Thread: Heating up the blade

Not to highkack the OP's thread, but did anyone else notice the reference to different hones for different razors in the Robeson article? And i guess different razore for different faces
What's up with that?

I don't think you will see any rust, but the unavoidable fact is it happens when we shave. It may be true the strop(s) remove this, I just don't know.

We do know that eventually strops cease working and the edge must be honed. We know that carbon steel will rust in the presence of water, so it seems logical that whatever part oxidation plays in the edge's eventual demise can be best minimized by limiting that exposure as much as possible.

The best electron microscope photos do appear to show "teeth" but not exactly the teeth caused by abrasive scratches, rather exposure of very hard carbides. Perhaps the scale is too small to show these scratch furrows.(?)

With the rest of the blade acting as a heat sink and the relatively low temps of hot water, not to mention the minute scale of it all, it is hard for me to fathom any effect beyond a split second that is not more easily explained by placebo.

All that and I just cannot shave toe to heel.

feel free to correct any errors!

Originally Posted by kevint

I don't think you will see any rust, but the unavoidable fact is it happens when we shave. It may be true the strop(s) remove this, I just don't know.

We do know that eventually strops cease working and the edge must be honed.

This is true, of course, but a hone touch up is hardly a big deal, unless you've managed to ding the blade against something. A decent barber hone can keep the blade going for ages, and it only takes a minute (okay, maybe two minutes) to slap some lather on that hone and refresh the edge with 5-10 laps, depending upon the hone grit and razor.


I smile sometimes at posts by folks [not you] who talk about how hard they work to keep a razor going on strops before turning to a hone. The periodic hone touchup typically takes less time than some folks spend making so-called uberlather, and others spend stropping through a progression of strops (e.g., linen, latigo, shell).

Originally Posted by Basset

This is true, of course, but a hone touch up is hardly a big deal, unless you've managed to ding the blade against something. A decent barber hone can keep the blade going for ages, and it only takes a minute (okay, maybe two minutes) to slap some lather on that hone and refresh the edge with 5-10 laps, depending upon the hone grit and razor.


I smile sometimes at posts by folks [not you] who talk about how hard they work to keep a razor going on strops before turning to a hone. The periodic hone touchup typically takes less time than some folks spend making so-called uberlather, and others spend stropping through a progression of strops (e.g., linen, latigo, shell).

5 or 10 laps have never worked for me. usually i need a good bit of finish stoning to get back to new edge feel.

I've tried this, but never noticed a difference. Then again, I always find the edge of the razor has warmed up slightly from stropping.

The only time the razor gets wet is when I'm rinsing it off, other than that I keep them as dry as possible..!

hot water cold water between strokes and after I am done shaving but I have never noticed a difference in the shave its almost always smooth in the end but I do run hot tap water over the blade before I strop

Perception is everything. Running hot water over a blade before you strop it does absolutely nothing to make the steel and strop get along with each other any better. When you get into a range of heat where it will actually affect the steel structure, the result is more or less permanent and almost always bad. Up until that point, however, there's nothing to be gained by "warming the steel" unless we count making any oils or fats on the blade less viscous and more easily wiped off. Warm blades feel nice on the face, though.

Originally Posted by PapaBull

Perception is everything. Running hot water over a blade before you strop it does absolutely nothing to make the steel and strop get along with each other any better. When you get into a range of heat where it will actually affect the steel structure, the result is more or less permanent and almost always bad. Up until that point, however, there's nothing to be gained by "warming the steel" unless we count making any oils or fats on the blade less viscous and more easily wiped off. Warm blades feel nice on the face, though.

I was thinking the same.

From a metalurgical point-of-view, tap water cannot possibly be hot enough to affect the steel