Thread: Righty Tighty; Lefty Loosey

Do any other beginners find themselves spending an inordinate amount of time faceturbating? Seems like since I started this, I walk around all day rubbing my face this way and that, checking the shave, checking how quick it grows back, etc. Not totally socially acceptable.

Shave #6 - My Usual Pattern

I seem to have a bit of a pattern of following up a good shave with a disappointing one.

TOBS Badger Brush
T&F 1805 Cream + l'Occitane Shave Soap (combined for an über lather)
DOVO Palisander
Gentleman's Tonic Shave Balm

My usual 3-pass shave (approx. WTG, XTG, ATG). I managed to knick myself twice. A small paper cut type affair, while going downward on the chin, but no blood. I was shaving with the middle of my blade and was a bit in attentive to what the toe was doing. The next knick was on the XTG pass. I knicked my right cheek - this one did bleed a bit, though it had closed up by the time I finished my ATG pass. I'm actually not sure what I did here, the edge just did a slight skip. Possibly because it is very hot and humid here, I was sweating bullets, the sweat making my lather drip into my shoes.

I didn't bother with touch ups today as my skin felt a bit raw. I forgot to run the alum block over my face to see how bad it was. But, a half hour later, my skin feels fine, so maybe I was being overly cautious.

Result: A passable, socially acceptable, shave, but not nearly as smooth as my last shave.

Today I wiped my blade while shaving, instead of rinsing it and had no more problems with instantly developing watermarks. I also discovered another potential problem with my blade maintenance methods. Normally I shave, wash the blade, dry it off, dry the inside and outsides of the scales, strop, but the razor in a gun sleeve (which I purchased from the superior shave when I bought the razor), and put the whole thing in an airtight container with a large bag of desiccant. Like I said, it is humid here. Today I noticed after stropping that my scales were covered in sweat, inside and out. I will need to watch out for this in the future.

Darren

You are well on your way, focused on the process and this will only get better with practice.

The nicks might be from your tension-transition. As you shave you have to re-position your tension hand/stretch. if you do this while still moving the blade there can/will be a moment of slack/movement - and a nick is very easy. Remember that good tension allows for a light blade pressure and light pressure (let the edge do its job) is one of the keys to a comfortable shave.

I use the tissue wipe, but then I have "razordoinkaphobia" - and I also found it helped me stay on pace in the early days..

Post shave razor care - you might consider moving the post shave care out of the Shave Den, were the humidity is at its highest. This will help you keep your hands dry.

I do one, very careful, hot water rinse of the blade only at the end of the shave. Tissue or microfiber towel dry, short felt and leather strop to clean that edge and then a single drop of razor oil/mineral oil on each side. carefully distribute with a tissue and in to a sleeve and out of the Shave den for storage. Oil on a damp razor is not going to help much...

After almost dropping a razor out of the sleeve one time I started putting them in two piece vented tooth brush holders - cause I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy for some things..

Smooth shaving!

Thanks for the advice MJC. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and quality of the advice I've been getting from members on this thread - thank you all. It has been truly helpful and appreciated.

No shave today. Was planning to forget all about straights and concentrate on other things all day, Chinese language study, a Wei Chi (Go) tournament and some running around.

But, when I returned home I found a little package in the mail for me from Whipped Larry. At the same time I bought my DOVO I placed an order for one of his sight unseen flawed razors. It just arrived. It'll never win a beauty pageant, but it is actually in better shape than I expected. I can't see any cracks or anything on the scales, though they're a bit worn. Not sure what material they are, maybe horn. The blade has a heavy patina, no rust, a bit of pitting on the face nowhere near the edge. Just from eyeballing it, it looks like around 4/8", though judging from the fresh hone wear on the spine, it probably started as 5/8" and took that much to get the edge restored. This thing is seriously light and small compared to the DOVO. It is kind of oddly beautiful in the way that some ugly girls manage to charm.

I originally bought it as a razor mainly for practicing stropping and honing. Of course, I'll shave with it but its primary function is practice. My concept when beginning the straight razor journey was I would buy one razor I liked, learn to maintain it, use it daily, and when I shirk this mortal coil see it passed down as Grandpa Darren's razor. That was the concept. But, I find myself looking at restored razors, custom razors and new razors from modern producers and drooling.... Plus, with my jewelry/metalwork background I am beginning to find the idea of forging my own blades a bit intriguing. I'm fighting all these urges as I began this with the purest of intentions, but....

Shave # 7 - A Week of Shaves

l'Occitane Soap
TOBS Badger Brush
DOVO Palisander
Aqua di Colonia (Tobacco) Aftershave
Gentleman's Tonic Aftershave Balm.

