I hate my @#$%^* beard!!!!

My beard is the steel-eating monster from the blackest nightmare depths of hell. It eats razors for breakfast. It will eat one of my edges in 5 shaves. It will eat one of Glen's edges in 8 shaves. I cannot use the Chinese 12K by itself to do touch-ups: it's not aggressive enough to grind past the damage. The hair on my head eats a razor in 3 shaves. I AM GOING TO CALL MY FATHER AND BITCH HIM OUT! No, wait...Do you get your hair from your father's side or your mother's? FINE, THEN I'LL BITCH HER OUT TOO!

Whew. I needed that. I feel much better now.

Johnny I think it is high time you look for a heavy wedge style blade and see if that can't tame the brillo pad you call a beard :D

I agree with Glen Johnny. Maybe even whack a set of scales on an axe head!! :eek: Seriously, Glen's advice is sound, IMO.

James.

I'm in the same boat. 4 to 5 shaves and its back on the hone. I don't think its that much of a big deal. Life is too short and I own too many razors to have a bad shave.:w

Last week I was too lazy and shaved with a blade I shouldn't have.Now I remember why I hate dull razors:cry:

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

Maybe even whack a set of scales on an axe head!! :eek:

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Do you think a chainsaw would look good in cocobolo? :D

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Originally Posted by Lt.Arclight

Life is too short and I own too many razors to have a bad shave.:w

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HA! Yes, life is too short for cheap wine, ugly women, & dull razors :D

You can't even touch it up on some chromium oxide? I usually need to touch mine up after 5 shaves or so, but 20 trips on the paste does the trick for a few months before it needs a real honing.

No, Matt, Cr02 works once or twice, then it starts rounding my bevel.

Glen, I've been doing all this with my new 15/16 W&B wedge. After I set the bevel & honed from scratch, it was wonderfully sharp. Not as sharp as yours since I stop at 12K, but very sharp nonetheless. I got 5 shaves out of it. Not bad. Yesterday I tried to touch it up with 50xChinese. No dice. Today I tried 20xSwaty + 50xChinese. Much better than yesterday, but still not like it was when it was fresh. Tomorrow I'll have to try 50xStropback + 50xSwaty + 50xChinese. In the future I'm going to try using the Chinese before each & every shave, because going through the entire 3-hone progression is a pain in the @$$.

Technically I could eliminate a step & shave right off the Swaty, it's plenty fine enough, but the Chinese is just sooooo much nicer, I really like it. Plus, what with all this honing I'm doing, I'm getting pretty fast at it :cry:

Hi Guys,

Regarding the heavy wedge, the reason being a better supported edge via its thicker, more metal design?

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Originally Posted by kevint

Hi Guys,

Regarding the heavy wedge, the reason being a better supported edge via its thicker, more metal design?

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Indeed, Kevin. The blade should flex less, the edge should deform less, and it should hold up for more shaves.

Johnny, just keep in mind that more metal on a wedge also means you'll have to remove more metal when touching up, and that means more passes per hone.

Maybe try taping? What would give a larger angle on the cutting edge, hence a wider bit of metal just above the edge; maybe it would hold up a bit better?

Is linen a part of your stropping routine? If not, give it a try. It helped mine.

I've tried it. It seems to be a more aggressive burnisher than leather, but by the time the leather stops working, the blade's so far gone that the linen only gets me one extra shave, 2 at most. I haven't tried using the linen every day.

I don't know this for a fact having only ever honed razors, but I have heard that people who sharpen knives often put a convex edge on them to increase the robustness. Does that sound right? Sort of makes sense to me.

Anyway, have you considered a double, triple, quadruple etc bevel approach to honing your razor? This is an armchair suggestion, having not done it myself. Can anyone who has done it comment on whether they think the edge produced is more robust?

I am too lazy to read through this whole thread again, but perhaps there is some information on this here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...o-updated.html

James.

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Originally Posted by Johnny J

I haven't tried using the linen every day.

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I've been saying this before in one of your previous threads: this does make a difference to me.

Touching up on a paste, in my experience only works once or twice. After that the edge gets convexed into roundness too much.

If you're able to check your edges under magnification, immediately after shaving, that could be a great help. I can get my Dovo super sharp & smooth, for about 1 shave. I usually feel the edge starting to really deteriorate by the end of that one shave. Under 40X magnification I can see how the edge is torn apart by my whiskers. Repairing the micro-damage with a fine polishing hone is possible, but brings me back again to the same point: one good shave and then an edge falling apart.
It's my own fault: I have been obsessive with refining the edge on that Dovo to make it as keen as possible. I solved it by rounding the edge a little (a slack CrO strop is great for that) and rehoned it to a slightly less keen level, and it performs just great now.
Bottom line, not all razors sustain the same edge.

