Thread: Rules

Here are the "rules" I have managed to break successfully:

1. Stropping before every shave . . . I don't need to strop just off the hone and I can get away with stropping every other shave ok. Somedays I wonder if stropping is a little overrated.

2. Using shaving cream . . . I have done a water only pass many times, usually after a cream pass though. But I find that its a lot easier to see the whiskers get shaved without the cream. I can't do this with a DE but I can with a straight. Cuz there smoother.

3. Water . . . yea no kidding. I have successfully shaved without water. You apply the water into the cream anyway. Just let it soak and you can shave without water . . . why? Good question, it seems to work best out in the country without running water. Again, though, your just soaking the beard with cream. The point is a straight, honed properly, cuts into the steel cable we call a whisker pretty well. The problem with other razors is the edge dulls quickly. Same with a straight, but in our case you've got a hone to correct it.

Here are the rules I have yet to successfully break:

1. Honing with the blade flat on the hone and a light touch . . . I can use tape alright but generally I've had to stick to this rule hard and fast. I can use almost any stroke or angle I choose but flat is key. I'm still a big fan of the X pattern though. While were on the subject I'll say using a light touch on the hone, ultimately, is a good rule too. I have broken the rule once. Got a wicked sharp blade by using pressure and a washboarding stroke back and forth, but only once. A thousand other times a light touch was the key, in the long run.

2. Stropping lightly . . . I have had mixed results with stropping using pressure. I've used it successfully many, many times and yet on occasion I end up with a wicked sharp edge that isn't aligned perfectly and the shave suffers a little. I have tried and succeeded many, many times but in the end I'll have to say this "rule" has defeated me and I've been forced to stick to it. I wonder if all those movies we see the barber stropping in it got created because a movie director saw someone stropping as daintily as I do and said "Oh, no way anyone in my movie is going to strop like that".

3. 30 degree angle when shaving . . . mixed results over these few years. A high angle second pass, maybe. I've even tried a 90 degree angle but ultimately I find 30 degree shaving angle to be the best, everywhere. Might be simplicity but for me I'll call it a rule I'm sticking with.

4. Shaving with a light touch . . . oh yea, I've tried digging the blade into my skin. It works, but whats the point of irritating your skin? Just to remove some whisker . . . no thanx. I use a light touch shaving too . . .

I think I'm seeing a pattern here . . . you?

4. Dry blade. I can treat my blades very, very poorly. But as long as they are dry when done, they survive nicely.

I think you have a lot of company!

2 and 3 might be open for debate, but stropping is essential I have found.
After 30 or 40 Xes on the strop, the edge feels much keener than without stropping.

An unstropped straight is not funto shave with.
At least, that is my experience. YMMV.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Here are the "rules" I have managed to break successfully:

...2. Using shaving cream . . . I have done a water only pass many times, usually after a cream pass though. But I find that its a lot easier to see the whiskers get shaved without the cream. I can't do this with a DE but I can with a straight. Cuz there smoother....

FWIW, I've found the shave sticks from QED to be very useful for getting areas where you really need to see the whiskers. If you just rub it on your face and do not create the lather, the soap remains clear and is very slick. Its great for touching up those tough spots. Just my experience.

Jordan

Excellent . . . debate sounds fun too.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

3. 30 degree angle when shaving . . . mixed results over these few years. A high angle second pass, maybe. I've even tried a 90 degree angle but ultimately I find 30 degree shaving angle to be the best, everywhere. Might be simplicity but for me I'll call it a rule I'm sticking with.

I've found that my shaving angle has been gradually reducing as my honing has improved. For various reasons I've been paying more attention to what I'm doing lately, and have noticed that for most of my face my blade is very very flat, the spine is just barely off my face (maybe half a spine width). Except on my chin, where it's more like 1 1/2 spine widths. And my lower neck (WTG pass) where it's about 45 degrees, though the ATG pass here the blade is once again much less than a spine width off my face.


Stropping:

I strop 10 laps mid-shave whether I think I need it or not. I really don't see any improvement at the time, but I have noticed that if I don't strop in the middle of the shave then when I finally get around to my chin (shaved last to allow for maximum marination time) the blade isn't as sharp as it could be. If I give it a quick 10 laps on the strop in the middle then the blade is still humming along when I'm done. If I delay stropping until just before my chin then I find I have to give the razor many more laps on the strop to restore the edge.

As with so many other things, YMMV. One of the joys of shaving with these old instruments is learning how to make them work for you.

I often strop just before the chin area, reapplying lather before I attack that area. I don't feel any difference either, but the results seem better, easier too.

I just went over that Barberland video again and I forgot about the comments on shaving the top with the tip, middle of chin with middle of razor, and base of chin with bottom. I've gotten a little lazy, and need to relook at that approach.

MParker,

Are you saying you don't like to strop the razor just before the chin? You like to have a few strokes under the razor first? Or is that just a "marinating" time?

I've been using the tip, middle, and bottom of the razor since watching that barberland video too, and it's really helped. I think because the heel of the razor is kind of underused during most parts of the face, so it's still really fresh by the time you get to the chin. I shave my moustache and chin XTG for both passes, but in different directions.

No, I don't like to strop just before the chin. I find I have to use more laps if I let it get that far.

I shave my cheeks (WTG then XTG), then upper neck (WTG then XTG), then strop, then lower neck (WTG then ATG). At this point only my moustache and goatee areas are left, so this would seem to be the optimal time to strop - all the areas that are left have both tender skin and tough whiskers. However, I find that if I strop here it takes 20+ laps before the razor is ready to go again, whereas if I strop before shaving the lower neck then it only takes 10 laps and I can't tell that it's any worse than stropping right before the chin. Again, for me the decline curve for the blade seems to be very nonlinear, once the fin starts getting out of shape it goes very quickly, so it seems to be more efficient to simply not let it get that far to begin with.

This was predicated on a comment from Joe Lerch in one of the month-long stropping threads where we were discussing the resting period and he mentioned that the old barbers he remembers used to strop several times during the shave so obviously the blades didn't need to rest, but that maybe that only worked because the frequent stropping kept the fin from going out of alignment at all so the metal never got out of shape enough to need a recovery anyway.

Originally Posted by mparker762

This was predicated on a comment from Joe Lerch in one of the month-long stropping threads where we were discussing the resting period and he mentioned that the old barbers he remembers used to strop several times during the shave so obviously the blades didn't need to rest, but that maybe that only worked because the frequent stropping kept the fin from going out of alignment at all so the metal never got out of shape enough to need a recovery anyway.

I remember reading in my 1950 barber manual and counting the # of times it instructed to strop during the shave. If I remember correctly, it seemed to be around 4 times throughout one shave.

Originally Posted by steve

I remember reading in my 1950 barber manual and counting the # of times it instructed to strop during the shave. If I remember correctly, it seemed to be around 4 times throughout one shave.

What are you kidding 4 times during the shave. I don't think so.

I strop 30 trips before a shave and that is it. Not during, not after, not on linen, not 100 times, not standing on one foot, not while whistling Dixie..