Advice needed on short edge life

[Conrad]

I use a four-sided strop with diamond pastes (3 to .25) to touch up my razor. I love the feel of the blade after finishing with the .25 side, but I find that the edge doesn't stay as keen as I'd like beyond 10 days. I initially thought I was ruining the edge with my stropping, but I've been extremely careful to keep a tight strop and use a light touch.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Or is this edge too fine to be durable?

[mparker762]

Why not touch it up on the .25 every ten days or so? If you're not using linen daily, or you really like that extra-fine edge, then 10 days between touch-ups is not unreasonable.

[Tony Miller]

While I like the sharpness of a 0.25 edge I feel it does not hold up as well either. Maybe it creates too fine an edge that breaks down more quickly or possibly I have overhoned when using it and have a wire edge giving the same effect.

Tony

[Thebigspendur]

10 shaves is not unreasonable between touchups and pastes in general do not give as durable an edge as hones do. You might try CrO instead of the .25 diamond and see if there is a difference or even try a hone and see what happens. You have to be careful with diamond because it is such an aggressive cutter. You can overdo it really easy.