Living up to my screen name

Well I've finished my rotation tests and it turns out that my straight razors need to be touched up after exactly three shaves. I get amazing results on the first two shaves only really needing one pass WTG to get the job done, but on the third things start to get uncomfortable.
I'm curious though how many shaves on a razor it takes for you all before it needs touching up on a stone. This three shave limit was with me when I used to use cartridge razors as well being able to almost fully blunt a mach3 in three shaves. At least with my straight razor I can just take it to a stone instead of losing a ton of money.
If there's anything that could help me get more shaves out of each razor I would like to know. I currently only go up to 8000 grit on my honing but I'm thinking about going even higher. Also since I dull them so quickly seven day sets are starting to look very tempting. I'm also thinking that it might be time to get a second strop for micron paste work to keep the edge alive longer before using a stone.

Something is a miss here. How long have you been doing the following: Shaving with a straight razor, honing? If you are relatively new, my guess here is that the culprit is poor stropping technique or not a finished edge coming off of the hones (or some combination there in). I can shave a razor for at least 30 days if not 90 days with just daily stropping, so 3 shaves points directly at something being wrong in your regimen. I would try your rotation test again with 2 professionally honed blades, consider not stropping 1 razor during the rotation test (unless you are 100% sure it is not your stropping technique) and see where that gets you. If the results are better, then it points to dulling the edge with your stropping technique. With the other razor, shave and strop as normal after completing the test with the other pro honed blade. If you are still good, then the issue was your honing and not your stropping. Where are you located? I'm sure we have members close by who can assist you. I hope this helps.
Glenn

I've been at this about a year or so, mostly self taught. My razors shave well after a good honing but they lose the edge quickly so you may be right that my stropping technique is off. I'll have to adjust that and run my test again. I'm fairly confident in my honing because of my large amount of experience sharpening knives; X strokes and circle strokes aren't really harder then knife sharpening just different I've found. It may be time though for me to stop being so stubborn and defer to those more experienced then myself for help. I think a year of banging my head against a wall may just be starting to get a hair silly.

Yea, I am thinking the same way as Sharp, something is not right. My stubble is not like steel and one pass won't cut the mustard. I do a 3 pass shave with touch ups every day and don't dull a blade in 3 days. Starting out with straights I could do that though. With me I think it was my stropping that killed the edges more than anything else.

Bob

I'm starting to think getting help in person may be the way to go. I'm a bit of a shy guy so I turned that down at first when offered to me. How would one go about doing a meet up and what not? I really hate travel so I could host at my own home myself if that would work.

My blades are good for 30 shaves minimum, but I strop 100 laps on leather every night.

The first step is to let us know where you're located.

Also, if you click on the "Community" tab and go to "Member List" and then do an "Advanced Search" you can search by location and it will pull up a list of members in your area. This can be a bit finicky though because it is a literal search, so try both spelling out the state (if in the US) and the postal abbreviation. Also, keep your eyes peeled for any upcoming meets (I know you don't like travel, but these are so helpful). It can be intimidating at first, but I've been to a few now and really look forward to them.

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Originally Posted by Steelstubble

I've been at this about a year or so, mostly self taught. My razors shave well after a good honing but they lose the edge quickly so you may be right that my stropping technique is off. I'll have to adjust that and run my test again. I'm fairly confident in my honing because of my large amount of experience sharpening knives; X strokes and circle strokes aren't really harder then knife sharpening just different I've found. It may be time though for me to stop being so stubborn and defer to those more experienced then myself for help. I think a year of banging my head against a wall may just be starting to get a hair silly.

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This is a huge red flag, combined with the fact that that 2 months ago you were honing razors and asking questions about lifting the spine while honing with stones you called Coarse, Med, and Fine... The references back in your past honing threads about raising a burr also are a red flag as this makes for a short lived fagile edge on a razor even if you do get it smooth enough to shave...


I think your idea about getting together in person might solve many of your problems...

There is nothing like hands on experience in this hobby, the Meets and Get Togethers have proved it to me over the years...

I have three straights that I shave with. With good stropping on linen and leather before and after every shave and rotating through them as well as my safety razor it has been almost a year since I have broken out a stone. I probably should have last month or so on one of them but I'm stubborn and just used CrOx.

Well it sure sounds like I've goofed somewhere judging from your advice. The first 2 or 3 shaves with a razor go very smoothly but then things just seem to quickly go down hill. Thanks for helping me narrow down the problem to honing or stropping. I'll have to mess around with that while I get this meet up working. Can't wait to meet up! I feel like I've been banging my head against a wall trying to make the straight razor stars align and I'm getting close I'm just not quite there yet. It will be good to have someone check my technique.

Effective stropping is critical for straight shaving success. Getting a shave ready razor is not difficult, but it will not stay that way for long without good stropping skills. Although honing seems to get all the love, with good daily stropping with the periodic use of a pasted strop for touchups, one can avoid returning to the hones for a long time. It is entirely feasible to send a well stropped razor out to a honemeister for occassional periodic rehoning, but straight shaving will soon become unfeasible without an effective stropping after each use of the razor.

Assuming your blades are properly shave ready I'm thinking this is a combination of inadequate stropping and improper shaving technique. A lot has been said already about the power of stropping, so I'll move on to shaving.

Shaving technique is more than just dragging a sharp blade down your face. Angle, pressure and stroke all combine to influence edge longevity. If they are off your blade will dull significantly fast; conversely, if those factors are sound your blade will last quite some time.
Something that will help you out a lot is the scything stroke, which was heavily advocated by a former member here, but it does work very well to make your edge last. Good luck and have fun.

In my first year of straight razor shaving my stropping was incorrect. The blade was not sitting fully flat on the leather and basically, the edge was not improving. The difficulty with stropping as a beginner is that you don't really know how the blade is supposed to feel when you are doing it right. My eureka moment was when I finally was able to get that rasping sound with the slight resistance on my laps, which was the indication that the razor edge is sitting flat on the leather.

Watched some videos on stropping and adjusted my technique a bit and I got very good feed back from my latigo strop. I'm not sure what sound I'm exactly looking for but what I received was a loud metallic scratching sound. Its hard to describe having never heard it before but I got a great shave afterwords. I'll have to try scything motions, I've never used those before; see what happens.
As far as my angles go I mostly do WTG and XTG. I've semi mapped my face and try not to go ATG because of ingrown hair problems I've gotten in the past from doing that. I think my real problem is that I've had such bad experiences with blades going dull from my whiskers that I believed the same thing would happen to a straight razor when clearly you have all demonstrated that shouldn't happen. I'll still boast of course that if anyone needs a cartridge razor destroyed in three days to send them my way.:p

The reason I turned to straight razor shaving was the same as you. I can kill cartridges really quick. 2-3 shaves was my norm. 5 shaves was a blessing. Right now I know I am not really all that good at honing but I can get a good month in before I need to touch up. This includes shaving from a full thick beard down to baby butt. My time between touch ups has been getting longer apart slowly but there shouldn't be dull razors after a few shaves. For me... at the beginning stropping was killing my edge. Technique got better and touch ups spread out.

This months Beginners Tips might also be of some help

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...er-2012-a.html