Thread: 3 steps in maintaining a razor edge???

Learning to strop is key to maintenance. Don’t worry about convexing the edge. Yes there may be some convexing of the bevel, but it is a good thing.

The slight Convexing will never prevent the edge from shaving, because you are polishing the whole bevel equally, not just the edge.

Rolling the edge is from lifting the spine or too much downward pressure, common with a paddle strop or with a pasted strop. A pasted strop is an abrasive strop and just one mis-stroke can wipe an edge.

Learn stropping technique, the stropping muscle memory on a nylon strop and once comfortable go to a good leather strop. You can buy a good strop for well under 40 dollars. An expensive strop will not give you better edge until you improve your technique.

Finding a local mentor will increase your learning curve with some hands-on coaching.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Learning to strop is key to maintenance. Don’t worry about convexing the edge. Yes there may be some convexing of the bevel, but it is a good thing.

The slight Convexing will never prevent the edge from shaving, because you are polishing the whole bevel equally, not just the edge.

Rolling the edge is from lifting the spine or too much downward pressure, common with a paddle strop or with a pasted strop. A pasted strop is an abrasive strop and just one mis-stroke can wipe an edge.

Learn stropping technique, the stropping muscle memory on a nylon strop and once comfortable go to a good leather strop. You can buy a good strop for well under 40 dollars. An expensive strop will not give you better edge until you improve your technique.

Finding a local mentor will increase your learning curve with some hands-on coaching.

Your statement that I highlighted red is what I need to focus on. I'll get a nice strop in time but without the technique it won't help.

Jack

I seem to recall several years ago before this honing madness took control users of pasted strops were in one camp and users of stones were in another. It was kind of an either/or type of thing. Using a pasted strop was considered the lazy man's answer to maintaining an edge while the classic way was with a stone which in those days was either a typical synthetic like the Norton or a barbers Hone or if you liked naturals the coticule or escher or a handful of others were used. Using a pasted strop would lead to degrading the edge over time eventually needing a hone anyway.

Back in the day most folks had a single finishing hone and they used that to maintain the edge.

Now things have gotten complicated with all kinds of media and mixing and matching different materials and techniques. So the real question is are the razors any sharper now than they were 15 years ago or maybe even 60 years ago. Personally, I don't think so.

So what do you need to maintain your good condition razor? The answer is a leather strop and a finishing hone. A linen strop would be nice too.

Of course if you do restorations and need to do repair or become a stone collector or a victim of honeitis or just caught up in the hysteria the sky becomes the limit in the effort to get that final .0001% extra out of the razor.

In my book the important thing is to get one general purpose hone and become a master with it and extract all you can out of it before you start to expand.

As my friend Mr Confucius say: Man highly skilled with single hone be honemaster, man lowly skilled with plethora of hones be jack of all hones and master of none.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I seem to recall several years ago before this honing madness took control users of pasted strops were in one camp and users of stones were in another. It was kind of an either/or type of thing. Using a pasted strop was considered the lazy man's answer to maintaining an edge while the classic way was with a stone which in those days was either a typical synthetic like the Norton or a barbers Hone or if you liked naturals the coticule or escher or a handful of others were used. Using a pasted strop would lead to degrading the edge over time eventually needing a hone anyway.

Back in the day most folks had a single finishing hone and they used that to maintain the edge.

Now things have gotten complicated with all kinds of media and mixing and matching different materials and techniques. So the real question is are the razors any sharper now than they were 15 years ago or maybe even 60 years ago. Personally, I don't think so.

So what do you need to maintain your good condition razor? The answer is a leather strop and a finishing hone. A linen strop would be nice too.

Of course if you do restorations and need to do repair or become a stone collector or a victim of honeitis or just caught up in the hysteria the sky becomes the limit in the effort to get that final .0001% extra out of the razor.

In my book the important thing is to get one general purpose hone and become a master with it and extract all you can out of it before you start to expand.

As my friend Mr Confucius say: Man highly skilled with single hone be honemaster, man lowly skilled with plethora of hones be jack of all hones and master of none.

I personally have fallen into this camp. For the most I use a bbw and a strop for maintenance.

Geek

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I seem to recall several years ago before this honing madness took control users of pasted strops were in one camp and users of stones were in another. It was kind of an either/or type of thing. Using a pasted strop was considered the lazy man's answer to maintaining an edge while the classic way was with a stone which in those days was either a typical synthetic like the Norton or a barbers Hone or if you liked naturals the coticule or escher or a handful of others were used. Using a pasted strop would lead to degrading the edge over time eventually needing a hone anyway.

Back in the day most folks had a single finishing hone and they used that to maintain the edge.

Now things have gotten complicated with all kinds of media and mixing and matching different materials and techniques. So the real question is are the razors any sharper now than they were 15 years ago or maybe even 60 years ago. Personally, I don't think so.

So what do you need to maintain your good condition razor? The answer is a leather strop and a finishing hone. A linen strop would be nice too.

Of course if you do restorations and need to do repair or become a stone collector or a victim of honeitis or just caught up in the hysteria the sky becomes the limit in the effort to get that final .0001% extra out of the razor.

In my book the important thing is to get one general purpose hone and become a master with it and extract all you can out of it before you start to expand.

As my friend Mr Confucius say: Man highly skilled with single hone be honemaster, man lowly skilled with plethora of hones be jack of all hones and master of none.

I even have the name for it. I love to buy toys so when I get into something new it gets to be fun to shop and buy. Of course I end up with more stuff over time than I know what to do with. The only benefit is after trying things you do get to pick what works best for you. Look at Lynn's video. He went throug several ways using various stones and strops to do basically the same thing. What I have now is a set of Shapton glass stones, couple of flat strops and one "poor man's" strop. For a skilled honer that would be plenty of tools. But for the beginner who doesn't know what works best for him he (me) would need to buy the other stuff to try a bunch of stuff for comparison. The only thing I have now that I bought just for razors is the poor man's strop. Anyway, I'll be continuing to use (practice) using this stuff for now.

Jack

I come from the wood working/knife end of things as well. I used/use flat strops on all of my carving knives. When I started using a hanging strop with my razor, I nicked the first one up pretty bad, cut one in half because I wasn't paying attention, finally got the hanging strop down on the third one, and then bought a nice one. It's a learning curve to go from flat to hanging. In all of the strop damage I did, the Dovo blade was able to be refreshed using a few swipes on an 8k, about 10 on a 12k, 5 or so on CrOx, then linen and plain leather.
So if you are worried about damaging your blade with a hanging strop, don't worry. You can easily fix the blade.

And if you already know how to hone knives, then your already know 80% of how to hone a razor - the sound and feel of the metal on the hone.

Well, I see nothing wrong in continuing to use a flat strop. I've tried both and found I prefer flat strops. But the big difference for me is that I have taken my hanging strops and made them into hanging flat strops. Cut a piece of pressed wood the width of the strop and 2 to 3 inches shorter than the length and secured it between the leather and the linen (or felt) with Velcro straps top and bottom. The major reason for this is I have a naturally heavy hand in doing things. Using a flat strop makes me keenly aware of the amount of pressure I put on the razor. I have taught myself, through muscle memory, to use a weight of the razor approach only when I strop. The reason for developing the hanging bench strop was because I don't have the room in the bathroom for that much of a flat surface. I have had no problems with maintaining my edges.