the feel of the edge on your face. This is the primary feedback and indicator as to how a stroke is going.

You can spend months learning odd and sometimes funny-looking stretches while you find what works best - all with no pressure. The razor shaves just fine without any pressure.

You've found the best place on the planet for learning the art. I hope you have obscene amounts of fun here. There's tons of good will and excellent help.

All best to you & yours, Haran

Thank you pinklather!
You are a great people over here.
**************************************
While l'm waiting for my Dovo piece of art... I'm shave with a parker shavette .
I'm pretty good already except some areas in my neck. I can't make the neck be smooth as the cheeks)-;
Most of my fears is regarding the maintenances of my future Dovo. All the striping and honing...




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Good luck, this is fun.
My 2 cent from other side of the pond.
Indeed, in Europe we seem to strop less, hone less, fuss less. I remember my grandfather's strop and razor, you'd die if you had to use it. It looked like torture implement, rusty and all. Grandpa never nicked though.
I strop leather only, maybe 20 max. 30. I hone maybe twice a year, only refresh on coticule, very light slurry and clear running water then. Only few passes, maybe 20. Depends on razor, too. But, I rotate two, three razors. Not always, sometimes I like one for the whole week, depends on my mood.
One advice - don't overdo. Shave once, second time without experience you will get nicks. Shave slow and no pressure.
Get to know your beard. How it grows, where is the grain direction. Shave with the grain. You will get nicks, when you go against the grain. Second shave is against, but do it after you get some experience.
After shave don't clean the blade too aggressively, just remove water. I use hand soap to clean, but this part I am not sure, if it is correct. Don't try to polish with the towel, you will ruin the edge and blade polish. Just dab. Look if water came in between the scales, this is main reason of blade rusting. I use toilet paper to dab blade and clean inside the scales.
Strop lightly, no pressure. I don't strop after shave, just put my razor out of bathroom.
Have fun!
Greetings from Poland,
Tom