How long do your edges last? No touch ups, no pasted strops, just leather.
How long on just leather stropping and nothing else?
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How long do your edges last? No touch ups, no pasted strops, just leather.
How long on just leather stropping and nothing else?
I am interested to know the answer to this question. After reading the legendary "Stropping is king" thread, I strop like a madman! 60 on linen, 40 on latigo, then 40 on horsehide. I've got a Wacker that Max rescaled and honed in June, and I'm still shaving off that edge, no touch ups on any hones or pastes. Of course, I can't get any of my edges to last that long... Maybe he does know a thing or two about honing :D
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.
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.
Somewhere between 5 and 15 shaves for me, Mark
I 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...Quote:
Originally Posted by JMS
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....
I am feeling another Glen experiment in the making.........Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Actually, I am surprised by some of the findings here. I can go months on some razors with only stropping on leather.
:)
Lynn
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 L
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.
NOOOoooooo more experiments man, I am sick of shaving with that damn Kamisori :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynn
I rotate between razors too often to give an adequate answer to the OP but I can say one thing about leather only versus linen/leather. In the 1961 barber manual excerpt they are very definite that following the hones the razor should be stropped on leather only. Once you've shaved with it they say linen/leather if you choose to. Interestingly they point out that they don't know for sure that linen is effective.
Up until I read that I always stropped linen or webbed fabric and then leather. So I stopped the linen following the hones and went leather only. I found that for me I would pass the HHT way more if I stropped linen ... or webbed fabric before the leather. So that may have more to do with my honing expertise .... or the lack of it ... than with the effectiveness of linen but I like the stuff and do 50 and 50 before every shave. Sometimes I do it after the stones and sometimes I don't. My jury is still out on that. I always do leather only for 20 or 30 after the shave.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisL
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.
I'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.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynn
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
Okay. I got 3 posts from 3 very respected members of this community that seem to suggest that linen is not necessary and as I have always used linen ( not pasted or chalked in any fashion for daily use ) I will bow to your combined wisdom and may even see how my edges do without linen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Del1r1um
I can't give a decent answer here as I just took a year off straight razor shaving, and my memory is hazy. But I know I certainly wasn't pulling the hone out every week. Just as a guess I'd say with a couple of razors in rotation I could probably go at least a month before going back to a hone or pasted strop of some sort.
Let us know how leather only works for you Mark. I prefer linen/leather by far but I've already said that..... in spite of combined wisdom. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by JMS
The combined wisdom only tells me that it is possible but not whether I am capable or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Mark I read the same posts but my interpretation is not as clear...
How many shaves are y'all getting from each razor before it needs to see the linen or the hone?
[Edit: my razors go weeks or months as well on leather only as I rotate them. I still need a larger rotation though ;)]
My long-term razors see the linen every shave. What I have tried to do in order to keep track of the number of shaves is to use them in stretches. My Heljestrand#31 for example was used every day for 2 3/4 months until I got sick of using it. It has accumulated additional shaves in 1-3wk stretches for easier accounting, resulting in nearly 150 shaves over a little more than 2 years. Similar stories for the Koeller (120+ but fading), TI (rehoned at ~90)and Friodur (~65 and holding steady).
This thread here ... Interesting Article .... is the one that led me to my stropping routine. Specifically the 4th post by mparker762 which I belatedly thanked him for. :) OTOH, if leather only works for someone that is cool too.
With all the talk of just how far leather alone will get you it is interesting that many guys are worried they need a variety of things to sharpen when they travel.....pasted paddles, barber hones, etc......
In most cases for a week a leather strop alone should carry one at least that far.
I myself am usually a leather only guy for daily use, seldom using cloth but will resort to pastes before going to a hone for long term touchup work.
Tony
I've been wondering about this as well. However, I think it's dependent upon the person's thickness, coarseness of hair, #stropping, stropping style, width of strop, type of leather or even razor type.Quote:
Originally Posted by JMS
I use webbed fabric from my SRD Latigo if you consider that "linen" then I guess my response can be disregarded. I don't have any paddle or loom strops. Never used paste or chrome oxide.
I've been rotating with both the Iwasaki and Livi ATS34 JDM razor for well over month now. I shave every two days ( used to be 3-4 but wanted to shave more ). The shaves are exceptional as first time.
two months from restore to must-sharpen on a miller practice strop. no rotation (i've only got one razor atm). shaving every other day or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by JMS
no touch ups b/c i don't have hones (en route)
no paste b/c i don't like having that stuff hanging in my bathroom
just forty full laps before and forty after, every time
Hey guys, I met a barber down here in Sardis who has an awesome collection of Straights! I asked him about using linen and then latigo or horsehide, and he said that if you use the Linen and Latigo/Horsehide strops properly and religously, you should almost NEVER need to hone the edge of a Str8. That is even if you have a beard that is as thick as steel wool! BUT, the technique you use must be perfect or the strops can dull an edge fast. He also gave me a tip saying that you should hold the razor with the heel leading, \ . Any thoughts?
I strop on leather only, and I can go six months to a year before noticing that I need to hone. Not saying that I couldn't do better by doing it differently, but leather only has worked for me so far (7+ years).
Sounds to me like he knows what he is talking about. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by rrp1501