Holding An Edge (Stropless Shaving)

[MO1]

Watching this thread in awe.

If nothing it gives me hope that once I get the Koraat re-sharpened, I might be able to use it for as long as 20+ shaves w/o ever having to worry about ruining it again with bad stropping technique, as seemingly the stropping does absolutely nothing in terms of keeping it sharp. Once it loses the shaving ability, I go to Naniwa to touch it up... crazy, right?

Stay away from evil pastes, leather will suffice
Seriously though, you'll learn stropping fast enough. You will look back and wonder why you ever doubted yourself.

 

[KrstGor]

From memory @KrstGor received his Koraat shave-ready honed using a taped spine. That should not change anything if just stroppping on a hanging strop (which had some give in it to allow for stroppping without a taped spine). Any stroppping on a fixed flat surface would require that to be done with the spine similarly taped.

One of the reasons why I am normally against taped spine honing.

I have previously suggested to @KrstGor that he send his Koraat back and have it re-honed without tape.

Hi @rbscebu,

Yes, that is correct - Ulrik hones ALL his razors with the tape, especially those that are mirror-polished (like mine).

The tape is called Tesa Extreme Outdoor, very common product over here in Europe. I believe it's German, so it's ubiquitously available in EU. It's a type of a ticker cloth tape.

 

[KrstGor]

Stay away from evil pastes, leather will suffice
Seriously though, you'll learn stropping fast enough. You will look back and wonder why you ever doubted yourself.

Tnx buddy,

At last someone with a positive mindset!

I appreciate the confidence boost, cheers

 

[global_dev]

@KrstGor, everyone eventually gets stropping; and as much as it does/doesn't do, the observable change of HHT after stropping on different materials is certainly a thing.

Tesa Extreme Outdoor,

how thick is this tape? I couldn't find any info other than LxW

 

[KrstGor]

@KrstGor, everyone eventually gets stropping; and as much as it does/doesn't do, the observable change of HHT after stropping on different materials is certainly a thing.



how thick is this tape? I couldn't find any info other than LxW

What kind of Q is that? lol

What do I know how tick it is. It's a tape, I didn't measure it with a laser.

I bought the tape and that's that. Ulrik said to use that one, so I'll use that one. I don't care how tick it is.

FWIW here's the picture and a link: tesa® extra Power Extreme Outdoor - https://www.tesa.com/en/consumer/tesa-extra-power-extreme-outdoor.html

 

[global_dev]

What kind of Q is that? lol

What do I know how tick it is. It's a tape, I didn't measure it with a laser.

why cant you measure it with your laser? Is it broken? Plugged in or Need batteries? Are you pointing it in the right direction?
My laser works great. Maybe you didnt mount it correctly. Check mine out for a visual. Lazer mount instructions

razors are all about the angles and trying to maximize certain qualities. Certain commoy used tapes like 3m absolutely identify thickness and other characteristics for usage. Outside of that custom guy, I’d never heard of tesa. I was suprised to see duct tape.

And its easy enough to measure the thickness of the tape and spine vs just spine.

 

[rbscebu]

Shave No. 15 T.H.60 (Vesperum)

Fourteenth shave using this SR without stropping. Standard pre-shave prep and passes.

I'm starting to think that this need to strop a SR is an urban myth put out by @Tony Miller to try and increase his business!

During last week I alternated between my Vesperum and my newly received Titan VG10-HZ T.B.63 SR's that I have been honing up for another M7DS. Through that week my Vesperum has been about matching or bettering the freshly honed new VG10-HZ's.

I feel that my Vesperum shave this morning (Sunday) was one of my best for this SR. Even the Fool's Pass was smooth and comfortable leaving my upper lip BBS. That has not been experienced for a while with this SR. After this morning's shave, Vesperum was wiped clean with a moist chamois, oiled and put away. Still no other maintenance.

Tomorrow I'll shave with my maintained Lunae, a proven performer in its M7DS, as a criterion shave. It should be interesting to compare it with my Vesperum shave this morning.

 

[KrstGor]

Shave No. 15 T.H.60 (Vesperum)

Fourteenth shave using this SR without stropping. Standard pre-shave prep and passes.

I'm starting to think that this need to strop a SR is an urban myth put out by @Tony Miller to try and increase his business!

During last week I alternated between my Vesperum and my newly received Titan VG10-HZ T.B.63 SR's that I have been honing up for another M7DS. Through that week my Vesperum has been about matching or bettering the freshly honed new VG10-HZ's.

I feel that my Vesperum shave this morning (Sunday) was one of my best for this SR. Even the Fool's Pass was smooth and comfortable leaving my upper lip BBS. That has not been experienced for a while with this SR. After this morning's shave, Vesperum was wiped clean with a moist chamois, oiled and put away. Still no other maintenance.

Tomorrow I'll shave with my maintained Lunae, a proven performer in its M7DS, as a criterion shave. It should be interesting to compare it with my Vesperum shave this morning.

Still following this in awe

 

[rbscebu]

Just a quick update. This morning was a criterion shave with Lunae. Definitely a better shave than I had with Vesperum yesterday.

I will keep going alternating between Vesperum and a M7DS criterion shave for the rest of this week to see how things develop.

 

[Steve56]

Dude, no one can keep up with the names. I know that one razor is hangin’ in there, but I have no idea what’s going on.

