After much experimentation & the correction of many mistakes, I came up with a shaving method that seemed to work given my steel-eating, barbed-wire, horror show of a beard. However, not content to rest on my laurels, I set about trying to find a new method that would reduce the amount of paraphernalia in my shaving kit.

I believe I now have two workable methods, each with pros & cons. I would like to solicit opinions as to which is the better way to go.

Method 1: use a chromium oxide pasted strop for maintenance. I have to touch up the blade every other shave, because if I don't, by the third shave I can feel the deterioration. After a month, the edge has become so convexed from repeated polishing that I have to go all the way back to 1000-grit sandpaper to re-establish the bevel. The upshot is, the convexing of the edge seems to impart a strength that is lacking in a triangular edge polished to the same degree on a Lithide hone.

Method 2: Follow the heretical rules & give her 5 swipes on the cushioned strop hone, then 5 on the Gem hone, before every shave. Skipping the Lithide hone seems to result in a less polished, therefore stronger, edge.

Which of the above would you do?


For the record, these methods don't work:


1. Using all 3 hones (the cushioned strop, Gem, & Lithide) without the pasted strop. The resulting edge is too delicate.

2. Shaving right off the cushioned strop hone. The edge is far too crude. The resulting shave is painful & of mediocre quality.