Thread: How many shaves on a straight razor before the edge needs a refresh?

Using flax linen (clean not pasted) every so often will keep that edge going a long time. I don't count but 100 shaves is about what I think it is. I hone on jnats with slurry which I'm told creates a slight convex edge. I'm not a scientist nor am I looking to argue about it! Lol. But that's what it looks like to me.

I unintentionally tested this out. I was in transition of razor storage so i only had one razor out. It was a TI. I must have used it for a few months and it was fine. I dont have course hair.

Just totaled up the shaves on my seven day rotation. The winner at this point is Thursday's razor with 77 shaves and counting. Last honed July 19th 2017.

Originally Posted by fisherking

Gentlemen,

I am a relatively new straight razor shaver; this morning I completed my 121st shave. I use a straight 6 days a week.
.....
4) Should I be counting, or is it OK to just keep shaving until the blade tells me it needs work?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

There is no magic count. My whiskers are great for removing burnt oatmeal from a kitchen pot and quickly dulling razors of all types.

One thing I found is that razors that shout at me to be touched up are almost always too
dull for a simple touch up. Given your score card, gently touch the blade up once or twice a month
as you have been doing and enjoy it.

To answer your specific question: It is your face, whiskers and razor. It is ok to go with what works for you.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

To answer your specific question: It is your face, whiskers and razor. It is ok to go with what works for you.

Thats the right answer!

For a very long time (years), I could only get 4 - 5 shaves off a razor before going back to a hone. I read regularly about people who went weeks and even months using the same razor without re-honing. This puzzled me, but I enjoy honing, and kept 4 - 5 razors in rotation so I could go a month or more before re-touching all of them on a hone at the same time. The the cycle would start over.

For the longest time, I thought there was something wrong with my honing. I thought that if I were doing it correctly, my edges would last longer.

In fact, it was my stropping that needed work. My stropping technique was fairly solid, but I was making two mistakes: not using linen, and not doing enough strokes.

I started really using flax linen last year after thinking linen didn't make any difference, but I learned through experience it made a huge difference! So for me, using flax linen and doing at least 20 - 30 strokes was key. Before, I wasn't bothering with linen, and doing only 10 - 20 strokes.

When it really came together for me and I used the same razor for over 3 months without a touch-up on any hone, i was getting obsessive and doing over 50 strokes per strop. It was a lot of effort, but I was getting great results and it was fun, and I didn't want to jinx it. But I started reading about people dialing back their strokes to find the minimum they could do and still get good results. For me, with my skill level, it seems to be about 20 - 30 strokes per strop (flax linen, then suede "Russian" style, then latigo or smooth leather). Using a fire hose flax linen strop, I can go down to 20. The fire hose seems to be better suited to wedges and quarter-hollows, it can be harsh for a really hollow-ground razor.

Using this sequence, i can now go months without a even a touch up on a hone. When I do need a touch up, it's really because the edge has gotten harsh, it's still very sharp. There's only so much that strops can do. I recently bought some different pastes for strops, but I haven't used them yet. I thought they might be a way to "sweeten" an edge that's been stropped for many weeks and is getting ragged. But I'm finally getting such good results now that I'm not inclined to change anything. And since I like honing, the occasional touch-up isn't that big a deal.

Originally Posted by dimab

It really depends on the razor quality and your stropping technique. Story says there was at least one instance where a barber in Japan was able to use an Iwasaki Tamahagane for near 1,000 shaves with nothing but stropping between them.
It is really easy to dull the edge by incorrect stropping, but if your stropping is OK, a good razor can give you tens or even few hundreds of shaves.

Indeed. I learned this almost immediately upon beginning shaving with a straight.

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

For a very long time (years), I could only get 4 - 5 shaves off a razor before going back to a hone.
.....
When it really came together for me and I used the same razor for over 3 months without a touch-up on any hone,
....

For me switching to first lather ... then strop .. then refresh the lather & shave helps.

I also just touch up my razor with a modern 12K or 13K hone mostly because
that is my habit. Silly me, I have enough razors that I cannot recall the last
time I used on so I refresh it on a fine hone or finishing stone if in doubt.

Yes canvas.
Yes leather.
Mostly to busy myself while the lather softens my whiskers.
Two min of lather soak is an easy 20 canvas and 40 leather.

At one time I had an old sand egg timer. I was always rushing my latherin.
A timer helped... that.

I still haven't had to re-hone the razors gssixgun and outback honed for me. i'm not sure how many shaves, it's been a year-ish but I don't shave often so MAYBE 50-100? Interestingly: that greaves I had (one of my first straights), had to re-hone 2 times inside of 4 months when I first got it. Looks like I've clearly gotten better/more careful with my stropping. (there's also the chance that early Sheffield blades are magic and/or the two gentlemen who honed these razors are magic. I vote for both). Now, it obviously isn't as smooth as that first shave I did after honing, but I still get single pass BBS, so I'm gonna say i'm good?

I do strop (quite a bit) on linen after, and on leather after and before (maybe 50 on linen, and 100+ on leather in total).

I was starting to get worried, but good to know that 100+ shaves with good stropping isn't too out of the ordinary!

Is stropping on linen good for the blade then?

I use it mostly to clean the blade after my red mistakes

Steve