Question for the experts

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Originally Posted by inspector710

Is it possible to dull a blade with stropping? The reason I ask is because I recently sent away an old Bengall SR for sharpening. When I got it back, I tried stropping on my Illinzois strop and the razor seemed to pull when I tried it. Did I mess this up? Do I need to hone it again? Thanks.

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Well, I did the exact same thing first shave, rolled the edge. You are not the first and won't be the last.Two years later, getting the best shaves ever.Bengall razors in my opinion are up there with the best of them. Hang in there, it is a big learning curve, but the end result is well worth the effort.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

Until you declared that you got a better result with the Boker, I was going to suggest the fault might largely be in your as yet unmastered shaving technique. After the Boker you at least have a somewhat better way to assess what is a sharp razor.

Now the question becomes did you dull the razor or did you receive a dull razor? Was your stropping of the Boker significantly different from that of the other two? You'll have to try to assess your stropping to figure that out. It is possible that your razors were not honed properly. Not everyone who claims to be able to hone actually can do so adequately with every razor.

I would suggest that you do a few more shaves with the Boker to improve your shaving technique and continue to carefully strop it each time. After a few of those shaves go back to one of those other razors and carefully strop it 100 times and see if the shave is any better. If not, then you probably should have someone else hone it again.

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I did not strop the Boker. I did the Dovo and the Bengall-the old one I had a guy on Ebay do. Was the Dovo shave ready? Who knows? It almost seems like the old Bengall was not shave ready either. I appreciate all your help and as soon as my face heals (LOL) I'll give it another go. I just bought a Norton 4000 8000 waterstone and may try to hone the Bengall following all the videos I have seen here. Certainly, my unmastered shaving technique is playing a large role in this. I hope to learn more. Thank you all again.

One other question about the strop-the Illinois. Do I strop it on the linen or the leather?

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Originally Posted by inspector710

One other question about the strop-the Illinois. Do I strop it on the linen or the leather?

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Both. Start off with 50/50 linen/leather then decrease the linen and increase the leather laps until you find something that works best for you.

Always strop before shaving, linen followed by leather. Some people strop the balde on linen for a few laps to help dry/clean it after shaving too.

There are more esoteric things to try, but that will follow later - concentrate on the basics first.

Regards,
Neil

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Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Both. Start off with 50/50 linen/leather then decrease the linen and increase the leather laps until you find something that works best for you.

Always strop before shaving, linen followed by leather. Some people strop the balde on linen for a few laps to help dry/clean it after shaving too.

There are more esoteric things to try, but that will follow later - concentrate on the basics first.

Regards,
Neil

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Thanks for the help. How many round trips should I start with?

It says in the reply - 50 linen, 50 leather...

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Originally Posted by Neil Miller

It says in the reply - 50 linen, 50 leather...

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Duhhhh. Don't know what I was looking at.