What Straight Razor Did You Use Today?

5/8 Grelot Lotus
unknown Vetiver soap
ABC brush

Nice shave this morning. Have a good one.

 

Shave #29 on the Cape 1000 longevity test. All is well in Cape land.

Cheers, Steve

 

Are using a pasted strop to refresh the edge? Or just linen and leather?

 

Two Pass Shaving Routine..

Hot Water Prep & Massage with Argan Oil
Russian Dvuhzakovnaya 1/2 Hollow 5/8th
French Fitchard Pure Badger
Valobra Tallow Soap
Logona Mann Balm

I Had a Lovely Shave this Morning with My Commie 5/8th..These Commie SRs Shave Ever So Close...Karl Marx would have Been Proud of these Bright Red Commie Scales..

I Am Dolphin Smooth & Refreshed..

Billy..

 

My stropping routine is 20 softened canvas/35 suede/65 cordovan post honing - Kanoyama strop. No pastes.

Normally I'm using 35 suede/65 cordovan after each shave. I add the +20 softened canvas back to the routine one time if the smoothness seems to drop off - this time it was at shave 22, but only 35 suede/65 cordovan after each shave since.

A little background: I used to do 20 canvas/40 cordovan after each shave. The smoothness would drop off at 7-10 shaves and by 12-15 I felt that a touch-up was needed though the razor still shaved well, just not buttery smooth.

Todd Simpson at Science of Sharp who uses scanning electron microscopes to look at edges, said that under 200 on leather didn't do much. Now the problem with that statement is that stropping effects would be linear, so I'm sure Todd didn't mean 199 was no good and 201 was great. So knowing 20 canvas/40 cordovan really wasn't what I wanted, I decided to try half of 200, and using the suede which Takeshi-San at AFrames Tokyo says is a little rougher. I also spoke with Alfredo Gil, Doc226, about what he used when he kept a Filly going for around a year with only stropping and 100 post shave is roughly what he used.

What I really want to know is what's the minumim necessary to keep a razor going indefinitely (say a year in the case of non-pasted strops only).

Cheers, Steve

 

Flic 6/8. Two days of growth turned into dolphin skin in no time

 

I don't think you can get keep a razor going past 18 or less shaves by just stropping. I remember a long-running thread on badgerandblades years ago by someone trying to keep shaving without even stropping. The shaving got more and more painful.

 

Simply Put..You Wont..I Dont Go for All this Science of Sharp Stuff..

Billy..

 

Thank you, I am curious to see how long you can go.

 

Kicking it old school, Wade & Butcher. Refreshed on CrOx and 50k diamond paste. A very very smooth edge that was nice and sharp.

 

I find this technique interesting as I feel 200 laps is over doing it and you would be rolling the edge rather than straightening it out. I don’t use my strops as a hone personally. Some say a strop has the abrasive capacity of a 12,000 grit stone. I hone myself, and a 12,000 grit stone is nothing like a strop. In my opinion touch ups need to be done but if you can manage to extend the life of your blade with some chromium oxide or a 50,000 grit diamond paste that’s great. The issue I find with this is that when putting chromium ox on a strop and doing 10-50 laps is not going to give you a consistent edge. It’s going to give you a temporary edge. The reason being for this is.
1. Strop is not completely straight so that means the blade might not be catching in certain areas
2. High grit chrom ox and diamond pastes can roll your edges if your technique is not proper
3. To do a proper progression would take so many strops you can buy a cheap 12,000 grit stone and just refresh your blade for the same price. Once your bevel is set you don’t really need anything else.
This is my opinion and mine in a nutshell. If these crazy techniques work for you than that’s great keep going... just sounds a bit exhausting to me lol


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Well, 47 anyway. I was doing the same test with a Tanifuji Favorit 3000 and was at shave 47 when I had Alfredo re-scale the razor. He lightly glasses them for safety when he works with them, so that ended the test. But the scales are beautiful!

Cheers, Steve

 

I forgot to mention that when “honing” on such a high grit your making the edge so fine that by the time it touches a hair it has already started crumbling. I still hone to 16,000 because I like the feel but surpassing this would not make sense to me. I’m still going to buy the shapton 30k just for curiosity purposes and test it’s performance.


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The 20,000 Gokumyo Suehiro works very well, as well.

 

Thanks I'll look into one

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200 laps is overkill for me because I don't want to do 200 laps - I actually don't want to do 100 either! That's why I've been adding the suede and occasionally canvas, to get the 200 on leather down to a more reasonable routine. I could just touch up anytime but thought it was kind of cool to see how far I could get. I've used a Tanifuji-made Swedish Steel razor for both tests, and they hold an edge extremely well. What I don't know is if other steels, especially vintage English and German steels do as well. It takes quite a while to do one of these test runs and it keeps you from enjoying different razors!

Maybe - I know that it's certainly possible to test edge longevity, at least for a specific razor. Todd's stuff is interesting to me, he's the only one that can actually see jnat slurry, coticule garnets, and the apex of the razor. That said, I don't own/use a microscope so it certainly isn't a requirement, at least for me.

Cheers, Steve

 

Ok, so is that Mammoth tusk? If so, I want some! lol


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Tonight's shave was with a German Blade. I had a super smooth 2 pass shave, that left me BBS.. Zero issues, just a fine smooth shave.


Razor- J.A.Henckels, Zwillingswerks.
Brush- JR#262. Ebony/Birdseye Maple w/Silvertip Knot.
Soap- Arko/Avon Spicy Scented
Aftershave- Florida Water.

 

Dabo Solingen 6/8 half hollow
Wholly Kaw tallow
Silvertip badger
Becker scuttle
Dickinson witch hazel
Pinaud clubman

 

I have maintained an edge well over a year (and still going) with 25 laps on linen followed by ~50 on leather, with periodic touch ups on a barber hone. This is what worked for barbers for generations, and seems to work for me KISS......