Refreshing your blade

[Rusty Blade]

Straight razor honing is one of those subjects where if you ask 10 guys for an opinion you get 11 responses. And each one of them is valid. It works for them.

So my question to you all is how do you freshen your blade? Now, by this I mean the blade does not need a bevel reset and a run through all your stones, or repair of major damage like when you slapped it on the faucet when rinsing your blade and heard a fatal "tink" and look to see a tip missing, but rather it just needs to be "freshened"....a fresh edge or something of the sort. An extra 50 laps on the strop just doesnt seem to do it. Anyway, you get the picture.
Me? I freshen my blade by 10 to 15 laps on my 12k Naniwa. Does the trick for me. How about you?

 

[trentr]

50-150 laps on my finisher. Super light. Followed with 50-100 on the leather. As long as it TTT pretty cleanly and quietly, I can be confident it will give a good shave. I am not an old pro but I do have a "process" that works for me. And is no longer just gues and shoot in the dark, like in the beginning LOL. But that was fun too.

 

[buca3152]

I generally dull the blade on a glass gently. And set a bevel fast with my 1k. Then up from there. I have many times raised a small slurry on my jnat too.

 

[Christian1212]

Depends on the day. Sometimes it's jnat with tomo slurry and other times it is some laps on the coticule.

Side note there was 1 razor I had with probably 120+ ish shaves that I would re touch with coticule (every 25 shaves or so, it would get 30-40 laps on the 5x2 coti). After the 3rd touch up or 4th the edge still got better but not to where it could be. Eventually it went on a 2k for bevel reset then coti edge again.

I have not got to that point with a jnat edge yet but the coti edge razor was my daily driver. Not sure how long my jnat could keep the magic happening.

Only thing my razors get is stropped on leather for 50 laps or so before a shave. Sometimes some after shave strop to clean the bevel but only a few. I want to get a nice linen to strop on but my Kanayama has suede. I want it to be an excuse to buy another kanayama but I know I can buy just the linen from them .

 

[Herrenberg]

No consistent answer. I look at it in the microscope, and decide then. Sometimes it means falling back to 0.5 micron pasted balsa. Sometimes going to the last finisher stone, or the last two. Or it means that I see some edge damage, and need to fall further back than that, depending on the size of the dings.

 

[totorlekiller]

I have found that about 20 laps pasted strop does the job for razors that have not been used in a long time. I have not have to re-hone a razor because of over-use yet.

 

[rbscebu]

After each shave, the SR gets 50 laps on a 0.1um diamond pasted hanging balsa strop. That's all the "refreshing" that my edges ever need.

 

[Ravenonrock]

If leather and CroOx aren’t doing it 8 and 12K to finish. I’m still guessing my way around, trying to see what works with different razors.

 

[Rusty Blade]

This is basically the process I use for a 12k Naniwa refresh.

 

[Tanuki]

I freshen my blade by 10 to 15 laps on my 12k Naniwa.

Yes, I do this sometimes.

After each shave, the SR gets 50 laps on a 0.1um diamond pasted hanging balsa strop.

Or I do much like this, but 60 laps pre-shave.

Or, I run my full diamond pasted balsa progression. Strop 60 laps on each: 50k, 100k, and 200k (0.1u).

 

[RumpleBearskin]

Over time I have used multiple methods.

Originally I did a quick 20-50 light laps on the 12k Nani.

Then I got a Swaty 3-line (approx. 8k grit) and found that that would take my edges up with 10-15 light laps with lather. Eventually I ended up back at the 12k to smooth/polish the edges a bit more, but the Swaty kept me shaving.

Then I got into diamond pasted balsa and 60 laps on 0.1u after each shave meant no need for refreshes. No refreshes ... ever.

Then I missed honing and got a coticule, then a Les Lateneuses coticule (and then another LL). I've abandoned the balsa in order to get a chance to do refreshes. My current refresh routine use 10-40 light laps on the hybrid side under running water. (In some cases that is proceeded by a few laps on the yellow with a very thin slurry and diluting to water.)

And now that you've got me thinking of it, I think I'll go touch up my Fili 14 DT and a James Barlow that are acting like they might be considering thinking about possibly beginning to tug.

 

[RumpleBearskin]

After action report:

The James Barlow only took a few laps on the yellow followed by 20+ on the hybrid side to finish. Fairly soft steel on this one.

The Fili I had to take back to heavy slurry on the yellow and dilute through to running water. Almost a full progression. Then back to the hybrid for a final 20 or so laps.

Stropped on clean leather then 10 hand stropping strokes to get to tree topping readiness.

 

[Mouette]

I realise that this is a slippery question and it's definitely a case of YMMV but if you refresh your edge every 10 to 20 shaves or so, using a 12k stone (I have a Shapton), how many strokes will it take to refresh the edge.

I would imagine that you can do a ballpark figure for this. eg 10 strokes probably isn't enough while 50 is probably way too many. I haven't gone down the route of pasted balsa etc and just looking at giving the blade a refresh on my 12k Shapton.

cheers

Andrew

 

[Legion]

Usually ~30 laps on my "touch-up" coticule with just water, then 30 laps linen, forty laps leather.

 

[trentr]

I realise that this is a slippery question and it's definitely a case of YMMV

This is definitely true. But, I have seen alot of people mention the 15-20 range. It may be a case of my inexperience or my equipment, or or or I do not know, but 15-20 does not seem to quite get me there. I do go quite light. Who knows. I started with shooting for certain lap counts, but now I go by what the blade and over all "feel" of things is telling me. The only counting I do is to keep things even.

 

[Luecke2326]

For myself, 10-15 laps under running water on the Jasper or Escher Hones, until the blade starts to stick a bit.

 

[stone and strop]

This is definitely true. But, I have seen alot of people mention the 15-20 range. It may be a case of my inexperience or my equipment, or or or I do not know, but 15-20 does not seem to quite get me there. I do go quite light. Who knows. I started with shooting for certain lap counts, but now I go by what the blade and over all "feel" of things is telling me. The only counting I do is to keep things even.

If the razor has been used for a bit there is a slight rounding at the edge from stropping so unless you are using a pretty quick stone-Naniwa 12 or similar it is not doing much IMO
To truly refresh the edge would be much more for me.
I always laugh at the notion of 3-5 laps, even on a Barber hone, 10-20 on a Barber hone will refresh it properly.
For the most part I normally step down to about 3k to do minor edge repair from use, it needs it.

 

[Frank Shaves]

I hone the edge on a finishing stone (Naniwa 12k or JNAT) until the edge looks nice and smooth under my loupe, using whichever kinds of strokes I need to use to accomplish this. Then I strop on leather for at least 50 laps, and perform a HHT.

 

[Tanuki]

If the razor has been used for a bit there is a slight rounding at the edge from stropping so unless you are using a pretty quick stone-Naniwa 12 or similar it is not doing much IMO

When I refreshed on my Naniwa 12k S2, 15 to 20 laps would usually suit me fine. Now I'm mostly a 60 lap 0.1u balsa guy.

Back down to 3k is an edge restore rather than a refresh, in my vocabulary. Razors that require that very often lose my favor.

 

[bluesman 7]

For the most part I normally step down to about 3k to do minor edge repair from use, it needs it.

This ^^^^

Sometimes a 5k is enough, but more often I end up using a 3k. This is on edges that often have 80-120 shaves on them though