If an SR is honed properly by a honemeister and is then used for a couple of months, does it need the same level of honing or just some type of maintenance hone to bring it back to shave ready?
I’ve also been under the assumption the a razor can be maintained indefinitely on a finisher with frequent touch ups. Some experienced honers claim that periodic lower grit maintenance is best practice to combat uneven wear over the length of the blade.I have a couple of SR's that have been used getting close to 100 shaves each. These two SR's, like all my others, have been maintained exclusively on 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa strops after each shave since their initial bevel set and honing progression.
Per year, using diamond pasted balsa strops for maintenance after each shave is more time consuming than intermittently refreshing an edge on whetstone(s). I probably spent a total of 2 to 3 hours a year stropping my edges on pasted balsa. I dare say that intermittently refreshing on whetstones would likely take less than an hour each year.
I don't mind the extra few minutes each day on edge maintenance. It gives me a consistent fresh precise edge for each and every shave.
I have not noticed any changes to the shape of the edge in any of my SR blades. There may be a change but it would be ever so slight and gradually slow to occured that I probably would not be able to observe it. The two SR's that I referred to were my initial SR's and their edges still look like the day I first shaved with them.I do a touch up
I’ve also been under the assumption the a razor can be maintained indefinitely on a finisher with frequent touch ups. Some experienced honers claim that periodic lower grit maintenance is best practice to combat uneven wear over the length of the blade.
I’d be interested to know if you have noticed any changes to the shape of the edge in high wear areas. Perhaps 100 shaves is too early to tell.
I haven't been doing the balsa method long enough to notice any change in the high wear areas. However, I have definitely noticed that on edges that maybe weren't honed consistently throughout the length of the blade (i.e. some of my early efforts where my honing technique wasn't as good), the less-good parts of the blade fall off pretty quickly and don't respond to the maintenance stropping on balsa. So, for example, the toe might be plenty keen still, but the heel is just ok or worse. I've taken these back to the films for a quick touchup and they seem to be holding on just fine, now. Again, I think this was just a case of poor technique catching up with me after several shaves.I do a touch up
I’ve also been under the assumption the a razor can be maintained indefinitely on a finisher with frequent touch ups. Some experienced honers claim that periodic lower grit maintenance is best practice to combat uneven wear over the length of the blade.
I’d be interested to know if you have noticed any changes to the shape of the edge in high wear areas. Perhaps 100 shaves is too early to tell.