Thread: Tonight I had an awful shave

You didn't say you had a Swaty...

If you have a barber hone there's really no need for a paddle strop. Usually they require 5-10 laps to bring an edge back. In this case it sounds like it is the razor, not you - possibly a rolled edge. Try your hone (to start you may want to do a couple back hone laps, as in spine-leading) in increments of 5 and see if there's any improvement. If not the damage to the edge may be beyond the capabilities of a barbers hone, in which case you will have to send it out.

Yeah, I had a horrible shave a couple weeks ago. Exactly as you described. It was me though, cause I used my Dovo which is brand new and only shaved with once prior (And it was a really good shave.) I just said to hell with it after finishing half a pass and went to the DE.

That night just wasn't my night for a Straight shave.

Well I want to make a paddle strop because I have leather, wood and sandpaper lying around, and I figure for the $7 it cost me for chromium oxide it's worth a try. Plus I like variety. In my current state I have a $10 per month budget for my hobbies, and considering that I don't need any guitar strings at the moment, a little jar of green paste seemed like a good purchase.

I thought about the rolled edge thing. I was stropping about a week ago and I remember a particularly bum stroke. Usually when that happens I immediately start over on the linen, which I did, but I was wondering if maybe it was a really bad stropping error.

slightly off topic...why are Swaty hones talked about so much? What's the big deal?