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10-21-2009, 08:28 AM #1
Okay then. Does anyone get more than 2 weeks on an edge just using leather? 1 month? 6 months? How about 1 year.
I know that I get more than 3 months on an edge using linen and still going strong. Several of my razors have lasted much longer, more than 6 months I would say. There are some here who get more than a year on a razor. I know this is so for me on a couple of mine.
When I first started I often dulled my blade on the linen often, but after a year or 2 I got the hang of it and now, after more than 15 years my edges are lasting considerably longer.
If this is just experience please post and show me that its just experience. Until then, I believe it is the linen that allows me to go so long between touch ups.
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10-21-2009, 08:49 AM #2
I'll get along with the leather only say 2 weeks maximum, but it needs more stropping on a second week.
Nowadays i use linen say about once a week and the rest goes with leather. By this i get along without using 12K or barber hone about 2-3 months.
Propably just my lack of experience.'That is what i do. I drink and i know things'
-Tyrion Lannister.
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10-21-2009, 01:01 PM #3
Somewhere between 5 and 15 shaves for me, Mark
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10-21-2009, 01:50 PM #4
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Thanked: 13234I think ya touched on the "Rub" there Mark.... Linen once learned will extend the life of the edge, just like many other factors, like proper prep and proper angles, even proper stropping on leather...
But yes I agree with your theory here about the linen I use a 25/50 linen/leather every shave and I truly think it extends the life of the edge....
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10-21-2009, 02:10 PM #5
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10-21-2009, 02:46 PM #6
I'm qualified to respond to this post since I don't use linen and only leather for stropping. I have some linen strops and some NOS Hess Hair Milk linen strops still in the wrappers, but I don't use them at this point. I can get a good week of whisker wiping (a "perfect" edge) freshly honed with only stropping on plain leather. Then, at the end of the week, the edge can still be great off of plain leather, but it requires more passes and gradually as time goes on, more passes, etc. Finally, prior to touching up using chrome ox or some such thing, the edges need 100 passes on the plain leather. The time frame from first shave after honing until I go to some sort of abrasive? I'd say a range of two weeks to a month depending on the razor.
Starting out I'd always heard of the guys that said they could go for months and months and months on one edge before needing to rehone. That was both a goal to ascribe to and a source of frustration for me. I have since learned in reading people's posts, that at least some of the guys who report long lasting edges between honing use linen and/or linen pasted with something such as Dovo white strop paste before every shave. In my mind, yes, such a practice does not negate a statement of being able to take edges stropped on pasted linen to months and months and months of use between "honing" sessions; however again in MY mind, I don't consider such descriptions entirely accurate in the literal sense. Chalked linen is abrasive. If I did just 3 passes on a chrome ox pasted linen strop prior to stropping on plain leather, the range of the duration of edge integrity I gave for my edges would go up considerably.
So, +1 on your original question in this post and reiterate WHEN USING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE BUT A PLAIN LEATHER STROP? No strop pastes, no chalk, no linen, no denim, etc.
Lynn has answered the question as I see it in regard to his practices and experience.
Chris LLast edited by ChrisL; 10-21-2009 at 03:37 PM.
"Blues fallin' down like hail." Robert Johnson
"Aw, Pretty Boy, can't you show me nuthin but surrender?" Patti Smith
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JimmyHAD (10-21-2009)
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10-21-2009, 03:15 PM #7
I too am interested in this, as looking to get into SR shaving, I don't want to rehone every month. It would cost a ton more than using a mach 3 then.
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10-21-2009, 06:59 PM #8
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Your original impression was correct. You should be able to keep a razor going for months with just the leather and unpasted linen. That chalk or some other fine abrasive like chrome oxide can be helpful doesn't make them necessary.
If I am one of "the guys who report long lasting edges between honing" that you mention above, then I should clarify that I have a *lot* of strops, so my mention of my dovo white pasted strop doesn't mean that I use it daily or even regularly (though in this case I did use it for several months about a year ago). I don't generally use any paste at all on my daily strop. I believe that unpasted linen is sufficiently abrasive all by itself to maintain an edge for months. Although I have two with the Dovo white paste on them (one paddle, one hanger) they were used for a different experiment and are not used with my long-term razors. Similarly I have a variety of strops with coarser abrasives that were used for experiments or for honing specific types of razors, but such honing as I still engage in tends to be done on the Shaptons.
The problem is that good linen is hard to come by nowadays, and jute and cotton just don't quite perform the same way. I think cotton actually leaves a sharper edge than linen but it's very slow and can take an awful lot of laps to keep the edge going. Jute just never seemed to do much of anything, at least not the stuff that Dovo uses. In both of these cases the performance of the strop can be improved by the addition of chalk, which brings them up to roughly linen standards of performance. In these situations I do advocate using the Dovo white paste.
I'm still trying to make up my mind about the Kanoyama cotton strop though. It seems to work differently from the normal cotton, and I wonder if it doesn't have something else woven into the mix.
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10-21-2009, 07:21 PM #9
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Thanked: 1587I've never used linen - all of my strops are leather only. Problem is I cannot exactly remember when I last honed some of the razors I use. My Friodur, for example, I am pretty sure that has gone well over a year now without any honing and I would use it once every two weeks or so. That seven day set you sent me Mark, I cannot remember exactly when I got it, but they are about ready for a touch up on the hone now, and I have been using two of those every second day since they arrived, on average. This is both head and face shaving.
I'm generally happy with how just plain leather performs, and not having ever had linen I do not feel its want at all.
James.<This signature intentionally left blank>
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10-21-2009, 07:44 PM #10
I've been shaving off of a 4/8 henckels that Glenn honed sometime back around March of this year... still sharp as I think it ever was and I've only used leather on it.