It will be interesting to see what the Flax brings to the table.
How Many Shaves
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Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
OK, firehose linen up first, 40 firehose/50 suede/100 cordovan. Shave in the morning.
Do you find the suede brings anything to the table?
IMO it seems pretty ineffective at edge restoration.
Very good at cleaning the blade though!
IMO it seems pretty ineffective at edge restoration.
Very good at cleaning the blade though!
I always get a nice chuckle at this thread. I have so many razors and finishers and like experimenting with finishes so much, I quite literally have not shaved without a fresh finish on a razor in probably eight or nine years.
Agreed, my testing of edge longevity was about 10-12 years ago.
Most faired in the 35-55 range. Comfort being very subjective.
One of these days I'll bring myself to do it. Once I sell off 99% of my collection of finishers.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
A friend sent me microscope photos from Tim Zowada showing fresh edge, Kanoyama canvas, suede, and cordovan edges as they progress. There was not a lot of visible difference between the suede edge and the cordovan edge to my eye. So the suede seemed to be doing the same thing as the cordovan, and maybe that’s why there isn’t much difference!
And Tony Miller is offering a ‘roughout’ strop which is reviewing very well. I don’t have one but it looks like a rougher version of the Kanoyama suede. I’m thinking about getting one since 20 strops aren’t enough...
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...Or when I finally get that magic Jnat that turns everything it touches to gold.
I was not sure about suede but decided to give it a go on one razor to test. With no ill effects since then I have been stropping all my razors continuously on suede and then smooth leather for more than a year now.The suede choice was more for cleaning purposes but I do think there is benefit now. What the benefit is I don't know 
, maybe there is none...
My honing technique/progression is still the same on all razors, with one setup (synthetic > coticule), but the edges do feel 'fresher' after 30-50 shaves than without suede. Placebo?
, maybe there is none...My honing technique/progression is still the same on all razors, with one setup (synthetic > coticule), but the edges do feel 'fresher' after 30-50 shaves than without suede. Placebo?
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
I was not sure about suede but decided to give it a go on one razor to test. With no ill effects since then I have been stropping all my razors continuously on suede and then smooth leather for more than a year now.The suede choice was more for cleaning purposes but I do think there is benefit now. What the benefit is I don't know
My honing technique/progression is still the same on all razors, with one setup (synthetic > coticule), but the edges do feel 'fresher' after 30-50 shaves than without suede. Placebo?
A friend of mine sent me some microscope images from Tim Zowada showing the edge after honing, Kanoyama canvas, Kanoyama suede, and Kanoyama cordovan. The suede seemed to improve (straighten) the edge over the canvas, but I couldn’t tell a lot of difference in the edge between the suede and cordovan. Maybe Tim or Nick will chime in.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Shave #124 this morning, no change to speak of, so the 40 firehose linen neither improved nor diminished the edge. It still shaves better than the Cape and Doble Temple at ~65 shaves, so I’m going to continue until the edge is the same IMO, and continue to test linen. The shave itself is still quite good, no edge-related issues and it’s still a comfortable shave. It isn't quite as close as a fresh edge, and it’s lost some smoothness, but hey, it’s got almost 125 shaves on it.
After today’s shave, I did 45 Tony Miller linen, 45 suede, and 90 cordovan.
After today’s shave, I did 45 Tony Miller linen, 45 suede, and 90 cordovan.
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Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Dhave #125 this morning, and the @Tony Miller linen made an improvement, so tip of the hat to Tony, and the edge is still going, not yet at the level I called the DT and Cape done. I also checked the edge with a ~12x loupe, and it looks surprisingly good; a couple of short shiny lines and really that’s it, the rest of the edge you’d never believe had 125 shaves on it. Post shave stropping was again 40 TM linen, 40 suede, and 70 cordovan.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Shave 126, edge is holding steady. Post-shave stopping was 40 Kanoyama canvas, 45 suede/85 cordovan.
I will ask if I
@stone and strop ~ Here are the micrographs. Tim gave me permission to post them here. He has others that are better and plans to post them on his website at a later date.
Shinden Asagi finish.
Palm Stropping x 30.
Kanayama canvas x 10, plus 5 very short strokes.
Kanayama suede x 50, plus 10 very short strokes.
Kanayama cordovan x 50, plus 10 very short strokes.
Attachments
Thank you very much!
I, on the other hand, do see a distinct difference between the suede and the leather.
The suede showing some difference to the canvas though.
I love Tim's photos, they are generally pretty clear. These are not bad.
He has always been very open and helpful when asked IMO. Its learning for all - not just him.
Thanks to him.
For scale purposes here is a photograph of one whisker made at the same resolution as the stropping and honing micrographs I posted above. The scale of the image from left to right is 110u wide. There is a 10u scale marking in the lower right hand corner of all the micrographs.
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Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Shave #127 this morning, the Kanoyama canvas seems to work as well as the TM linen bringing back some smoothness to the edge. So post shave today was again 40 Kanoyama canvas followed by 40 suede and y0 cordovan.
I’m 6 or 7 shaves away from Alfredo’s number, and this kind of validates that his number was not a fluke. I think that anyone with good stropping skills and really good razor with harder steel can duplicate these results.
The plan is to soon test a new linen and deviate from the Kanoyama strop that's worked very well so far. I intend to use a newly acquired piece of Latvian linen plus a kangaroo strop. The linen is a softer more flexible herringbone weave, thin strapping like the TM linen but looser and softer. The roo steop is very thin, and there are some experienced folks on another forum that believe that the thin, flexible roo can conform better to the edge. If you put a grommet in one end of the roo, you could actually roll it up and put a full size strop in a pill bottle, it’s that thin and flexible. While I do not believe that there’s a huge difference in the fabric components and results from the leather, the flexibility of both these components will be fun to try out on this old edge.
A recap is that somewhere around shave 35-40, it lost some of the ‘fresh off the rock’ feel, around 80-85 it lost some closeness (stubble returned more quickly), and around 115-120 it lost some smoothness. But it still isn’t at the point that the Cape or DT was, and it‘s still delivering a more than acceptable shave.
I’m 6 or 7 shaves away from Alfredo’s number, and this kind of validates that his number was not a fluke. I think that anyone with good stropping skills and really good razor with harder steel can duplicate these results.
The plan is to soon test a new linen and deviate from the Kanoyama strop that's worked very well so far. I intend to use a newly acquired piece of Latvian linen plus a kangaroo strop. The linen is a softer more flexible herringbone weave, thin strapping like the TM linen but looser and softer. The roo steop is very thin, and there are some experienced folks on another forum that believe that the thin, flexible roo can conform better to the edge. If you put a grommet in one end of the roo, you could actually roll it up and put a full size strop in a pill bottle, it’s that thin and flexible. While I do not believe that there’s a huge difference in the fabric components and results from the leather, the flexibility of both these components will be fun to try out on this old edge.
A recap is that somewhere around shave 35-40, it lost some of the ‘fresh off the rock’ feel, around 80-85 it lost some closeness (stubble returned more quickly), and around 115-120 it lost some smoothness. But it still isn’t at the point that the Cape or DT was, and it‘s still delivering a more than acceptable shave.
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I agree, the seude and cordovan look very similar. I am amazed by the quality and consistency of these photos. I also appreciate all the information presented, super useful.
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