Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Shave 128, edge unchanged. Post shave, 40 soft Latvian linen 90 roo, no suede.
Shave #133 this morning and the edge is good, and equals the number Alfredo got from his TI, so his result is not a fluke. I had previously posted that the edge is actually improving a bit over #125-127. I did some things differently, mostly to test the efficacy of fabrics and strops on an edge that appeared to be declining. Most likely the increased smoothness/performance is due to simply doubling the fabric from 20 to 40 each shave. I did switch to Latvian linen and a roo strop to see if more flexible products made a difference. Maybe, but the conventional wisdom is that the type of fabric and leather don’t make that much difference, but the thinness of the linen and leather I’m currently using has advocates. There’s something going on, again, likely just increased linen.
I thought about stopping around #128, the edge didn’t seem to have much left in it and just flogging a few more shaves from it to exceed Alfredo’s number seemed like a ‘little’ thing to do with little relevance to maintaining an edge for many shaves. But I got a PM from Alfredo that simply said ‘Keep it going’, so that’s what I’m going to do. Thank you Alfredo!
Post-shave stropping was 40 Latvian linen and 80 roo.
I find fabric types to make a huge difference. I used to use 55 laps on my hemp strops and now I use 3 on a polyester.but the conventional wisdom is that the type of fabric and leather don’t make that much difference,
It is a bit coarser and stiffer than seat belt or the SRP polys, but more supple and finer than any other fire hose that I've seen or tried. I think that its aggressiveness is do to the composition more than the stiffness or weave. In another thread I described learning that fumed silica is often used as a thickener in polyester resin. I suspect that this is the source of the abrasive nature of this strop. Similar to the higher silica content of flax linen and hemp verses cotton.Could be Victor. Can you describe the characteristics and advantages of polyester? Is it thin and flexible?
Do I need to start tuning my violin?Shave 137, shave was kind of ‘meh’, but I did have more growth than usual. Post shave stropping was 40 Kanoyama canvas followed by 40 Kanoyama suede and 75 cordovan. If the edge isn’t smoother tomorrow, back to the Latvian linen and roo.
Do I need to start tuning my violin?