Thread: Too Sharp

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Maybe this will help

Straight Razor Place - Beginners Tips: January 2012

"Shaving Sharp" and "Shave Ready" are two different things

That topic is exactly what I meant Glen! I can strop a razor to maintain the edge and i believe i didnt do anything to harm the edge when i did strop it for the first time. My technique hasn't changed at all. But stropping to improve one or having and knowing how to use pasted strops is beyond any beginner when they're shopping for their first razor and see one advertised as "shave ready." In my mind that means, or should mean, all it needs is a regular stropping before putting it to use, not still requiring further work to make it shaveable.

All I meant by my first comment was it seemed like a waste of a valuable and apparently limited source, meaning a coticule, to wear it down by putting out an edge that still needs more work. My first time ever honing a razor it shaved better after I played around on a norton 4x8 & Chinese 12k.

Edited for typo....

Originally Posted by roughkype

Ask, and we shall hook ye up! Here is a set of Tim Zowada's micrographs of bevels created by different hones. Within it is a link to another set of micrographs, this time of the edges, including some stropped on CrOx. I don't know of any micrographic comparisons of stropped edges, though.

Happy ogling. These are the micrographs that caused me to rush out and buy one of my hones. View at your own risk.

Thanks very much, Roughkype. These are very interesting to study. I notice they are at 200X: a bit higher magnification than my loupe goes. I'm wondering how best to understand those edges I have that shave well and those that...well...not so much.

What a very interesting thread.

I've got an A. Witte 4/8 "JUSTRITE", and I can take it from my Norton 8K and shave with it, getting AWESOME shaves.

I've got two Torrey Artists, and even though they come out looking nicely polished under the hand-held microscope, and easily pop hair, they burn my face. I'm going to try stropping them and see if this takes care of the little slices and scrapes I've been getting. A girl at work said, "Dude, what's with the VD looking rashes all over your chin?" -time to change things up a little I think. I'd like to say my Torreys are nice, (I think they are,) but I'm just not getting good close shaves out of them.

I nick myself with them and hold myself back, and when the skin gets all burned, it just gets raised up and presents more to scrape off. I've stayed away from stropping, because I took a look under the microscope at 60X and found the blade was becoming UNpolished, but if the edge goes smother, then who cares if it does.

I'll try to strop them and see.

Ah... I sanded the areas that had been cut on my strop, rubbed the leather to get it warm and then applied a little mink oil. rubbed it in, and again rubbed my forearm on it to shine it up.

I took the Artist, and the Justrite, and stropped them patiently, 10 strokes on the felt, and then 50 on the leather.

The Artist popped hair previously on my forearm, but now it just GLIDED through it, as did the A. Witte Justrite.
I shaved with the Justrite this afternoon, after a pre-shave stropping. It shaved very well before all of this, but now it shaved even better. It slid through hair like nothing.

I can't wait to try the Artist now. It may be that razor burn is in the past for me.

Thanks for all of the lively discussion and great info! That article was proof enough for me, but the shaves I'm getting are just what I was looking for.

Originally Posted by mumpig

Thanks very much, Roughkype. These are very interesting to study. I notice they are at 200X: a bit higher magnification than my loupe goes. I'm wondering how best to understand those edges I have that shave well and those that...well...not so much.

Yes, that is the challenge. You've got just the right phrase for it, too, to understand the edges. It's a long-term project, but rewarding when you start to develop that sense of understanding.

Best wishes

Well fellas,
My apologies - I can't imagine that you all could be wrong about the shave-readiness of factory-new Dovo straight razors. The one I got must be one of their rare exceptional razors - maybe it was honed at the beginning of the day or something. It did improve over three or four days of stropping and shaving, but I haven't had to hone it for two years, shaving four or five times a week. I'm clean-shaven and would think my beard is fairly average in heaviness.

Of course, it could be that I just have low standards for sharpness. I really gotta get one of those Gemstar or SRD razors sometime just to see...

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by roughkype

Stropping on diamond paste can leave a harsh edge as well. The particles are jaggy and leave a jaggy edge. CrOx leaves a much gentler edge.

I too began the hobby with simpler hopes than I have realized. I'm hopelessly beyond the "It'll save money" excuse.

so true the past do leave a jajjy edge and in this hobby you have to have a strong will to be able to say NO in order to save anythign at all.

Well, the jig is up. My wife knew I had switched to shaving with SR8s and that I had more than a couple of razors. But she grasped the magnitude of it when my stereo microscope was delivered by the Boys in Brown today. Nothing fancy -- about the cost of a not-too-cheap/not-too-expensive razor ($130) but no way to explain that to her without revealing my growing obsession. Then, I spent the afternoon studying the edges of a dozen razors -- some shaving very well and some not so much. In the end, I have a much better idea of what's good and what isn't. But, I'm just beginning. My plan now is to follow the edges of razors as I create a bevel, sharpen and polish, then strop. I read the thread regarding the Norton 4K/8K challenge from earlier this year with great interest. Gave me lots of ideas. BTW, the one razor I have that's scary, almost too sharp clearly stands out at 45X as different that its brethren.

Originally Posted by Lynn

I would be interested in what happens if you just do 2 strokes on chromium oxide on these razors following your regular regiment?

Originally Posted by jaswarb

It was too sharp. No surprise. Not damaging but I could feel the blade on my skin unpleasantly threateningly. Took the razor to 3 passes on balsa crox then 60 licks on the shell strop. Smooth as silk lingerie on her creamy white thigh.
Lesson learned 3 strokes on crox before the strop from now on.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I have found that 10 round trips on chrom-ox on my Livi loom will tame such an edge. If we're talking about the same thing.

After reading this thread and absorbing it, I decided to try making an old dog learn a new trick. I have a Henckels, large one and very thin concave. I had honed it alongside a similarly ground Engstrom and finished on the 12000 with 20 strokes each. The Engstrom stropped up and shaved great. The Henckels, however was a bit harsh. I backed off the angle too much as a result and got a decent, but less than stellar, shave. I figured what was up, but just for grins, went 20 on the finisher again and stropped and tested. Same, if not worse. Face irritated. In the past I would have started over or just stropped it into submission.
I have not ever fooled with CrOX , altho I had some on the shelf. I put a new piece of balsa on a suspended strop and pasted it. (wow, that powder goes on balsa nice!) and since Lynn said 2 strokes and Jimmy said 10 round trips, I went in the middle at 10 strokes.
I was skeptical as I raised it to my face and had a known-great Wostenholm waiting....just in case!
The change was remarkable! Literally like night and day! Smooth as a cat and twice as effective!
Great advise and I learned a great deal. Thanks to all who contributed to this thread and to Earcutter for pressing the question.
The old dog learned a new trick! Fast and easy!
Tom