Another thing that works great for me, and I find myself more and more leaning towards that, is to finish with a nice little secondary bevel. Translated to your situation: just hone your regular routine, add 2 or 3 layers of tape to the spine before going to the Chinese 12K. After that, 20 laps should suffice (you're only affecting the very tip of the bevel, hence things go lighting fast). The resulting edge is superb, because it only caries the scratch pattern of the 12K. An extra advantage for you is the augmented bevel angle makes the edge a little sturdier.
Touching up is fast and easy. Reattach the same amount of tape layers and do another 20 laps.
The tape is not needed for stropping. (there's enough flex in a strop to touch the secondary bevel).
I recommend staying away from pastes if longevity of your edges is an issue.

Bart..

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Originally Posted by Bart

Bottom line, not all razors sustain the same edge.......

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Oh soooooooooo True !!!!!

I wrote a reply, but it wasn't helpful perhaps. It is hard to say what the problem is without knowing what you mean by an eaten edge. Is it just dull or chipped and mangeled?

Sounds to me like the edge was honed to a point it was just too fragile and so it just crumbles or microchips.

When it comes to my beard, anything except adamantium-reinforced kryptonite is too fragile & crumbles.

I like the idea of the micro-bevel. I'm going to try that with one of my full hollows (so I can remove the micro-bevel more easily if I don't like it). Then I'm going to try using the linen every day. Then I'm going to try both.

For the record, the Chinese 12K is my finisher. I don't have (or want) anything finer.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Well then, another thought (although it may cost you short-term). How about getting a Friodur or two? In my experience they not only take an excellent edge, they also retain that edge for what seems an age.

James.

Hmmm. I'll keep that in mind.

I just put a microbevel on my full hollow W&B chopper. The first shave is promising. I can tell that the blade is less sharp; it now has a sort of two-bevel knife grind instead of a razor grind. and the result is not quite as close. But the tradeoff between sharpness & durability is well-known. I'll see how many shaves it takes to turn it into a butter knife.

Side note: I once tried a similar experiment by shaving with a 6K and even a 4K edge. That didn't work, because the edge wasn't less sharp, merely less polished, so it gave a very uncomfortable shave & deteriorated just as quickly.

Edit: after the lotion got absorbed the burn set in, and I could feel stubble. Microbevel doesn't seem to be the ticket for me. Onward to linen.

Get your good edge on and try 20, 30, or 40 laps on the linen before the leather each day. Resist the chrome-ox.

Let us know.

Worked for me on several different blades.

Well, the results are in. 20 x linen + 50 x leather before each shave slows the deterioration somewhat--shave #3 is still BBS--but I can still feel some deterioration in that the blade doesn't glide as smoothly & the alum stings a lot more. So I'm going to conclude that the linen does help a little, but not enough to make a big difference. I think the edge is still good enough at this point that I can touch it up with the Chinese 12K. If I wait until shave #8, the damage will be so profound that I'll need to go all the way back to the 4K stropback hone. So I'm going to try doing frequent touch-ups in the hope that I can get away with only using the Chinese 12K. As Glen says, it's easier to maintain an edge than to create one.

As a side note, I just finished stitching up a new strop out of a thick scrap piece of Latigo that Stoneguard sent me, plus some large homemade stainless D-rings. The Latigo has a much heavier draw than my antique horsehide strop, so it might very well be as good a restorer as linen. We'll see.

I feel your pain, Johnny--5-6 shaves max before I need a touch-up. (Used to be 3 before I realized I was stropping too hard:o) I love the dull razor quote, though--request pemission to use it in my signature!:D

Here's an idea regarding CrO2 that came w/ Chrisl's sample--treat the convex side of a piece of balsa (~8x3x1/4) w/ a mix of the chrome & some type of oil to make a paste. This should have much less give to it, giving you more shaves before it rounds the bevel. Just tried it and my touchup was smoother than before. I'll report back after I've tried a few more. Until I can afford a Shapton set, that is!;)

P.S. I second the dull razor warning--those will cut you! Badly. Very badly.:nono: Don't ask me how I found this out...

Johnny, get a Zowada liquid nitrogen triple tempered damascus straight. It will cost you some $, but you just may stop cursing your beard!

Actually at this point I'm resigned to my fate. So I have to touch it up every 3 shaves. That's not so bad. I'm getting pretty fast at it from all the practice!

Update: the Chinese 12K is not aggressive enough to grind past the damage from even 3 shaves, but the Swaty is. It's amazing how much finer the Chinese stone is than the Swaty. When I shave wet arm hairs off the Swaty, the razor goes sssshhhhhkkk and the hairs go tink tink tink tink. When I do the same thing off the Chinese stone, the blade just wipes the hairs off with hardly any sensation of shaving. Sure I could get by with just the Swaty...but why?