Thread: Should the blade rest?

Hi everyone,

I read a few threads about stropping and most of the info here on the board says I should strop after each shave.

I read this on another page:

5. The straight razor I bought a short time ago no longer shaves properly. Do I have to whet it, and how often is this necessary?
DOVO straight razors are whetted in the factory for use (whetting on leather by hand). If you own a suitable strop, you should nevertheless take into account that the razor must first "rest" after use. After the razor has been carefully rinsed and dried, it should not be used again for at least 24 - 48 hours because the fine "fin" on the cutting edge straightens up again extremely slowly. If the razor is stropped too soon (or stropped incorrectly by moving it backwards and forwards without turning it over), the "fin" which is necessary for a close shave breaks off. Between six and fifteen shaves are possible without stropping in between.

Does this mean that I should not strop right after the shave is done? And could stropping daily be bad for the blade?

Thanks in advance,
Oscar

Yeah, the blade needs to rest at least 2-3 days and you need 6-53 shavers in your rotation For a while I used a single razor exclusively, with daily stroppings and no adverse effects on the blade. Therefore, I don't see any issues. Just relax and enjoy.

Originally Posted by Oscar

Hi everyone,

I read a few threads about stropping and most of the info here on the board says I should strop after each shave.

I read this on another page:

5. The straight razor I bought a short time ago no longer shaves properly. Do I have to whet it, and how often is this necessary?
DOVO straight razors are whetted in the factory for use (whetting on leather by hand). If you own a suitable strop, you should nevertheless take into account that the razor must first "rest" after use. After the razor has been carefully rinsed and dried, it should not be used again for at least 24 - 48 hours because the fine "fin" on the cutting edge straightens up again extremely slowly. If the razor is stropped too soon (or stropped incorrectly by moving it backwards and forwards without turning it over), the "fin" which is necessary for a close shave breaks off. Between six and fifteen shaves are possible without stropping in between.

Does this mean that I should not strop right after the shave is done? And could stropping daily be bad for the blade?

Thanks in advance,
Oscar

We had some experiments on this a while back, and I learned a lot.

The need for a razor to rest comes about from the deformation of the fin while you shave (think of the spread out bristles on an old toothbrush). It returns most of the way on its own, and stropping stands it up the rest of the way. Moving large distances can break the fin because of metal fatigue. See Dovo's site for a discussion.

What came out of the experiment was that there's only a problem if the fin is misaligned at the end of the shave. That's likely only with the toughest beards. For many, the razor may still feel reasonably sharp (aligned) at the end of the shave. Then stropping should not be an issue. If the razor is noticeably misaligned after the shave, you can still avoid the issue by stropping mid-shave so the razor is still OK at the end of the shave.

Stropping at the end of a shave would be desireable if it created no problem, because it lets you squeeze the moisture out of the edge and wipe off microscopic oxidation or fouling.

I find it easy to keep my razors to a 24 hr rest.
I do a dozen strop passes on finishing leather after each shave.
I'm doing 18 laps on linen and 60 laps on leather before each shave.

The thing we've learned the most is that there is no such thing as too much stropping before the shave. It's good.

X

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

We had some experiments on this a while back, and I learned a lot.

The need for a razor to rest comes about from the deformation of the fin while you shave (think of the spread out bristles on an old toothbrush). It returns most of the way on its own, and stropping stands it up the rest of the way. Moving large distances can break the fin because of metal fatigue. See Dovo's site for a discussion.

What came out of the experiment was that there's only a problem if the fin is misaligned at the end of the shave. That's likely only with the toughest beards. For many, the razor may still feel reasonably sharp (aligned) at the end of the shave. Then stropping should not be an issue. If the razor is noticeably misaligned after the shave, you can still avoid the issue by stropping mid-shave so the razor is still OK at the end of the shave.

Stropping at the end of a shave would be desireable if it created no problem, because it lets you squeeze the moisture out of the edge and wipe off microscopic oxidation or fouling.

Thanks for an excellent reply. I don't think I need to worry then since my beard is not that thick. I do however want to treat my razor in the best possible way, so I'm grateful for the the information you provided.

Thanks,
Oscar

Only if it's tired.....

Seriously, I use the same razor every day with no decrease in shaving quality. I strop post shave as well.

Scott

Originally Posted by xman

The thing we've learned the most is that there is no such thing as too much stropping before the shave. It's good.

X

Did you forget the experiment thebigspender did where he found that anything over 60 reps made no difference?

Originally Posted by honedright

Only if it's tired.....

Seriously, I use the same razor every day with no decrease in shaving quality. I strop post shave as well.

Scott

Like I said, if a single shave doesn't deteriorate the sharpness (cause misalignment), then anything goes.

One of the things that puzzled me about Dovo's warning was that I had seen my barber many times use the same razor on different customers, with stropping all day, and I wondered how he could do that without running into the problem Dovo describes. The answer was that the problem arises only if your beard causes serious misalignment of the fin in one shave. As long as he kept stopping to prevent the razor from getting there, he avoided the issue.

Dovo doesn't say that anything drastic happens, just that stropping when the edge needs recovery causes some of the microteeth to break, leading to an early need to hone and wasting the metal of the razor.

Actually when I increased the stropping to 100x there was no difference between 60 and 100 and 60x was better than 30x so really the sweet point is between 30 and 60. it could be that 40 or so is the magic number.

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

Did you forget the experiment thebigspender did where he found that anything over 60 reps made no difference?

I did not. I accept that at a point stropping stops being useful, but it's not dangerous to the edge. One can do too little stropping and that's bad. Another could do more and that, while no longer beneficial to the edge, are not bad for it. So there's no such thing as too much stropping. Only not enough.

X