Thread: I solved my problem but you won't believe the solution

No, IMO that is absolutely not possible. You just did not have a good enough edge established on the low grits originally. Going back to the course grits for more work established a good edge, now you can polish it on the finishing stones to get a smoother shaving edge.

Right, but I don't get many good shaves out of the fine edge before I have to start all over again.

Originally Posted by Johnny J

Right, but I don't get many good shaves out of the fine edge before I have to start all over again.

I have not read your other thread but if you are having this problem then you either did not have a great edge to start with or your stropping is somewhat lacking. Do you have a honemeister sharpened razor to compare your edges to or are you learning to shave and hone at the same time?

David

I've been at this for about two years. I've got the shaving part pretty much down. When I first started, I had a honemeister hone my blade, and I think I got a couple weeks out of his edge. That was so long ago, it's hard to remember what else I may have been doing wrong. Since then I've been honing myself. The edges that I put on are great for about the first 3 shaves, then they start to deteriorate.

You think my stropping is at fault? You're sure it's not the combination of soft steel, hard beard, & 3-pass shaves? I have a loom strop & use it with a very light touch (I've been told it's easy to overdo the pressure with loom strops).

I would check your stropping technique. Coincidentally (or maybe not so much) you can take a shave ready straight and get like 3 shaves from it before you really need to strop.

You know what? Now you got me thinking. I have never used a pasted strop, plus I tend to get a bit heavy-handed when the blade gets a little dull & I'm not getting a close enough shave. I wonder if I'm dulling the blade on my face?! Tonight I re-did the edge on the Allen totally from scratch using all 3 hones & shaved with a deliberately light hand. The edge felt a lot better when I was done than it normally does. I'm going to keep a log & see how many shaves I get out of it, being gentle & using the pasted side of the strop to touch it up. With my heavy beard, if I can get a month out of it w/o having to touch a hone, I'll plant the victory flag.

Shaver with heavy beards, take heed.

I think I'm closing in on my answer. So far, my results are very encouraging. Here are some observations & mistakes I've been making:

Observation 1: The Gem hone & Lithide hone are for polishing. The cushioned strop hone is the only one that's aggressive enough to (re)establish a bevel. That's why the cushioned strop hone by itself gives a pretty good shave: it's somewhere around 6K grit. You can get a more comfortable shave with a more polished edge, but you can still do a good job right off the 6K if you want to.

Observation 2: Even though the 6K edge is less sharp than a fully polished edge, it FEELS sharp because the micro-teeth grab the hair & won't let it go.

Mistake 1: being too heavy-handed. After reading what others have posted here, I realized I was WAY too heavy-handed, both while shaving and while stropping. You can destroy a polished edge in 2 shaves this way. A less fine edge is more tolerant of such abuse, but using a less fine edge may be merely masking flawed technique.

Mistake 2: trying to maintain the edge with the Lithide hone instead of strop paste. Both will polish an edge that already has a good bevel, but repeated use of the Lithide hone tends to raise a burr in a way that strop paste doesn't. (Actually, the Gem hone & Lithide hone may be somewhat superfluous. The right pastes could probably polish just as effectively, right off the cushioned strop hone).

Mistake 3: trying to discard the cushioned strop hone. This is related to mistake 1. When the bevel is gone, you need to use a hone that can get the bevel back. That's the cushioned strop hone. You can't get the bevel back with a polishing finish hone like the Lithide (unless you want to spend all night, & maybe not even then). All you're doing is making the rounded-off bevel shinier & shinier.


So by lightening up my touch & using the pasted side of the strop for maintenance instead of the Lithide hone, I'm getting BBS shaves without the destruction I observed before. I'm keeping a shaving log. We'll see how many shaves I get. I'm sure I won't get 3 months out of it the way some guys do, but if I can get one month of BBS shaves instead of steadily deteriorating shaves, I'll plant the victory flag.

(I may also go looking for a stainless wedge: both my razors are soft & hollow-ground.)