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SR Shaving Instructions for Beginners (Rev. H)

LesC said:
rbscebu, Hi is it possible to "blunt/dull" a honed and ready SR by over-stropping on leather or a balsa strop? Cheers
Les
ps; Great article :)
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In my opinion, the only way to blunt/dull a razor on the strop is if you press too hard on the edge itself, at least that's what I managed to do when I knew nothing. What I would never do, what I've come to realise is a complete waste of time, is to strop more than 15-20 times. For the kind of shave that I expect and demand from my razors, and myself, this is plenty enough, and my standard is "never settle for anything less than GBS™️ (Godess Boobies' Smooth)".

I cannot help you with balsa strop (I assume coated with diamond paste). I never bother with pastes. My edges are good enough for GBS™️.
 
LesC said:
rbscebu, Hi is it possible to "blunt/dull" a honed and ready SR by over-stropping on leather or a balsa strop? Cheers
Les
ps; Great article :)
Click to expand...
Stropping on clean leather (not pasted) and pasted balsa are two different things.

Excessive stropping on clean leather, done properly, should not blunt/dull a shave-ready SR. All that leather stropping does is realign any deformaties in the edge and remove any oxidation on the bevel. I have only tried a few hundred laps on a clean leather strop and don't know what a few thousand laps would do.

Incorrect leather stropping (stropping with excessive pressure) will mostly tend to "round" the edge. By this I mean put an ever so slight convexity in the bevel right at the edge. This could be considered blunting/dulling the edge.

Stropping on pasted balsa does remove metal. This is evident by the dark residue that builds up on the balsa.

Stropping on pasted balsa will start to develop a fin edge, the same as whetstone/lapping film will do. That is why pasted balsa stropping should also include some short pull and later short X strokes. They help prevent a fin edge from developing.
 
@Mastropiero, I concur with your findings on clean leather stropping. I have found that anything over about 30 laps produces no further improvement on an edge, but it also does no harm. I have the time so will spend an extra 10 to 15 seconds and give a blade about 50 to 60 laps in total, just to make sure.

The main thing is that you do what you are happy with. There are no fixed rules in SR shaving.
 
Mastropiero said:
That's the only absolute truth in SR shaving. This, and that it's advisable to wear at least a towel around your waist, unless you enjoy living dangerously.
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Nanook said:
That is rule No.1. Thou shalt not SR shave naked.
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Sorry Gents, I fail miserably then. Straight out the shower and into the shave no towel.
As for stropping I am still experimenting with everything from waxed loom strops to diamond pasted balsa, denim and leather.
I always finish on DC Blades Kangaroo and strop until I am tree lopping arm hairs, and then a few more strokes. If I have just shaved then 30x double strops before oiling and storing and usually another 30- 50 before next shave
This is all I do to maintain the edge between shaves on a good razor.

I do hold the strop very tight or use the loom strop out of concern for rounding the edge through poor stropping technique
 
I keep a very minimalistic approach to both honing and stropping, as far as equipment goes.

I only have one finishing stone (an Escher Thüringen DB - Dark Blue -stone), although I have an old-ish Coticule that I should learn, one day, to use. I feel you get better results getting to know your material and developing a good system and a good technique, rather than chasing that elusive perfect edge, via trying a JNAT, and another, and another, and a Coti, and a translucent Arknsas, and a Churnley Forest and......

Same with my strops. I have two. A Russian Leather one, and a Horween, Cordovan leather one, handmade by a friend, which is glorious to look at, and stropping on it brings excellent results.

Would I want to learn more about stones? Certainly. Do I want to sacrifice family time and time I dedicate to other hobbies, in order to get acquainted wuth a whole quarry worth of stones? Give me a break.

As long as I still get the reviews I get for my edges, and as long as my own GBS™️ standard is met, I feel this is the right path for me.
 
Mastropiero said:
...As long as I still get the reviews I get for my edges, and as long as my own GBS™️ standard is met, I feel this is the right path for me.
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I've been reconsidering my criteria for the GBS shave. Since rediscovering a long-forgotten picture (thanks to my current project of scanning my old 35mm negatives) of Mme Gargravarr topless on a beach on Serifos in 1986 :love: , I have been forced to accept that the most perfect GBS is at best a vanishingly ephemeral thing, at worst fraudulent. The Real Deal(TM) is smoother by orders of magnitude.
 
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Gargravarr said:
I've been reconsidering my criteria for the GBS shave. Since rediscovering a long-forgotten picture (thanks to my current project of scanning my old 35mm negatives) of Mme Gargravarr topless on a beach on Serifos in 1986 :love: , I have been forced to accept that the most perfect GBS is at best a vanishingly ephemeral thing, at worst fraudulent. The Real Deal(TM) is smoother by orders of magnitude.
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Yay topless.

What are you using for scanning negatives?
 
Mastropiero said:
Yay topless.

What are you using for scanning negatives?
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I'm using one of these. I never expected miracles with it, but on the whole it has performed better than expected. It could be improved with a better way to keep the negative totally flat, eg sandwiching it between sheets of glass, but that might introduce problems with scratching etc. Negatives that are in good condition come out excellently, and the 22MPx resolution is realistic by comparison with the grain size on the film.

All too many of my negatives are in poor condition, due to mistreatment at the processing lab, most probably reusing C41 chemicals too much, and/or inadequate bleach and fix. The gadget does less well with these, but that's to be expected. I've been able to get around some of the distortion by tweaking the colour balance in the GIMP, usually by adding a little more green.

Adopting a philosophy that the memories that are evoked by the picture are more important than technical accuracy helps. I don't go in for large prints, since we have far too much original artwork to put on our walls to make space for photographs.
 
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