Thread: I'm Resting a Razor

I'm going to try to do some informal experimentation on resting. I'm not sure what I should be doing. But, I'm going to shave with the same blade, repeatedly, without stropping for several shaves and only "rest" the razor about 48 hours between shaves.

Then I will slightly hone the blade again and use stropping to see what diffences exist.

I may also try an iteration with shaving every day with the same blade without stropping.

Keep in mind that I can already go more than a week without stropping so progess and results will be watered down.

I already hit my first snag this morning. I cleaned my razor after my shave. I clean my blade using a towel which is the same method I use to "linen" it.

Once we get some thoughts down, I would encourage others to try it out also. We would need a lot of data points I think to come to any conclusions.

I've tried this myself for a period of about 6 or 7 weeks (resting the blade two to three shaves at a time), and I never noticed any improvement on the non-stropping days over the stropping days

I'm curious to see what your and maybe others' results are

Sneak up on that razor at night with a stethoscope, listen for little noises that would indicate it's quietly realigning its little striations and serrations.

Of course I'm just being a jerk, but I never could buy the "resting" advice. On the other hand, if it sells more razors, that's great.

Please keep us posted with some actual observations.

I've been thinking that a good test would be to shave repeatedly without stropping for several days until I know the edge is bad and then wait 48 hours and see if there is improvement.

I'm going to try that too.

I think it will be difficult to really be sure anything is happening at all. But, I'll try and see.

I'm in, I think. I have to shave every day, and I've been in the habit of obsessively preparing my blade every evening for the next day's shave. I'll discontinue my stropping and track the results. Maybe I'll eventually get the blade dull enough that I can't cut myself.

Very cool! I'd like to find an easily repeatable test so that others can duplicate any theoretical results.

In order to make this as repeatable as possible, it will be important to eliminate any extraneous variables. Pre-shave routine, preparation and any other factors should not be changed during the sample.

Really interesting idea. Can't say that I put a lot of credence in the resting the blade thing but worth looking at. It would really be worth dragging someone with a USB microscope (or similar) in. If I had one I'd join but don't think my anecdotal experience would add anything.

I've pretty much defacto done it already. I lately have been using the same razor several days in a row and will park it a day maybe two to use the DE. I noticed no differences and I've been using this routine now for probably 8 months. Right now I'm doing it with the TI Crownwing I recently got.

I don't mean to stifle your enthusiasm... but metal doesn't rest (although it may fatigue).

Steel won't heal, it won't reshape itself, it won't grow a new edge. Just about all that it will happen is that it will rust if you don't treat it carefully, and at best nothing will happen. It will be in the same condition you put it away.

As someone mentioned, without high magnification or some other type of scientific measuring, all we are doing is gathering subjective impressions. You may feel you got a better shave after resting the blade a couple of days, but the variables are too many (prep, beard condition, soap, water, temperature, etc., etc.) for this to be meaningful.