Honing/Stropping SE blades

[veteran]

Over at B&B some intrepid souls have been trying to extend and improve their SE blades by honing and or stropping. Anyone here been having a go?

 

[Pjotr]

Over at B&B some intrepid souls have been trying to extend and improve their SE blades by honing and or stropping. Anyone here been having a go?

I've been following that one too. I haven't tried it in all seriousness. What the guy is doing makes no sense because the method he uses will not actually bring the cutting edge of the blade in contact with the stone/hone. If it does work using his method there's some other process going on that I have no understanding of. At the moment I'm inclined to think that it's all inside his head and as I've yet to witness others rave about it I'm reserving judgement. On the other hand a lot of the early SEs were stropppers so it's not inconceivable that this would work. I did clean up an old stone I had lying around but I'm not sure what grit it is or if it's suitable. It's an interesting thought though. Means that all you need is half a dozen blades a year.

 

[pablo_h]

I actually had a GEM set with the proper stropper and strop. It does not do anything good on stainless steel blades.
Then again I think hand stropping does nothing good and is detrimental to the blades anyway.

Don't forget straight razors that you hone and strop are not stainless blades.

I did read about someone on theoriginalsafety trying it with carbon blades like it used to be done, but didn't extend the life of the blade more than 1 or 2 shaves before the corrosion kicked in and made it not worthwhile.

 

[Pjotr]

It's beginning to sound like the usual bull. In any case as I'm getting at least 6 shaves/blade I'm not really too fussed to be honest.

 

[veteran]

I suppose it could work but you would need a jig of some sort to get a consistent angle, as you said , is it worth it?. Palm stropping a new blade can`t hurt, I can get good shaves from the start with SE blades after half a dozen laps each way. I also got tip re rough as guts Personna injector blades, ie, giving a new blade 1 super soft pass with the end grain of a bit of balsa. I was ready to bin the injectors because of the blade issues but I swear I get more shaves per blade and they are as smooth as NOS or Chinese Schicks from shave 1. Pablo, I thought all straights, Carbon or Stainless, had to be stropped before and after shaving?

 

[$qwuzzy]

Seems like a lot of effort for something that isn't that expensive anyway.
And the people who are likely to have the equipment around to do it are also like to have a blade stash approaching Monsta's.

 

[pablo_h]

Pablo, I thought all straights, Carbon or Stainless, had to be stropped before and after shaving?

Yeah my point was basic stropping on a carbon SE disposable blade, like done on carbon straight, strop before, strop after etc, doesn't really work, even when using alcohol to prevent rusting. Is there a point on trying it on a stainless disposable blade when the stainless straights need all sorts of honing and pastes and compounds for stropping?

 

[Pjotr]

...........Is there a point on trying it on a stainless disposable blade when the stainless straights need all sorts of honing and pastes and compounds for stropping?

Exactly. Stainless is pretty hard to get an edge on. All my carpentry tools and best knives are carbon steel of some description.

 

[veteran]

You may have already seen the thread where the guy has posted intsructions for fashioning your own adaptor for using DE`s in SE razors LOL. Some thought gone in to that one but again is there a point?

 

[Pjotr]

If you prefer DE blades then yes, I guess. But surely DE blades work better in a DE razor. It's the usual gripe about not having any choice in SE blade and more choice is better. I would love to see the results of double blind testing using DE blades in a DE razor. Ideal because you can't really tell once it's in the razor. I bet you anything you like that most would get it hopelessly wrong.