Is it the Stainless Steel, the Sharpness or Me?

I've been shaving with a straight 6 times a week for over 2 years. I have an established routine with the primary variable in the day to day shave being the razor. I've noticed that I've tended to shy away from my several stainless blades because they are harsh and leave me with that raw burned feeling. BBS for certain, but also irritated.

Today, I was using a stainless Wacker and had to quit. I picked up a Robert Williams and it felt like I was shaving with butter it was so gentle in comparison.

Of course it can be the sharpness of this blade and the few other stainless ones I have. What makes me think not is that I keep all of my blades on the sharp side of shave ready and they all seem to pass the same subjective tests (fingernail, thumb pad, hair pop) and they all get more or less the same stropping.

Am I alone with my stainless problem? Do I finish honing these differently to achieve greater "smoothness?" Anyone else relate to this? I need to figure this out before I develope a phobia and have to sell thise beautiful razors. Hands down! They're not for sale...yet.

What is your honing routine of choice????

I dont think it'll be the fact that the razors are stainless. I've used stainless razors in the past and they feel exactly the same as carbon blades to me.

I've known at least one guy whose skin didn't get along with stainless. He was an expert with the hones and shaving with straights. He sold a custom stainless by Joe Chandler to me because he couldn't shave with it without experiencing irritation. He had that problem with stainless in general. I shaved with that razor and it felt smooth as silk to me. So that is one example that corresponds with your experience. I've got a handful of stainless razors and have no problems with irritation when I shave with them. Might be your particular skin.

I have the same problem. I have a stainless Friodur that I have finally gave up on & put away. I can hone any carbon to keen edge & get BBS shaves but not the stainless.

My honing routine, for blades that are already bevel-set, is to spend some time on a coticul beginning with a modest amount of slurry and diluting to just water, followed by 30 or more passes on a very slow Japanes natural (Asagi). Can't recall what I last did to the Wacker that was biting me this morning....it may be that I did the above or maybe I last took it over a barbers hone and followed by 6 or so strokes on a diamond sprayed felt strop (guessing this may be a culprit). A lot of "maybes" here.

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Originally Posted by jleeg

My honing routine, for blades that are already bevel-set, is to spend some time on a coticul beginning with a modest amount of slurry and diluting to just water, followed by 30 or more passes on a very slow Japanes natural (Asagi). Can't recall what I last did to the Wacker that was biting me this morning....it may be that I did the above or maybe I last took it over a barbers hone and followed by 6 or so strokes on a diamond sprayed felt strop (guessing this may be a culprit). A lot of "maybes" here.

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Send me one of your stainless razors to hone on me of course and let's see if it makes a difference. I won't tell you what I did to hone it until after you shave test it. It may end up the same, but you never know.

Lynn

I'll take you up on that Lynn. I'll get a good feel for it now so I can make the comparison. May take a few days. As the Susquehanna River spills its banks I've got to keep an eye on things. I should have about 3 feet flow under the house. The house was bult up for this purpose...but as this is my first flood, I'm a bit nervous.

Note the hammock!!

Now thats an offer you cant refuse..! :)

I got a Boker Edelweisse from Lynn and in the end I lent it to CERN so they could split atoms with it. :D

The issue some folks have with stainless for it being stainless really makes no sense. The only possible explanation would be a nickel allergy affecting the skin and the razor simply isn't in contact with the skin long enough to cause that. If the razor is truly shave ready and someone swears they can't get a good shave from any stainless razor I wonder if they haven't made up their minds about this and it's more a psychological thing. I guess the proof would be shave them with a few razors and switch off and see if they can tell the difference without them knowing which razor is which. That would be an interesting experiment.