Quick question about refreshing a straight razor. Say I'm new to straight razors and my poor stropping technique has degraded my edge to where the shave is getting tuggy, is it fine to refresh the edge on chromium oxide even if I got it professionally honed recently? How many laps should I do on the chromium oxide (balsa board)?
Refreshing A Straight Razor
- Thread starter justino_14
- Start date
4-8 laps on crox should be fine... Strop after then test... If not there the another 4 and so on
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
As many as it takes.
Might be a lot if your edge is really going off. If you hit the pasted strop after every shave you won't see your edge go north like that, at least not as frequently. I use diamond on balsa and I never have to re-hone. YMMV.
Might be a lot if your edge is really going off. If you hit the pasted strop after every shave you won't see your edge go north like that, at least not as frequently. I use diamond on balsa and I never have to re-hone. YMMV.
Maybe a dumb question, but which size diamond paste do you use after every shave? I see different microns available.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Oh, not a dumb question at all! A very important point. My 1u and .5u diamond pasted balsas are just my "rescue" balsas. Sometimes I hit the .25u and then the .1u after shaving, sometimes just the .1u. The .1u removes such a minute amount of steel that you don't have to fear overdoing it. But sometimes the normal 20-60 laps on such a fine abrasive just isn't enough. Rather than beat that balsa to death with hundreds of laps, I often hit the .25u for a dozen or two, first. YMMV.
If the edge should happen to start going dull in spite of your maintenance regimen, then 1u is a good place to start for bringing it back. That is ROUGHLY equivelant to a 12k Naniwa or maybe ever so slightly finer, if that helps to put it into perspective. IOW, a proper finishing grit, as opposed to a true maintenance grit.
After the balsa strop at least fifty laps on cloth then fifty on leather. If it doesn't make a difference the razor will need to be honed.
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