Thread: Newbie needs help,, in Red Deer Alberta

Chris,

You'll have to experiment with speeds. You don't need to have the razor zipping up and down the strop like you see in some of the videos, but it should still be pretty quick.

Also, when you strop slower the tendency is to use more pressure than you're aware of (at least for me).

With some quick stropping on linen and then leather, you should be able to reclaim some sharpness on your razors. Since they're already at the point where you're considering sending them out for honing, you don't have much to lose in working on your stropping technique first.

All the best.

Yohann

I have a friend in Red Deer who might be willing to help if I can coax him out of hiding. He is a member here. If you PM me your email I will contact him and see if I can get the two of you together.

Hello Chris from Red Deer,

When you say your razor isn't shaving so well anymore what do you mean? Is it pulling/tugging, gliding over your face without removing hair, causing discomfort while shaving etc?

It's hard to say what the problem is. Could have dulled it while stropping, or it could be dulled due to newbie shaving technique, which is quite common too. You didn't mention how your other razor shaves; if you have been using it for a while without it dulling we can likely rule out shaving technique.

Someone posted in this thread that speedy stropping is required to have any benefit. Please do not take this to heart. You will get more from a slow-to-medium paced stroke WITH GOOD FORM as opposed to fast strokes with sloppy form. With experience it is indeed possible to bring an edge back from the dead. Because your paddle strop probably has less stropping surface than a leather hanger you may want to increase your lap count by a few dozen and see if it helps.

Let us know how it turns out.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Hello Chris from Red Deer,

When you say your razor isn't shaving so well anymore what do you mean? Is it pulling/tugging, gliding over your face without removing hair, causing discomfort while shaving etc?

It's hard to say what the problem is. Could have dulled it while stropping, or it could be dulled due to newbie shaving technique, which is quite common too. You didn't mention how your other razor shaves; if you have been using it for a while without it dulling we can likely rule out shaving technique.

Someone posted in this thread that speedy stropping is required to have any benefit. Please do not take this to heart. You will get more from a slow-to-medium paced stroke WITH GOOD FORM as opposed to fast strokes with sloppy form. With experience it is indeed possible to bring an edge back from the dead. Because your paddle strop probably has less stropping surface than a leather hanger you may want to increase your lap count by a few dozen and see if it helps.

Let us know how it turns out.

Hi Ryan and thanks for the information. Let me see if I can answer your questions with a degree of accuracy to what I am currently doing.

My other blade is a Dovo SS that I purchased from Fendrihans in the Toronto area. Good folks. The blade was supposed to have been sharpened by the honemeister they use. It never shaved very well. It was always pulling and tugging at my face and it always felt like I was scraping rather than letting the razor actually cut. When I picked up my TI from Rasage Poulin I left the Dovo with him to be sharpened by his honemeister. There is more to this tale so let me fininsh about my second razor.

My second razor is a Thiers Issard 5/8 full hollow ground which I purchased from Rasage Poulin in Calgary. It was sharpened by the honemeister he uses. Straight away the TI passed the HHT and gave a superb, close smooth shave from the very first. I think my shaving technique is OK. No pressure proper angle and the TI was flawless. I've never been so impressed with the closeness of a shave. I was told to strop 6 times on each side of my TI double sided leather strop.

After about the fourth good shave the morning shaves started to deteriorate. The razor felt like it was tugging and pulling rather than shaving and instead of 2 lathers and passes I would do 3 or 4 and still not very good results. That is when I posted this post to see if I could find some information about what I might possibly be doing incorrect.

Now back to the Dovo from Fendrihans. These folks are awesome to deal with. I have been dealing with them for two years now for all of my shaving needs. I wrote them and explained how my Dovo had originally shaved and I broached the question to them asking if perhaps it somehow got missed by their honemeister and it was sent to me without actually being sharpened.

They wrote back and said yes, that is exactly what no doubt happened and offered me a gift certificate to compensate me for the cost of two sharpenings. Their honesty and swift response genuinely impressed me and as far as I am concerned they will continue to get my business. That kind of integrity and honesty in my opinion is hard to come by these days. Again, great people. So I am interested to see how my Dovo shaves once I get it back.

To date. I have been trying to be very consistent with my stropping and am trying to get my TI back to where it was when I picked it up. After doing a few hours of reading on SRP last night I think I was stropping too slowly and not enough passes on the strop. This morning when I shaved with my Thiers Issard I shaved twice, two lathers and the shave was good. Not great, but good which tells me that yesterday I made progress with my stropping and my attempt to bring the razor back up to where it was when I picked it up. It cuts the hairs on my arm with no pressure and little effort. It still won't pass the HHT test but I am hoping that with more stropping today it will improve yet again.
I have stropped the razor once today one hundred strokes on the fine side of my paddle strop with reasonable speed (my judgement of reasonable) and will do another three sets of 100 passes on the strop before I shave again tomorrow morning.
I hope that answers your questions. If you have any further advice or comments they are most welcome.

Chris in Red Deer, Alberta

Thanks for the background Chris, very detailed.

See how the test shave goes after the additional stropping. The fact that you noticed some improvement after your last stropping session is encouraging. But if you see no improvement your blade will likely have to be touched up.

I hope your Dovo comes back in tip-top shape

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Thanks for the background Chris, very detailed.

See how the test shave goes after the additional stropping. The fact that you noticed some improvement after your last stropping session is encouraging. But if you see no improvement your blade will likely have to be touched up.

I hope your Dovo comes back in tip-top shape

Thanks Ryan,
Well I just stropped it again one hundred times and it passed the HHT test perfectly. So more stropping and then the shave test.

Chris