Thread: The Grand Experiment- Phase 2

Originally Posted by PapaBull

How about "You can't overstrop a razor".

I've been saying that since I can't remember when. (sounds like a song title eh?)

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I'm doing my best to sit this one out. I'm really trying, honest. Let me just ask a few questions and then I'm outta here. What characteristic is it that makes guys say one hone is "fast" and one is "slow". It seems like a dumb thought to me, but lots of guys believe in it. If, and I say if, its true that two hones of the same grit have varied speeds, could that be caused by the "rise and run" of the hone, say grit level that is higher than the floor of the hone comparatively?

What if, and I'm just suggesting, what if the hone that is considered faster is putting deeper striations into the blade? What if that same blade, with its deeper striations will cut better but not be smoother, or cut for a longer period? And inversely for the lighter striated blade, it'll be smoother but not continue cutting as long?


Ok, I'm crawling back into my hole . . .

Think of sandpaper. 60 grit paper is 60 grit paper is 60 grit paper; right? OK, not really. Some is more agressive than others and that's not because of the SIZE of the grit, but because of the GEOMETRY of the grit. The better the crystalline structure of the grit, the better it will cut. Think of ball bearings compared to similar sized sharp-edged cubes.

This will have some effect on the scratch pattern, otherwise known as "striations", particularly if pressure is exerted on the blade during honing. A light feathering touch compensates for that, though.

Well this morning I shaved with my TI leaf and vine razor and after shaving with that it was immediately apparent that it was time to end this thing. It was clear that both the third TI and the SRP had deteriorated to the point that shaving just wasn't fun any more. yes both still shaved well but the comfort level was gone.

So, what can we conclude here in the postmortem? Well, first stroping 60x is better than 30x. I think that has been proven. Second, the difference between stroping 30x before and 30x after shaving is really no different than stroping 60x before. In the last phase I thought there was a slight difference in the two methods with 60x before being better but the margin was negligable. This time around I think the same pattern resulted with a negligable difference with 60x after being superior. I don't think I could really say one method was better than the other. It was too close to call. Third, I think the yellow coticule put an edge on the razor which gave more lasting comfort to the blade. I think that comfort lasted about 40% longer since the first SRP razor was pulled out of this phase because it started to get dull though the comfort level was still high. These last two razors saw the comfort level start to go though they still gave a close shave just not very comfortable.

It should be noted that in the last phase the last two razors were used for a longer period and thats not because they shaved better or longer than in this phase but only because I was a fool and kept using them when I should have removed them from use. This time around I periodically used a different razor to gauge how they were deteriorating and thus called it quits at an earlier stage.

I do think I got a few shaves more with the SRP 38 before I pulled but nothing really enough to be remarkable and I think the overall number of shaves with the third TI and SRP 39 relatively speaking are the same as I got in the first phase.

I do think what needs to be addressed is the overall effect of using the yellow coticule and whether it really does extend the comfort level or if it does something special to the edge.

So where do we go from here? We know that more stroping is better but is there a point where it makes no difference. I'm toying with the idea of taking the two SRPs and just stroping one 60x and the other 100x and seeing what happens. What we really need here is for at least one other person to duplicate this thing and that will really put the icing on the cake.

If someone is willing to have a go at it I have no problem with loaning out my two SRPs and I think another member was willing to part with his SRP for awhile so who's willing to step up to the plate? The only requirement to me is you need to be a good honer because all razors must be honed equally before starting and there will no doubt be differences between mine and whoever donates his.

I'll eventually write this thing up and put it in the help files.

So lets here all the critiques, comments and conclusions.