Thread: 2 goals

LOL, speed things up by eliminating beard prep and stropping! speed it up even more by eliminating shaving...
I ENJOY the full meal deal

well this is waht i did i hined 4 razors up stroped 3 of them then i did my prep when i started to shave i used the one that i dident strop i thought that i mised somthing then it hit me i dident strop this one so i did 40 laps on leather and woo it made a hghe difference so smoth so you can cut corners on everything but stroping is a must.

I'm with ben.mid, stropping is a different animal. I believe that my razor is sharper after stropping then after the hone by itself. Maybe it is just alignment maybe there is some abrasion in there as well but it is a better edge for me.

The only other prep I do is washing my face vigorously with hot water and soap twice in the shower. To me the added comfort I get is worth whatever time that and stropping takes.

I do admire people who experiment though and maybe you are on to something.

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 don't know, Kevin, I'll never see a time where I'll dispense with stropping. Certainly honing is critical to creating a shave ready edge. But that aside, for me stropping is almost more important that honing for me. That leather just tunes the edges so well and so completely I don't know what else to say.

Chris L

I'm with you though on the beard prep. I'll come right out and say I hate prep. Shaving would be even more enjoyable for me if I could strop, splash one splash of water on my face, whip up some lather, apply and go right into shaving immediately. I would love that. Beard softening is a huge annoyance for me. Part of the problem for me I believe is my ultra hard water. I can hot towel until the cows come home, take a 20 minute shower blasting water directly on my beard and those extremely softened whiskers dry out and harden back up before I can get the lather on them. Prep oil doesn't really seem to help all that much either so I stopped using oil. So, yeah, I hate prep.

Well, I'm seeing this discussion from the exact opposite angle. Having used nothing but the bare side of a four sided paddle strop, I've recently made the discovery of what wonders proper stropping does to a razor. I'd sell my hones now before I'd get rid of the strop.

Originally Posted by Chris L

I don't know, Kevin, I'll never see a time where I'll dispense with stropping. Certainly honing is critical to creating a shave ready edge. But that aside, for me stropping is almost more important that honing for me. That leather just tunes the edges so well and so completely I don't know what else to say.

Chris L

I'm with you though on the beard prep. I'll come right out and say I hate prep. Shaving would be even more enjoyable for me if I could strop, splash one splash of water on my face, whip up some lather, apply and go right into shaving immediately. I would love that. Beard softening is a huge annoyance for me. Part of the problem for me I believe is my ultra hard water. I can hot towel until the cows come home, take a 20 minute shower blasting water directly on my beard and those extremely softened whiskers dry out and harden back up before I can get the lather on them. Prep oil doesn't really seem to help all that much either so I stopped using oil. So, yeah, I hate prep.

I am prepared for the crushing defeat of failure. I should measure width now or i'll never know what was lost in 6 months.

I still give you props for your strop making thread. The sanding part I would have never figured out. good stuff.

oil, like using the feather stuff: still a question mark. maybe it helps. but it doesn't work alone.

Originally Posted by kevint

oil, like using the feather stuff: still a question mark. maybe it helps. but it doesn't work alone.

When I used a cartridge razor, I got great results using (King of Shaves) shaving oil topped with aloe vera gel. Holland and Barrett - Product details for Aloe Vera Gel This was vastly better than anything else I had ever tried. I keep meaning to try it with a straight, but haven't got round to it.

I'm 90% certain it would give a great shave and cut down the time needed drastically. But using a brush and lather is half the fun.

And it has to be said that good prep and lather has an enormous softening effect on the skin. Sometimes during the prep I feel my face and I can feel that BBS effect happening even before the blade has got near my face!

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.

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.