First the shave: I may start revising my opinion of l'Occitane soap, at least for straight razor shaving. The lather can be made very wet and slippery, which seems to favor the straight razor. Did 3 passes (N-S, W-E E-W, and S-N). Everything went great. The N-S pass in particular was smooth and comfortable on both sides of the face. And, the pass was done quickly, not the 30 minute pass of a week ago. During this pass, I had an oh dopey me moment. The hair on my neck grows from my left ear to my right ear, approximately parallel to the floor. Thus, I haven't yet been able to really do WTG and ATG passes on my neck. But, I have been pulling my neck skin up onto my cheek/jaw bone to shave since the beginning. For some reason today it click that that means I could shave WTG and AGT while the skin was on my jaw - silly me. I used a bit of a scything stroke for this and it worked well. Progress.The other passes likewise went well, if a bit less smoothly. At the end of 3 passes I had a decent shave. A bit stubbly if I rubbed my fingers against the grain on the neck and chin, but certainly good enough.

Then I went nuts.

I lathered up a bit more and tried to see if anything would work on the problem area on my neck, just below the jawbone. I tried razor buffing with the straight. I did it at a low angle and could hear it cutting, but it didn't seem to help much, so I tried a more aggressive angle, but that was scary so I pulled out. Then somehow I managed to get the straight in under my chin, almost perpendicular to the floor and did some upward scything cuts towards my left ear. That seemed to work. Then I started chasing around the little problem areas I had with this shave. I don't think chasing a BBS is a smart thing to do. In the end I had a BBS everywhere above the jawline and also in the area under the chin, and the trouble area on the left side of my neck. The rest of my neck is almost BBS. But, my skin was glowing red by the time I finished fiddling around. Though strangely the Alum block was pretty quiet and the aftershave didn't send me through the roof either. A half hour later and I feel okay, so maybe it wasn't as damaging as I thought.

A bit of navel-gazing at the end of a week of shaves.

1. This has gone much smoother than I expected. Though my expectations were low, I was anticipating something like this:



(If you watch this guys first attempt with a straight razor all the way to the end, you get to see his trip to the trauma center). I attribute whatever luck I've had the first week to a lot of advance before I bought, or even contemplated touching a straight razor. (A big thank you to this site and its members).

2. If my shave sucks, it is probably because I haven't been paying close enough attention to the angles. Nice shallow angles and a gentle touch. Think beard reduction rather than trying to shave everything off all at once. The angle can be altered a little to accommodate what you're trying to accomplish. For example, ATG should be a really shallow angle.

3. If the problem wasn't the angles, then it was my skin pulling technique. It is really necessary to do a good job pulling the skin to get a smooth safe shave. If you don't pull the skin well, you're left with a lot of stubble and again maybe some nicks. I think a lot of the problems I have had while shaving with my left hand actually resulted from my right hand not doing a good job of stretching the skin.

4. I've been a wet shaver all my life, but wet shave prep for a straight razor shave is far more critical than anything I've done before. Bad prep = bad shave, and maybe some nicks.

*End of self-indulgent navel-gazing*

I do have a question that has been boiling in the back of my brain. I bought my razor from Jarrod at the superior shave and he set me up with a beautiful edge, sharp enough and smooth shaving - pretty forgiving too. I have the Straight Razor Design's modular paddle strop which came with .5 micron diamond spray and a couple of felts. I'm wondering how long I should expect to shave with this edge before taking it to the diamond embedded felt for a touch up - I'm enjoying the edge it has and don't want to do anything to prematurely screw it up. My beard is relatively light and the hairs themselves are not overly coarse. I think. (I've only really compared myself to my father, and the man has a bramble of barbed wire, compared to him, I'm a prepubescent boy). The razor I have is a modern DOVO with hard carbon steel (Swedish, I think). I strop, post shave 20x on rough suede followed by 60x on smooth leather. Assuming I don't roll the edge, how many shaves should I expect before needing to hit the diamond paste?

Since I live far away from any honemeisters, blade maintenance and prolonging the edge is important to me.

Thanks,
Darren

Ooops, in point #1 I meant to say my luck during this first week can be attributed to advanced research, before buying a straight and trying to shave....

Darren

I just wanted to congratulate you on your sensible and intelligent approach to learning SR shaving. You did your proper due diligence by researching the subject beforehand and approached it with a reasonable level of expectation of the initial results. That rational approach and outlook goes a long way to minimizing the initial frustrations everyone has. The added bonus is that you seem to be progressing well in learning the art without major problems. Your navel gazing is spot on too.

I don't think there is a standard set number of shaves you can get before needing to go to the pasted strop for a touch up. Just too many variables in how quickly or slowly an individual will dull a blade. When you feel a drop in sharpness from what you normally perceive it to be you may want to try a few touch up strokes. You may have to touch up more frequently in the beginning stages and less frequently as your technique improves. Good luck.

Bob

I think that video is a prime arguement for research.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

I think that video is a prime arguement for research.

Yea, poster child for exactly how NOT to go about it. Makes me just shudder.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Yea, poster child for exactly how NOT to go about it. Makes me just shudder.

Bob

Yes was struggling with it myself. The worst part for me was that he seemed to know about all the things he was missing but just ploughed on anyway, well apart from nearly killing himself that is