Thread: Righty Tighty; Lefty Loosey

Shave #162.1 - Smooth

RazoRock Bay Rum Shave Soap
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra Stainless (1)
Thayers Extra Cool Witch Hazel
Gentlemen's Tonic AS Balm

BBS!

Shave #163 - Amazing

Tabac Shave Soap
Semogue 2012
WISS Ugly Duckling 9/16" (7)
Hulk's Smash

I did my routine 2-passer (N-S, S-N), with a third pass on the neck, scything downward and towards the center of my face on the right side, and mostly going parallel to the floor on my left side. I really paid attention to the skin pulling on this third pass, and it paid off. I'm virtually a total BBS in 2.5 passes. (There's a couple very small patches on the neck that aren't quite there).

I feel like the edge on my WISS is the most efficient one that I have right now. If you recall, I refreshed it by doing a slight sharpening, 5 heel leading laps, then 5 x-strokes, followed by polishing the edge on my Norton 8K. I don't know how I managed to do so well on my first ever try, but I feel like it is my sharpest edge. After 6 shaves some of the harshness has gone out of it and it doesn't feel as cutty cutty sharp sharp as before. Really a surprisingly good edge, not as smooth and nice as Doc226's Jnat edge, but really very decent.

I have a couple videos I'd like to share, they are an interview with Howard Schechter from The Perfect Edge. I quite enjoyed them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1z1voZKvGW8

I really liked this one. His ideas on stropping are totally the opposite of what I do. I suppose because he is trying to maintain the feeling of his hone created edge. It's interesting and just goes to show there's more than one way to skin a rabbit.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WcxgvywdgRw

Shave #164 - Shave Test

So at the same time that I bought the Geo Wostenholm & Son razor from an antique store, I also bought an ERN and Boker. I got the three together for a nice price. I sent the Geo for professional restoration and I've been working on cleaning up and sharpening the ERN. It had a slight frown which I bread knifed. Then I hand sanded the blade, to remove what little rust there was, followed by polishing with a bit of Flitz. I don't have a real place to work, or any tools to speak of, so I just did a light restore. I don't have the tools to unpinned the blade and really go to town.

Then I tried to sharpen it. I'm really not sure how successful I was, but I began trying to re-establish the bevel on my Atoma 400, moved on to really trying to set the bevel on the 1K water stone that I have, a Lee Valley Tools stone, possibly made by King Stone (I'm not sure). I got it to a point where it seemed to cut hair a bit, and then I moved on to my Norton 4K/8K. I finished up by polishing the edge on the 8k stone and then did 4 laps on the 0.5 diamond spray.

It took me a longtime to sharpen it. I was totally lost at sea, but I do now have a straight razor that seems like it might, possibly, be sharp. It is time for a shave test. I'm not expecting this to go well. I have my WISS on standby if needed. Here goes nothing...

Tabac Shave Soap
TOBS Badger Brush
ERN 5/8" (1)
Hulk's Smash

Hmmm, kinda a success. The razor did shave - that in and of itself was a major achievement. However, it wasn't really the best of shaves. I did my regular 2 passes with an extra pass on the neck. I'm around DFS (decent). The edge was comfortable and smooth, I just felt it could be sharper. It wasn't really wiping through the hairs quite like I might hope. It reminded me of approximately how my DOVO was shaving before the refresh - good, but could be better.

However, I was having lather problems for some reason. I didn't have the lather dialed in. It was drying up on my face and not giving me the slickness I want. My slightly below par shave might actually be totally down to lather. So, I'm going to try shaving with the ERN one or two more times before I start mucking around trying to improve the edge.
Still, successful enough that I feel I've earned a beer.

Shave Test #165 - Shave Test, Part Deux

Let's have another go at that...

Proraso Green Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
ERN 5/8" (2)
Hulk's Smash

Well,... I'm a bit unsure. Definitely the edge is not where I want it. I did my normal 2-passer with an extra run at the neck. I'm at CCS levels. I'm slightly confused because it does shave moderately well. I would assume (just from how the process of sharpening went) that I have a bum bevel, but since it shaves kind of okay, I'm wondering if the bevel is okay. So...I guess what I'll do is see if I can sharpen it up on the 8K. If that doesn't do the trick, then I'll take it down to the 1K and try redoing the bevel.

Shave #166 - Shave Test #3

I'm beginning to see how chasing your edge around becomes all consuming for some guys.

So last night I had a look at my edge and decided that I believe the bevel to be set. Therefore, if I'm correct, then getting the edge I want is just a matter of sharpening the blade to the correct level. Possibly I stopped the honing process too early during my initial honing. (I don't know what I'm doing).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pP4cP-aY-Wk

So, this morning I did 10 (straight) laps on my 8K with a light slurry, then 10 X-strokes, followed by 10 polishing laps on a slurryless stone. I then just did my normal daily stropping routine. If this doesn't give me the results I want, then I will do it again. I will alternate between shaving and the hones until I get what I want or it becomes evident that it is not going to happen, at which point I'll re-evaluate.

So here goes the shave test...

