Thread: How often to hone - advice needed

When you notice a drop in performance, that is usually a good time to do a "touch up honing".

What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

When you notice a drop in performance, that is usually a good time to do a "touch up honing".

+1

When you notice it needs to be honed! That could be 1 week because you rolled the edge or 12 months or longer because you really look after it - there is no set time

I've got 26 shaves on the Hargreaves razor I've been using lately, with just stropping on linen and leather. It seems as good as it was after honing. I'm going to keep using it that way to see what the limit might be.

As often as you feel the urge, but it is a private, personal affair...

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

When you notice a drop in performance, that is usually a good time to do a "touch up honing".

What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by ace

I've got 26 shaves on the Hargreaves razor I've been using lately, with just stropping on linen and leather. It seems as good as it was after honing. I'm going to keep using it that way to see what the limit might be.

Time was when I was very keen to a hard and fast rule like, every XX number of shaves my razors will get a hone. With experience however, I've learned that "as required" is the best solution. I seem to have some razors that can go 25 or 30 shaves with only a good stropping before each shave and other razors that need a touch up hone after only 10 or 12 shaves. So my rule of thumb is that when the edge starts to feel "muddy" which for me is just an edge that hasn't yet started tugging but just isn't all that crisp, I'll do a touch up hone. This method seems to work pretty well. If I notice a muddy edge today, I'll hone the razor and use it again tomorrow to make sure the edge is fixed and then I'll move on.

Based on the responses to your posts, in my opinion, there are many variables to consider so YMMV.

"1OldGI" made an excellent point with, "I've learned that "as required" is the best solution." Then you read that "Ace" can keep up his razor's edge by stropping on the linen and leather and it works well for his razor and needs. No two people are alike and perhaps no two razors are alike as well.

Because my beard gets heavy, I will do a touch up on CrOx as needed. But that is well stretched out because I rotate among six razors so each razor is not used as often. Between honings, I strop on linen then leather after the shave, then leather only before the shave.

Just as a suggestion, perhaps you might want to consider getting a second razor to rotate with your Dovo to help extend your "mileage" between honings. Just make sure you are using good stropping technique because when I first started straight razor shaving, I rolled my razor's edge because of poor stropping technique.

Go with what you feel works for you and meets your needs.

Best of luck to your shaves!

Patrick