 

[rbscebu]

Dude, no one can keep up with the names. I know that one razor is hangin’ in there, but I have no idea what’s going on.

I have a matching seven-day set of Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR's. Each is named in Latin with the day of the week:

Lunae = Monday
Martis = Tuesday
Mercurii = Wednesday
Iovis = Thursday
Veneris = Friday
Saturni = Saturday
Solis = Sunday

The test SR is normally used when I have a night attending the opera or ballet. This is so that my normal M7DS doesn't get uneven wear. What would polite society say!

Vesperum = Evening

Due to our current restrictions, there are no opera or ballet performances on so this leaves Vesperum free for this little experiment.

I hope that helps. Those with a good classical education would understand.

 

[KrstGor]

I have a matching seven-day set of Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR's. Each is named in Latin with the day of the week:

Lunae = Monday
Martis = Tuesday
Mercurii = Wednesday
Iovis = Thursday
Veneris = Friday
Saturni = Saturday
Solis = Sunday

The test SR is normally used when I have a night attending the opera or ballet. This is so that my normal M7DS doesn't get uneven wear. What would polite society say!

Vesperum = Evening

Due to our current restrictions, there are no opera or ballet performances on so this leaves Vesperum free for this little experiment.

I hope that helps. Those with a good classical education would understand.

@rbscebu is your Vesperum a single piece or is it a matching evening 7DS?

BTW, this thread is great, I am really curious to see when it'll become useless and admire your patience with this exercise!

 

[Steve56]

I have a matching seven-day set of Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR's. Each is named in Latin with the day of the week:

Lunae = Monday
Martis = Tuesday
Mercurii = Wednesday
Iovis = Thursday
Veneris = Friday
Saturni = Saturday
Solis = Sunday

The test SR is normally used when I have a night attending the opera or ballet. This is so that my normal M7DS doesn't get uneven wear. What would polite society say!

Vesperum = Evening

Due to our current restrictions, there are no opera or ballet performances on so this leaves Vesperum free for this little experiment.

I hope that helps. Those with a good classical education would understand.

I understand the Latin days, and a few other languages too.

It’s difficult to keep track of which razor is the test and which razors are for comparison in the text/posts. You likely have your reasons, but why not just shave with the test razor until it dies?

 

[rbscebu]

@rbscebu is your Vesperum a single piece or is it a matching evening 7DS?

BTW, this thread is great, I am really curious to see when it'll become useless and admire your patience with this exercise!

Vesperum is a single SR.

 

[rbscebu]

I understand the Latin days, and a few other languages too.

It’s difficult to keep track of which razor is the test and which razors are for comparison in the text/posts. You likely have your reasons, but why not just shave with the test razor until it dies?

Vesperum is the test SR. All others in my M7DS are identical to Vesperum, being Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR's.

I also shave with the razors in my M7DS so that I can compare them against Vesperum. Without the comparison, it would be difficult to determine the level of deterioration of the un-stropped Vesperum.

 

[KrstGor]

Vesperum is a single SR.

Tnx!

BTW, my Feather arrived yesterday, so I gave it a test. Wonderful little device, got to say.

Based on all the praise I really had high expectations and it delivered.

Extremely close, yet very mild shave, zero irritation. I used the Pro Super blades.

 

[rbscebu]

Some are having difficulty in following this thread, so I will try and explain all.

I have a matching seven-day-plus-one set of identical straight razors. Each razor of the M7DS has its day name (in Latin) engraved on its spine. The eighth razoz has Vesperum (Evening) engraved on its spine.

​

What I am trying to determine is how many shaves I can get out of one SR without any stropping or other maintenance. For this, I chose Vesperum's as my test razor.

All these SR's started this experiment with about the same quality of edge. I have been shaving about every second day with Vesperum and never strop it or give it any other maintenance. Every other day I shave with one of the seven SR's in my M7DS. These seven SR's are stropped 60 laps on clean leather before each use. After each use, these seven SR's get 8 laps on clean denim followed by 60 laps on 0.1um diamond pasted hanging balsa strop before being oiled and put away.

The reason that I alternate between Vesperum and one of my M7DS is to allow me to detect what deterioration, if any, is occurring with the edge on Vesperum.

I hope the above explains it all.

 

[Tomo]

This thread is pure heresy. You must be using Nair hair removal cream to lather your face or some other form of witchcraft. Latin hocus pocus, spells, special evening razors in a box... The whole thing makes me very uneasy. God only knows what you’re up to out there in the Philippines.

 

[rbscebu]

This thread is pure heresy. You must be using Nair hair removal cream to lather your face or some other form of witchcraft. Latin hocus pocus, spells, special evening razors in a box... The whole thing makes me very uneasy. God only knows what you’re up to out there in the Philippines.

Try it yourself and see what you learn. Don't believe every thing that @Tony Miller says. After all, he is only trying to fatten up his retirement nest egg.

I will admit that after a couple of shaves, an unstropped SR is not quite as comfortable as one that has been stropped, however such a SR is still quite comfortably shaveable.

 

[Tomo]

No I won’t be trying it. I’m new at this and I’m not ready to break away from the conventional wisdom yet. I would do many things for the perfect edge but this non stropping business is dangerous talk. If you told me to bath my straights in moonlight to charge the edge I would surely try it but this is a step too far for me. I’m still scared to shave with an edge that hasn’t seen 50 laps on diamond paste since the last shave.