Dulling razors

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peg20

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I'd appreciate a little help here. I started shaving with straights back in January. I bought a few razors of different sizes and grinds, all vintage. All came in shave-ready condition from different sellers.

Over the past four months, I have shaved with four razors, each for about a month (every other day), but in sequence rather than rotating. Each shaved similarly (as far as I can remember) when fresh, cutting through most hair effortlessly, but always tough going on the chin hair.

After about a month, each razor has got to the point where it starts to drag a little on the cheeks, which were originally the easiest hair to slice through. When switching to another fresh razor, the effortless shaves come back.

I have been stropping with the same strop I've owned since the first; a 3" Miller buffalo hide/linen. I've tried different lap counts; up to 80 laps on leather alone though to about 15 laps linen + 30 laps leather. I've not observed any difference. I don't believe I have made any obvious stropping mistakes, and haven't nicked the strop once.

Firstly; is a month of every-other-day shaving a typical length of time to expect an edge to last without touch-up, or is there something wrong with my technique (either shaving or stropping)? Does the fact that even four months in I find chin hair hard-going even with a fresh shave-ready razor hint at a possible problem?

Second; now that I obviously have to do something with the razors, what's the best first course of action? Can a CrOx strop bring back the edge, or do I need to go to a 12k (or 8k or even lower?) hone to get it back?

Many thanks in advance
 
Mine don't dull quite as quickly but I guess beard type comes into play. Stropping may be part of the issue, mine has improved a lot over the last year of using straights and now restores the edge significantly better than it used to.

Chromium Oxide would help, I understand, but you could go for a barbers hone. I have a Chinese 12K which is excellent value for money and I'm having great success with a coticule which is a more useful stone but I'm trying to restore vintage Ebay buys.
 
Depending on whether you have a real Desperate Dan beard or not, that does sound a bit quick. My guess is stropping, though it's not at all obvious what isn't working from what you say. A touch up stone of your choice seems to be on the shopping list.
 
I had a similar problem with my stropping, both in a hanging and paddle. Think I needed to work on my technique more. Would be interested in what the answer is :)
 
I had a similar problem with my stropping, both in a hanging and paddle. Think I needed to work on my technique more. Would be interested in what the answer is :)
 
Better stropping = better edge retention. However, poor technique will accelerate edge dulling. Especially if you use a high angle.

I'd go with the crox. Honing is a different skill, and you need to master stropping regardless of whether you want to hone your own razors or not.
 
Arrowhead said:
Depending on whether you have a real Desperate Dan beard or not, that does sound a bit quick. My guess is stropping, though it's not at all obvious what isn't working from what you say. A touch up stone of your choice seems to be on the shopping list.
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+1 to that and what others have said. Crom ox will help, but the edge won´t last very long after it and with the speed of things, with your edges, it wouldn´t prob. last long. A touch up stone seems right.

I think something is "wrong" though, a wedgy blade should last much longer than that (a very thin hollow blade maybe could have an edge life like you describe). My guess would be the stropping. Do you think your stropping has improved much from the start? If so, maybe you did the most damage in the beginning and that´s why you´re having trouble now ... I won´t repeat myself, but if you pull the edge on the strop rather than the back, you´ll have dull edges pretty fast.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have studied the guides and videos to stropping intensively and understand what causes the edge to dull from stropping but honestly can't see anything wrong in what I'm doing. I don't think my technique has "improved" over four months. It has got a little faster and the flips a little more fluid perhaps
 
The hard-going on the chin part is probably just lack of experience - technique - it takes a while, sometimes many months, for most to get right. Once skin-stretching and angle are perfected it will come.

Something is definitely going wrong - I would expect a novice to notice dulling after a few months of continuous use - a month every other day is two weeks or so of continuous use! BTW, you could look at this as a way of dispelling the old-wives tale of the edge being restored by resting (trying to be positive, here!).

A number of things may be going wrong with your stropping. Assuming that you aren't pressing the razor too hard against the strop (a light touch is required!) and have not rolled the edge, then it could simply be that your stropping isn't effective, resulting in the razor getting progressively duller with each shave. Try setting your strop up so you can see what you are doing in a mirror (risky!) or get someone to observe. The strop should deflect a little, but the deflection should be producing a slight angle at the leading edge, ie the spine. If there is a perceptible deflection following the trailing edge - the bevel - then you are not restoring the razors edge, just pressing it into the strop.

As most leather strops are slightly compressible, it is natural that there is a very slight 'rebound' effect as the bevel passes over the strop, but if it is obvious enough to see a good change of angle you need to take some pressure off the bevel. Make sure it is touching the leather though, or you will still not achieve anything.

Another thing that may need altering is your lap count on the strop components. I usually do at least 30 on the linen and 50 on leather, but have lately been using 55 linen / 65 leather.

If you aren't using too much pressure, you may be using too little pressure! The correct pressure is what it takes to keep both the spine and the bevel in contact with the strop. For goodness sake don't lift the spine off the strop - you don't want to make an angle at all!

Too little pressure and your stropping will be just as inefficient as using too much pressure. Not enough pressure is another common problem for novices, and often goes hand-in-glove with stropping too slowly. Very slow stropping at best does nothing and at worst can adversely affect the edge. It's OK to start slow, but begin to pick up speed as you go - you don't have to be as fast as the mad old barbers you see in movies, but it has to be fast enough.

If all you have been doing is stropping ineffectually, the linen side may be all you need to restore the edge. I guess you will have to make sure your stropping technique is good first, though, as the linen is more abrasive than leather and you will really dull the edge if you do it wrong. You will probably need at least 50 laps (and maybe a lot more) on the linen before going on to the leather,

I would sort the main issue out first before complicating matters with pastes and powders. Like Mikael says, they are effective at restoring a dull blade, but the edge is generally not as long lasting as we might like.

Regards,
Neil
 
Thanks Neil. Since I last posted, I have been experimenting with stropping on just the linen and leather. My favourite razor so far is a 6/8-13/16" C+S, which given its size is easy to keep flat, so I would hope that it would be harder to mess this up than others.

I have tried stropping gently for several hundred laps each on linen and leather typically in a ratio 1:2, test-shaving every 100linen/200leather. I haven't observed any difference.

I then tried stropping with more pressure, trying to push the spine more into the material (whilst keeping taught) rather than pushing the flat of the blade down on to the material. Again, several hundred laps in and I can't see much of a difference.

Is it possible to tell what has gone wrong by looking at the edge of blade under magnification? I have a blade sitting in my box that hasn't been honed, and have been waiting to send it off. But if you think you could apply some detective work on one of the edges I have used to try and narrow down the problem, I think it would be worth my time and money paying for that.
 
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