Thread: How sharp is sharp?

Honing and stropping on pasted strops both produce a sharper edge. Honing improves the physical qualities of the bevel and edge. Stropping on pasted strops improves the edge but over time rounds the bevel, eventually to the point that re-honing is required. Stropping on a pasted strop requires less skill than honing and takes less time. Although it is a near-term solution to dullness, it is not a long-term solution.

I might have missed it in the thread, I did only look real quick...

But to put a number or a time on how long the edge will last for an individual is an unrealistic expectation, there are way to many variables in there...
Some people touch a Barber's hone before every shave, some have to re-touch yearly, some have made it 600 shaves..

You will normally find that as your Technique gets better then the edge lasts longer, but Technique plays second fiddle to your beard

Pithor, ace, gssixgun, thank you for spending some time to give me a response. I really appreciate this.

But to understand your input I have a question to you all. The words "touch up" and "honing" are used by each other .

Can one say that a "touch-up" refers to the use of a pasted strop and "honing" refers to the use of a real hone?

Originally Posted by strtman

Pithor, ace, gssixgun, thank you for spending some time to give me a response. I really appreciate this.

But to understand your input I have a question to you all. The words "touch up" and "honing" are used by each other .

Can one say that a "touch-up" refers to the use of a pasted strop and "honing" refers to the use of a real hone?

Touch ups are usually done on pasted strops, high grit hones (12K+) or barber hones, depending on the edge.

Honing would be more a broad term for anything from setting a bevel to touching an edge up, but always on a stone, not a strop

+1 one with the above post

In my mind "touching up" is not doing a bevel set and can be done with anything (Hone/Stone/Strop) that adds sharpness or maintains the sharpness.

Honing is doing a bevel set and above

That is just how I look at things it is not set in stone

Crzylizard, gssixgun, thanks for the input. Slowly but surely things become clear to me.

My first couple of straights I got from a barbershop that was closing down, and the owner had only used them in recent years for cleaning up neck hair. Then I decided to by a brand new Dovo (a Pearlex 6/8), all this before discovering SRP. I remember being very angry that it had not arrived shave-ready. Imagine buying a new car then having to take it in for a 48,000 mile service before you could drive it down the road! I sent it off to a reputable professional honer and calmed down. If I had followed your path, my Dovo would have shredded me.
So my guess, please correct me, would be that your Dovo was retailed to you by a vendor/honer, and indeed arrived reasonably shave-ready.

Yes Blackpool, I am sure my brand new Dovo's were not shave ready. That's why I sent them to Lynn for honing.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I might have missed it in the thread, I did only look real quick...

But to put a number or a time on how long the edge will last for an individual is an unrealistic expectation, there are way to many variables in there...
Some people touch a Barber's hone before every shave, some have to re-touch yearly, some have made it 600 shaves..

You will normally find that as your Technique gets better then the edge lasts longer, but Technique plays second fiddle to your beard

Not to belabour Glen's point, but doesn't the quality of the razor itself demand first chair in the orchestra of sharpness? Not all razors are equal in materials, design, or craftsmanship. Just my $0.02.

I'm obviously not Glen, but shaving technique (razor stropping, facial prep, and actually shaving) will effect a blade more than materials, design, or craftsmanship if we are talking about a descent quality run of the mill vintage razor.
Stropping
I've honed razors for others and asked them not to strop before the first shave, only after and then again before future shaves. Then I get contacted that the first full shave went very well, but the second shave didn't. I offer to check the edge and upon looking at the edge under magnification I see that the razor had been stropped improperly, I.E.: rolled edge.

Prep
Facial preparations are quite important as well as the quality of the shave soap. Everyone has shave preperations that work, so I will not go there...but you simply can't walk into the bathroom, lather, & shave and expect to get a stellar shave.

Technique
Improper shave angle can kill an edge as well. The lower the angle the better off you and your razor are. High angles literally scrape your face and whiskers off & give you more of an opportunity for weepers. The more parallel the cutting edge is to your face, the better off your skin is and the better the shave will be as you are cutting the whiskers at more of a 90 degree angle. It's quite often during a shave that I personally feel the spine touch my skin when performing a ATG pass.

Hope this helps,
Scott