Thread: Stropping for honemeisters

But what is the size and grind of your razor?
Applying pressure to my full hollow 5/8 is a sure way to make it dull, since the edge folds visibly, and scrapes over the sides of the hone / strop.

The max pressure I can get away with is the weight of my fingers on the blade, and while stropping it is even less.

The whole pressure debate depends upon the actual razor in question.

Really good thread Josh!

I have noticed I have managed to dull some good edges by being ham fisted on the strop. I think light strokes is the way forward. I have also noticed that shaving with one side/face of my razor is better than the other at times. Could this be due to too much pressure resulting in the edge curling to one side on the final stroke? I wonder......

The more I read this forum the more i think light pressure is best. I can get better honing results from a full wedge than a hollow ground and I am sure this is due to less flex in the blade.

Sounds like you are prone to use too much pressure on hone and strop. I get best stropping results with very taut strop and light pressure on hone and strop.

Originally Posted by Kees

Sounds like you are prone to use too much pressure on hone and strop. I get best stropping results with very taut strop and light pressure on hone and strop.

Kees,

I'm guessing your comment was directed at my original post, not one of the replies, so I'm responding to this.

It's entirely possible that you're right. I think this would require some extensive testing.

My baseline for right now is a honemeister-sharpened razor that was finished on a high grit. On that one, stropping with pressure didn't seem to improve things, and it may have made them worse. It also didn't pass the HHT very well, either before or after stropping.

For me and my beard, which is relatively tough, I seem to have better luck with razors finished on the 8K and then stropped with pressure. My best razor is a 5/8 full hollow Henkels that I've been using this way, and it's working fine. It also passes the HHT brilliantly after stropping.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there are too many experienced guys on both sides of the pressure-no pressure debate for either to be "wrong." Obviously both approaches can lead to great shaves--or to disaster--depending on who uses them.

So there must be some other variables at work. Someone mentioned the grind, and I think that's a good possibility. Other options are honing and technique.

My conclusion so far is that my stropping approach was bad for the honemeister razor but good for the one I honed. I'm hoping that with my tough beard my 8K edge will last longer than the one finished on a higher grit.

Good discussion so far--thanks everybody!

Josh

One more thing: I'm also wondering if those who report only having to hone a razor once a year or once every six months might be doing something different with their honing in addition to their stropping.

Maybe an edge that's slightly less sharp lasts longer and responds better to a stropping-only maintainance approach.

Scott (honedright), if you read this, care to chime in? Do you stop at 8K or do you finish your razors with a higher grit stone or pastes?

Thanks,
Josh

Originally Posted by joshearl

My baseline for right now is a honemeister-sharpened razor that was finished on a high grit. On that one, stropping with pressure didn't seem to improve things, and it may have made them worse. It also didn't pass the HHT very well, either before or after stropping.

But how did it shave? Some of the keenest edges I've met have failed the various hair tests miserably, and I've had blades become unshaveable yet still pass the hair tests -- after all these tests are only convenient approximations of the shave test, they aren't perfect.

My honemeister blade didn't shave well at all--didn't make it through the first pass, and burned like crazy. That was what got me wondering about this whole thing.

I'll be the first one to admit that my shaving's still a work in progress, though. For me the shave test is only semi-reliable. Or my stropping could be problematic.

Which is why I'm curious if anyone else has noticed a similar relationship between finishing grit and stropping pressure. If all the strop-with-pressure guys finish on a lower-grit hone, and all the light pressure guys use higher grits, then we might have something.

Would any of the strop-with-pressure guys be interested in using some higher grits and seeing what happens? Would any of the light-pressure guys be willing to stop at a lower grit and report what happens?

Just looking to test a hypothesis...

Josh

Razors that I've finished on the translucent arkansas seem to need more pressure during stropping, but I generally start out with pressure and end up light as a matter of course even on my chrome oxide razors. But only the arkansas-finished razors really seemed to need the pressure, the 8k, 13k, 15, and 60k finished razors didn't seem to care one way or the other.

Originally Posted by Kees

Sounds like you are prone to use too much pressure on hone and strop. I get best stropping results with very taut strop and light pressure on hone and strop.

I agree completely - this approach works best with all my razors - regardless of material or grind.