Thread: Strange occurence

Here's a little dilemma: Today, like always, before shaving, I stropped 30 round trips on an Illinois hanging strop. Then I did a quick hanging hair test and it passed well. But when I went to shave the parts of my face that have the most growth, it pulled (e.g. upper lip, chin). Other than the pulling it shaved beautifully and my face is smooth and not irritated. Btw it was a 6/8" TI silver steel. So, my question is this: does anyone think that this razor needs any honing beyond a lithide and a swaty followed by a pasted paddle strop (.5 micron)?

I've started using the 0.25 paste and find it can help improve the edge. What i find most is that the more I work on strops, whether pasted or not, the more I have to be careful not to do too much or drift off good stropping technique. Either can degrade the edge a little on me.

X

I'm not sure I follow your dilemma. If I had a razor that was shaving well but only pulled on the tougher parts I would run it 25 passes over .5 paste. Thats it, it wouldn't even touch a hone. Maybe that answers your question.

Did the entire length of the edge pass the hanging hair? I know this may not be neccessary to mention, but beard prep...? Now and then I find myself trying to shave time with my beard prep and my shave will suffer for it. My first inclination with a less than stellar shave is to assume the razor isn't sharp enough. More often than not, I'll take the extra few minutes in prepping my whiskers and it brings things back where they should be. If it's passing he HH test it is very likely plenty sharp. Eliminate the variables..

Jeff

assuming uniform sharpness across the entire blade the razor should never pull anyplace. Thats usually the first sign the blade needs some work. If its minor pulling and your a pasted stropp kind of guy that would probably do the trick. For me a few passes on the yellow coticule would take care of it.