Considering learning to hone my own razors

[SamplingNature]

I just did a partial shave with a straight...just edging my jawline and neck to set boundaries for beard season (I have no intentions of spending the next five months looking like Animal from the Muppets). This is where I'll be honest and say that this is my third partial straight shave in my life...the first two having occurred several years ago...and this was the first that I did the more challenging parts of my face below my cheeks.

I rather enjoyed it. But it dawned on me that I'll need to maintain these razors beyond simple stropping.

I currently own two straight razors (both of which I received in a PIF in my past life here on B&B). Aside from 1-2 Gold Dollars that I might pick up for the sake of practicing honing, I do not foresee myself obtaining any more. Realistically, I'll probably only do a partial or full straight razor shave somewhere between once per week and once per month due to time constraints, so I don't want to go any further down this rabbit hole than is necessary to maintain these razors in shaveable condition.

In short, I'd like to know what supplies/equipment that I'll need to maintain these razors for myself. I'd like to do so at minimum expense, with a minimum work and storage space required. Also, my preference is to order from that big website named after the river in South America if possible.

Thank you!

 

[Legion]

If you have the razor already made shave ready by an expert, all you really need to maintain the edge is a finishing stone of some sort and a strop. If you don't have an accident and damage the edge somehow, that will keep you shaving indefinitely.

If you want to MAKE a razor shave ready you will need more stuff.

Since you already have a razor you shave with, I'd probably suggest starting with just a maintenance stone for now.

 

[Tanuki]

I am a believer in pasted balsa (diamond or CBN) stropping as an inexpensive, easy, and largely foolproof way to maintain a sharp edge. The average joe refreshed his edge with pasted leather or linen. He took it to the barber for minor edge repair/restoration.

Learning to use a finisher is not difficult, either a good synthetic or a decent natural rock. But pasted stropping will do the trick. There are other approaches than pasted balsa, but diamond pasted balsa works really well for me.

I use 2x3 balsa from a hobby/modeling shop, 18" long, with a three strop progression. Thin 3" balsa glued to a dimensionally stable substrate works too. I got my paste from Tech Diamond Tools. The progression is possibly overkill. I do most of my day-to-day maintenance on just the 0.1μ (200k) strop.

For a synthetic finisher, a Naniwa Superstone 12000 is my choice. I am starting to play with natural rock finishers, but that is the hobbyist in me.

 

[Legion]

Chromium oxide works on balsa as well, and is less expensive than diamond paste.

If you can pick up a second hand stone though, it is a lifetime investment, and if you do decide to sell it you should get back what you paid.

There are a lot of possible options there, but I've used several slates that I liked, and they weren't very expensive to buy. Coticules and Jnats can be very good, but they are more variable, and expensive to purchase.

 

[lightfoot]

Yeah if I were in your position I would see how long I could keep it going with some kind of polishing agent and see how long that keeps working. Worst case scenario is that once or twice a year they could need to be sent out for additional work.

Otherwise I would stay with replaceable-blade straight razor options if I were just lining and shaping.

 

[lasta]

Norton 4000/8000 stone, woodcraft Chinese 12k and a leather strop.

 

[Legion]

Norton 4000/8000 stone, woodcraft Chinese 12k and a leather strop.

That’s exactly the setup I started with. And it worked. In hindsight thought, having tried just about everything by now, there are better options out there.

Ten or fifteen years ago, that was what was recommended on the forums, and I went with it and made it work. Ok.

 

[Gamma]

If I wanted an easy, reliable, and cheap method of keeping a shaving edge going, one that needed zero talent/skills or maintenance...
I'd get a tube of TI white paste, a piece of cotton webbing, make a hanging strop out of it and that would be it.
Maybe 2 passes every few weeks alongside regular stropping on leather.

Have not found those Chinese hones to be anywhere near 12k or worth the price of admission.
Have had many of them too, need flattening system. Hard pass.

Norton 8k/4k combo need flattening, soaking, and is really more like a 2k/5k. Costs a few $$ too, hard pass.

Diamond, CBN and Chromox work but face feel is real important and those abrasives fall short there for me..I'd probably choose good quality Chromox over the other two.

There are waaay better abrasives out there but for a lower cost easily accessible commercial product, the TI white paste makes a face friendly edge without fuss. Keep the linen taught and don't do 40 laps on the stuff.
Dovo Black is good and easy to use and more forgiving.
A super fine high-quality red FeOx is hard to beat but not always easy to find.

People seem to want to gang up on what substrate is best for some reason. I find cotton webbing to work as well as anything else out there. After many kilos of abrasives, many blocks of balsa and other woods, a ton of felt, many leathers, papers, cardboards, mat boards, etc, and whathaveyou - I stick with cotton webbing cuz it's cheap and easy to deal with, and it works as well as or better than whatever else I've compared to it.
At the end of the day, it's personal choice though, whatever substrate you choose should be the one you like.

 

[Wid]

If I wanted an easy, reliable, and cheap method of keeping a shaving edge going, one that needed zero talent/skills or maintenance...
I'd get a tube of TI white paste, a piece of cotton webbing, make a hanging strop out of it and that would be it.
Maybe 2 passes every few weeks alongside regular stropping on leather.

Have not found those Chinese hones to be anywhere near 12k or worth the price of admission.
Have had many of them too, need flattening system. Hard pass.

Norton 8k/4k combo need flattening, soaking, and is really more like a 2k/5k. Costs a few $$ too, hard pass.

Diamond, CBN and Chromox work but face feel is real important and those abrasives fall short there for me..I'd probably choose good quality Chromox over the other two.

There are waaay better abrasives out there but for a lower cost easily accessible commercial product, the TI white paste makes a face friendly edge without fuss. Keep the linen taught and don't do 40 laps on the stuff.
Dovo Black is good and easy to use and more forgiving.
A super fine high-quality red FeOx is hard to beat but not always easy to find.

People seem to want to gang up on what substrate is best for some reason. I find cotton webbing to work as well as anything else out there. After many kilos of abrasives, many blocks of balsa and other woods, a ton of felt, many leathers, papers, cardboards, mat boards, etc, and whathaveyou - I stick with cotton webbing cuz it's cheap and easy to deal with, and it works as well as or better than whatever else I've compared to it.
At the end of the day, it's personal choice though, whatever substrate you choose should be the one you like.

As of late I've been messing with the Dovo black paste on denim, thanks Scott. I could certainly see this as a good maintenance tool. Could keep a razor going for a very long time with this method. Or whatever paste suits your fancy.

 

[SamplingNature]

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Balsa and cotton webbing/denim options sound ideal for my situation. What's the best place to find the abrasives in question?

I assume that when people refer to this as stropping, they mean that the laps are spine-first, edge-trailing? Should I tape up the spine as I've seen done for honing?

Is this the Dovo paste in question?

 

[Wid]

---

Balsa and cotton webbing/denim options sound ideal for my situation. What's the best place to find the abrasives in question?

I assume that when people refer to this as stropping, they mean that the laps are spine-first, edge-trailing? Should I tape up the spine as I've seen done for honing?

Is this the Dovo paste in question?
View attachment 1724923

Yes. The black is what I've used

 

[Frank Shaves]

For minimal maintenance, I would send a razor to an expert honer and then use diamond paste on balsa to maintain the edge. Then, if curiosity got the best of me, I would buy a Naniwa Gouken 12000-grit stone (the 20 mm version):'

And get a value strop from @Tony Miller at the Heirloom Razor Strop Co.