Thread: 2 goals

Originally Posted by Bart

I don't really see your point, other than just playing around with some challenge.

Beard prep: I always wash my face with hot water and soap, massage the coarse spots a bit, rinse with more hot water and then lather up. I strop while the lather hydrates the hairs. I rework the lather with some additional hot water before I start shaving.
Adding anything to that routine (a shower, a nice hot towel, a sauna, running an hour through the woods), doesn't change the shaving experience and results one single bit for me.
On the other hand, removing something out of that routine, does have immediate repercussions on the results.

About stropping: a razor will shave without it. But it will shave better when stropped, just like your whiskers will be more easily shaved with decent prep.
If you want to find out when the shave starts to become unacceptable for you, be my guest, but I thought straight razor shaving was all about maximizing the shaving results and experience.

"Zen" is not synonym of "brief".

Best regards,
Bart.

+1 on everything Bart has said here.

The entire process: honing, stropping, prep, and then the shave is a "Zen" thing for me.

I don't want to eliminate any part of it.

I am not even going to discuss the elimination of beard prep, that's just way to crazy (you can only take my Uberlather from my cold dead hands)

Now not stropping Hmmmm
No I would not give it up, except in this hypothetical discussion we are having... I could see just a few swipes on a lathered very fine barber's hone before each shave being a substitute for stropping, but doesn't that basically defeat the purpose of no prep????
But yeah, I would say that it could work... for you though I enjoy stropping way to much

FWIW, my prep is almost identical to Bart's. One of these days I'll have to try the shower first prep, but right now it seems to be altogether too difficult to figure out changes in the routine that early in the morning. Following mindless habit before the day's first cup of coffee just seems to be the right thing to do. And the left thing to do for the other side of my face...

Coffee hasn't helped much today. It feels like I shaved too... and still have my ears... hmmm.

Originally Posted by Bruce

Coffee hasn't helped much today. It feels like I shaved too... and still have my ears... hmmm.

You're evolving well, Bruce.

Chris L

Originally Posted by gugi

I'm moving this thread, as the newbies section is the last place such nut ideas should be discussed.
I don't know whether honing or stropping is more appropriate, so I'm putting it in advanced honing.

i wondered where to put it myself thanks

Prep, I would settle for a minimum of some Feather preshave and lather soak while I give a couple swipes on the cot. ( I can never keep the feather products straight which one is which) When I first tried it I didn't feel like it did much. Now my technique is a little better; razor a little sharper it may be ok stuff. we'll see.

I do agree a stropped edge is better for shaving. A mid-shave stropping seems to help as well.


After trying English's soap on a hone suggestion last night the stropless goal seemed possible. I feel like i am closing the gap with Mr. Davis 6 or 7 strop swipes with no need for a second pass

That was with 10 passes on my small hone. 10 or 20 more? I will see tonight

I have to go work. Keep the input rolling in and I'll be back later with some specific replies perhaps. thanks guys

Originally Posted by ben.mid

I think that honing & stropping are completely different. Honing is about removing material, & stropping is about re-aligning it.
For me, it's easier to run a blade over a strop than to get out a hone.
Experiments are great & help with further development, but my view on this one is that our ancestors had access to the same razors, hones & strops that many of us use today. We've got stainless now, & no doubt soon Seraphims ceramic blade, but many of the razors we're using are vintage. If our ancestors felt that stropping was necassary when this was their daily chore, it probably has an important place.
Keep us updated!

Super good points. Stainless, yes. But this is not an idea for every razor as yet, but something to do to see what can be learned. Maybe even why our ancestors taught us as they did? I was encouraged when Lyn said he didn't strop 'til after the first shave, unless that was a typo What was taught may not be my concern. It's not for suffers of LBS latent barber's syndrome
Often recommended is HM job for a comparator. Was it sharpened on your hones? How'd e do dat? I have a crappy cheap microsope from the rshack, and advice from you guys on where nats should fit in progression.
I can see microchips, how mild tarnish effects the edge, skin cells and crystalline structures in the steel.
When I shave I get as much as I can get. There is no point in beating oneself up of course.
I'm just saying that my last pass off the coticule was equal to the best stropped non-pasted razor I've got so far. So what the hells why not coast it. I do believe that 10 passes will recomplete what the shave did to the edge for sure. i didn't scope it out

Ok so my strops are irregular. I mean to try and make a better one. I also mean to set up a case 132, 133 imps up on a 6000 king stone/ 5000 shapton / loom like pastey,

but they need cleaning up as well.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I am not even going to discuss the elimination of beard prep, that's just way to crazy (you can only take my Uberlather from my cold dead hands)

Now not stropping Hmmmm
No I would not give it up, except in this hypothetical discussion we are having... I could see just a few swipes on a lathered very fine barber's hone before each shave being a substitute for stropping, but doesn't that basically defeat the purpose of no prep????
But yeah, I would say that it could work... for you though I enjoy stropping way to much

Hypothetical for you;
baby face!

That's right almost like a barber, only doing better than he might. A few swipes on a peppermint soaped coticule. and shave is not much.
prep none the less, i agree.

Stropping; as we have seen on youtube is part of a show. FWIW first begun by the surgeon's guild in 899ce. In the ensuing Hone Wars the warrior clique', being forbade the strop, proved over and again the the superiority of the hone by killing countless more than could be saved

Originally Posted by Bart

I don't really see your point, other than just playing around with some challenge.

Beard prep: I always wash my face with hot water and soap, massage the coarse spots a bit, rinse with more hot water and then lather up. I strop while the lather hydrates the hairs. I rework the lather with some additional hot water before I start shaving.
Adding anything to that routine (a shower, a nice hot towel, a sauna, running an hour through the woods), doesn't change the shaving experience and results one single bit for me.
On the other hand, removing something out of that routine, does have immediate repercussions on the results.

About stropping: a razor will shave without it. But it will shave better when stropped, just like your whiskers will be more easily shaved with decent prep.
If you want to find out when the shave starts to become unacceptable for you, be my guest, but I thought straight razor shaving was all about maximizing the shaving results and experience.

"Zen" is not synonym of "brief".

Best regards,
Bart.

Zen is in the moment however brief. I just want to learn something about my hones. I already know it's nice to return to a full treatment of preps. I like my alum gauge which stays accurate to problem areas. mild alert to neutral

Giving a little bit of thought to the premise of eliminating prep or stropping I was thinking of how much I enjoy the lathering and the stropping. I don't know if I will eventually get tired of one or both but right now I look upon them as pleasurable. Even if I could get by with one pass I would still do two rather then miss out on pulling that warm lather out of the Moss scuttle and pampering myself with the Simpson's Super.

Early on in reading posts on the forums one long time member mentioned "the drudgery of honing". I am not there yet. I am still learning and full of curiosity. For me honing is still a pleasurable pursuit with a bit of mystery. I think as long as the mystery remains the honing will still be pleasurable. Stropping to me is equivalent to honing, at least in that it is something I like doing.

When I first started I had never used anything but Witch Hazel as an after shave and that only after I began DE shaving. Now I have a half dozen that I look forward to following the shave. Speaking for myself adding to the ritual has enhanced it. I can see where someone would want to take some of it away to save time or money but I enjoy it too much for that approach.