QCS Vostok Shave Soap
Semogue 2012
ERN 5/8" (1)
Hulk's Smash

The N-S pass was good, with no noticeable tugging. It seemed to be on par with some of my other edges. The S-N pass was not up to snuff. It didn't cut as cleanly as I would like. However, yet again I was having lather problems which were affecting the shave, particularly the S-N pass. There has been a large weather change here and I guess it is affecting the lathering of my soaps and apparently I haven't made the adjustment yet. For my final half pass I redid the lather, consciously adding much more water than normal. This last pass on the neck involves putting a lot of English on the blade, trying to get an ATG-ish pass for the hairs on my neck that grow parallel to the floor. The increased slickness helped and the blade's performance was acceptable.

The end result is a pretty decent DFS. Of note, I was surprised by how acceptable the polished Norton edge feels on the skin, without pastes, diamond sprays or the slightly ridiculous megastropping I did after refreshing the WISS.

I think I will try another light refresh before the next shave. My goal is to get this edge to equal my WISS's edge, which at the moment is my stable's premier weedwacker.

Shave #167 - My Point of Comparison

I decided to take the WISS out for a spin to remind myself exactly what I'm aiming for with the ERN.

QCS Vostok Croap
TOBS Badger Brush
WISS Ugly Duckling 9/16" (8)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum

My normal straight razor shave routine has me BBS on the face and DFS+ on the neck. I'm really getting nice shaves off the WISS right now. But, the difference in how the WISS shaves and how the ERN shave are very small - I'm so close to having the ERN dialed in. On the N-S pass there was virtually no discernible difference. On the S-N pass, the WISS is slightly better - but not as much as I had thought. I'll just give the ERN a slight touch up and that should get it there. Stay tuned.

I just came across this...I wish I had a shaving journal of some kind! It took me a long time to get whole face shaving smooth and nick free (still sometimes nick!) but it would be nice to be able to look back at the steps that led me there

Hi Ernie. Thanks for your comments. Yeah, the original idea for this little diary was as a way of keeping track of how many shaves I had on what blade, but it became a bit more than that. I hope you find it enjoyable.

Shave #167.1 - Ahhh, The DE

A beautiful, close comfortable shave.

C&E West Indian Lime Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra Stainless (2)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum

I do love my DE shaves. I don't even have to touch my face to know how my shave turned out - it's BBS.....well, for journalistic integrity let me check,...yep. BBS.

The C&E cream worked just fine with the DE. I love the smell of this stuff, but it isn't slick enough for straight razor shaving, so I rarely use it. It's a real shame, because the smell....mmmm, excellent. Maybe it can stay in my shave cabinet as a DE soap.

Shave #167.2 - Just Needed a Quickie

My wife is packing for an extended (2 month) trip to France. A couple weeks of business, and then I'll meet her there for some pleasure. As I've mentioned before, when she's packing like a whirling dervish, I dare not have a straight razor anywhere in the vicinity, so...

C&E West Indian Lime Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra Stainless (3)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum
C&E West Indian Lime AS Balm

I'm just the tiniest smidge below BBS. I suppose distractions from the wife, and the blade being at the end of its life account for this. Anyway, once the wife leaves later tonight I should have space and time to fart around with trying to get the edge right on my ERN. But, for right now I needed a quick kissable face. Mission accomplished.

Shave #168 - I Think That's Gotter Johnny

So I took the ERN back to the stone last night after my wife left. I did x-strokes on plain water for quite awhile. I didn't count laps. I noticed that one side was undercutting the water beautifully, while the other side had a bit in the middle that didn't seem to undercut so well. I just did x-strokes until it felt like the blade sucked down onto the stone on both sides, if that description makes any sense, let's just say it began to feel right on the hone, then I polished it. Shave test...

QCS Vostok Croap
Semogue 2012
ERN 5/8 (1)
Hulk's Smash

Well,... I think we've got something here. I did a 3-passer. The blade seemed to shave nicely all the way down its entire length, in both the right and left hand. I never found myself tempted to apply any pressure (my normal instinctive reaction to a dull blade). The end result of the shave was a BBS on the face and a DFS on the neck. I would expect a bit better result on the neck, but right now I'm prepared to blame operator error rather than the edge. The edge just felt like it was working good, so I think a slightly off result is down to other factors.

All that said, I think the edge on the WISS is still sharper. I don't know how I managed to fluke into such a nice edge on the WISS my very first try at refreshing/honing. Anyway, I consider the ERN to be good enough that I just stropped it up and will try another shave with it. I may yet do a light refresh to try to get it WISS sharp, but as far as I'm concerned as of this minute the ERN is shave ready.

So, that was a real learning experience. For my first real honing attempt (beyond a light refresh) I took an old blade, with a frown, bread knifed it, and then honed it up to shave ready. I think I have a bit of an idea of how the blade should feel on the hone now, and a better sense of what is required to get it there. It feels great not to feel intimidated by honing anymore. Living so far removed from professional honers, it was important to me that I become self-sufficient. I think a good first step has been made. Probably I will be changing my maintenance pattern, choosing to refresh much more frequently, simply because doing it doesn't really scare me anymore.