Thread: Strops and honing?

Hi new to this I'm going to get a new thiers issard " le grelot form" and wonder if anybody is kind anouth to give me advise on reasonable strops, and don't want to sound to daft when I say how long would it be if I stroped my blade that it will have to be honed, if stroped well does it ever have to be rehoned?any help will be great thanks.

Well it is kind of like asking how long is a piece of string. It is not an answerable question and as you get more experience with shaving and stropping it will be less often that you get your blade honed. It is really quite common for new people to roll an edge while stropping in the first week, and then they need it touched up. With a steep angle on your blade while shaving it will give you a bit of a rash and is not good for the life of your edge. You may also dink it on the faucet of counter top in the beginning as well. Soon you will get all those oops's out of the way and may go for months without needing your edge touched up. The intent of the barbers hone was that you could maintain your edge indefinitely without needing to get it honed. Many guys now use high grit hones for maintenance. In theory if nothing bad happens to it you could touch it up every few to six months and be good forever. There are some who do just that. I tinker way too much for that. Perhaps in time I may get my line up of shavers set and find myself there.

Please read this thread before you make the Theirs Issard your first razor: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-ti-razor.html

Originally Posted by Hadrada79

Hi new to this I'm going to get a new thiers issard " le grelot form" and wonder if anybody is kind anouth to give me advise on reasonable strops, and don't want to sound to daft when I say how long would it be if I stroped my blade that it will have to be honed, if stroped well does it ever have to be rehoned?any help will be great thanks.

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

Please read this thread before you make the Theirs Issard your first razor: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-ti-razor.html

So there not that good ?

TI's are great razors. Like all new things made today QC can be spotty. You just have to realize that and be prepared for it.

As to stropping every razor has to be honed at some point. Depending on the razor and you, you may get 20 shaves out before honing or 200.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

TI's are great razors. Like all new things made today QC can be spotty. You just have to realize that and be prepared for it.

As to stropping every razor has to be honed at some point. Depending on the razor and you, you may get 20 shaves out before honing or 200.

Sorry QC? Thanks for your help there is a link on thiers issard uk site about pastes, there are 4 different ones and below there is a link to this site ( I don't know how to find it on here) and it sounds like with 4 different strips and pastes you can hone a blade am I correct , meaning you don't need a stone.

Hadrada79,

The steel on the C135 Thiers-Issard (TI) razors is very hard (IIRC ca. 62 - 65 Rockwell C). They take a little while to get dialled in, but once there are excellent shavers.

There are a number of reports that recent TI razors have been a little spotty on the Quality Control side, and arrive with mismatched and un-even bevels. I was lucky, and got mine soon after the C135 razors made an appearance, and the two razors I have were spot on.

A razor, such as the Dovo Best, is an excellent razor to start with, and is easier to maintain initially than the C135 TIs would be. You can get the Dovo's from Mr. Steve Dempster (who also owns the TI UK site), and he will hone them shave-ready for you.

For strops, Mr. Neil Miller (Vintage Straight Razor Sales & Restorations, Hand Made Strops, UK Razor Honing and Vintage Hone Stones) makes world-class strops. Mr. Dempsters custom strops are also very nice.

However, the first strop will always take a beating, and will end up with nicks etc. - just a fact of life It is therefore prudent not to start out with a really spiffing strop if you are worried about nicking it.

Again, at the beginning, the stropping skills will not be there, and the time between honings will be much shorter than later on when you have stropping down pat Initially, my razor's edges were lucky to last a couple of weeks before touch up, but within a couple of months, I could extend this considerably.

Have fun

Best regards

Russ

Originally Posted by PhatMan

Hadrada79,

The steel on the C135 Thiers-Issard (TI) razors is very hard (IIRC ca. 62 - 65 Rockwell C). They take a little while to get dialled in, but once there are excellent shavers.

There are a number of reports that recent TI razors have been a little spotty on the Quality Control side, and arrive with mismatched and un-even bevels. I was lucky, and got mine soon after the C135 razors made an appearance, and the two razors I have were spot on.

A razor, such as the Dovo Best, is an excellent razor to start with, and is easier to maintain initially than the C135 TIs would be. You can get the Dovo's from Mr. Steve Dempster (who also owns the TI UK site), and he will hone them shave-ready for you.

For strops, Mr. Neil Miller (Vintage Straight Razor Sales & Restorations, Hand Made Strops, UK Razor Honing and Vintage Hone Stones) makes world-class strops. Mr. Dempsters custom strops are also very nice.

However, the first strop will always take a beating, and will end up with nicks etc. - just a fact of life It is therefore prudent not to start out with a really spiffing strop if you are worried about nicking it.

Again, at the beginning, the stropping skills will not be there, and the time between honings will be much shorter than later on when you have stropping down pat Initially, my razor's edges were lucky to last a couple of weeks before touch up, but within a couple of months, I could extend this considerably.

Have fun

Best regards

Russ

thanks very much really helpful il have a look later😀

Originally Posted by Hadrada79

Sorry QC? Thanks for your help there is a link on thiers issard uk site about pastes, there are 4 different ones and below there is a link to this site ( I don't know how to find it on here) and it sounds like with 4 different strips and pastes you can hone a blade am I correct , meaning you don't need a stone.

You can do a lot with pastes but wouldn't attempt using them until your stropping technique is good otherwise you risk doing more damage than good

Originally Posted by eddy79

You can do a lot with pastes but wouldn't attempt using them until your stropping technique is good otherwise you risk doing more damage than good

Thanks, I will but is that right you don't need a stone if you were to do this