I have a straight razor which, long story short, was used to cut fabric on one occasion by my cousin. The blade was dulled despite attempts to sharpen with my strop, so I sent it to get honed. After receiving my freshly honed blade, I shaved once and found it quite sharp, but the second shave the blade was incredibly dull again, even after sharpening with my strop. Is my razor beyond repair or was the honing job just sub-par? Thanks for any advice you can give on this.
And what kind of razor is this...??? A pic would help of course What you are asking is possible but rather unlikely if the Honer did his job correctly on a Quality blade and you did your job stropping
Thanks for the quick reply, and I appreciate your advice. I owned this razor (Dovo solingen 5/8") for about 2 years now, which marks my experience at whatever 2 years' ownership gets me, and had no problems with the stropping up to this point. Furthermore, in the circumstance described in the original post, the blade was already dull after my first shave and before I stropped it. I won't rule out improper stropping, but that doesn't explain how it dulled to being practically useless after one shave. Normally it takes me 4-5 shaves before needing to strop again, and having just gotten the blade honed I found this to be unusual. Let me know if you have any other ideas. Again, thanks for any information you can provide.
Is there a possibility someone damaged the blade while you were not looking. Dropped it, scuffed the edge or maybe rolled it, cut more fabric? Or that this razor just needs more stropping. Say 50 downs and 50 backs? And repeat right before shaving. Maybe the edge geometry has changed after being Honed and and your stropping technique might be off.
You mentioned sharpening with your strop. Strops don't really sharpen the edge. More alignment and polishing. Unless it is a pasted strop which will in fact remove steel. Work on your stropping technique. Keep it light and keep the strop from getting too slack. It does not have to be pulled super tight like a guitar string but if you do let it get slack you have to get lighter too. I do both slack and not slack and vary the pressure accordingly. Practice practice practice. Here is an example of an expert with a slack strop. And believe me he has stropped more than most. I have read folks on forums criticize his technique. I think they are misguided. It is a pain to load this video. They removed from YouTube for some reason. You have to carefully click the x to get rid of the Taylor Swift overlay. The hit the blue arrow below the first video. That will put an arrow in the video allowing you to play it. http://convertvid30.com/Razor-Strop(2h1GC34yyKE)
Thanks @mikewood, I will try stropping more. What you suggest about the edge geometry seems to be the most likely explanation to me. No chance the blade was damaged; I am the only one who has handled it after it was honed.
Any blade can be dulled rather quickly if the honer used a machine rather than a wet stone for the honing. You can get a credit card incredibly sharp and it will cut once or twice but then dull. I have tried honing razors that a customer sent and he told me that he sent the razor to a guy who charged $3 to hone the razor. The belt sander very quickly - 1 or 2 seconds - raised the temp. at the edge above 400 deg and the edge lost the temper. Permanently. The honing job I did got it shave ready but the edge didn't last very long. Untempered steel loses its edge quickly. The scientific work done on this was by Dr. Roman Landes, a metallurgist for Rolls Royce who designed the equipment which measured temps. at very thin edges.
First, how do you clean and dry the blade after each shave. I use running water then lay it on a towel til all else is cleaned up. Then get some tp and wipe the blade up tp 1/8 of the edge but don't wipe the edge. Also, stropping every 4 or 5 shaves really won't do it, 30 or more laps pre every shave and 10 after rinsing and wiping the blade with tp to dry the edge and clean it as well as speed the fin recovery time if its a daily shaver. Might need a pasted strop session to bring it back still or ideally a few laps on a finishing stone. Hope it helps.
Fin recovery time? Resting the edge is alchemy. There is simply no credible science that suggests hardened steel undergoes molecular changes while at rest at a constant temperature. This is total nonscense. Professional barbers used to have one razor in their pocket that they stropped all day between shaves and honed when needed. However, this is also anecdotal evidence and totally unnecessary to the argument since the science is final. By the way, what is a fin? Does this refer to a wire edge. If so, it does not need to be rested, it needs to be removed.
Debatable, look up John Verhoeven, Iowa State University. The scientific term Is technically called plasic flow.
Cutting fabric with a straight will dull it quickly but not permanently damage the razor. The honing should have done the job unless it was honed in a way that changed the heat treat at the edge. Honer said (above) that resting the edge is alchemy. He's right in that the molecular structure of steel does not change just sitting there at room temperature. Question: how did the razor shave before this whole saga began? How long did you have it?
Dry the straight and then strop a dry towel to get water off the blade edge. Strop for 50 laps on leather after 20-25 on cotton or linen. Touch up with chromium oxide once the shave feels the least bit rough, at least by 12th shave...or touch up with 12K or barber hone.
@Ben Prosser Contact the guy that honed the edge, ask questions tell him "Nicely" what is happening, most reputable Honemeisters are going to explain about stropping and ask you to try it very carefully and see if that remedies the situation.. Honestly most problems caused by improper stropping can be fixing by proper stropping.. A reputable guy will want the edge back in his hands to fix the issue if there is still an issue after you try Slow Determined Stropping, he will want to assess the edge to find out if it was his error,, or yours that caused the issue, regardless I would suspect he will re-hone the edge for you either way .. If by chance all that falls to pieces fire me a PM/e-mail and I will take a look at your razor, tell you what is going on, probably even post Micro pics, and then dial in the edge for you Honing is on me,, Shipping is on you,,,. Merry Christmas !!!!!
