Frigged up my brand new Razor, I think.

Yep,

Purchased one of the SR starter sets from Classicedge.ca, it came within a week and I have attempted 4 Shaves thus far..
All of them failures. At first it was lather issues that I thought was causing tugging ( my lathering did actually suck), but after 4 attempts I think I frigged the edge up from my attempts at stropping.

Tonights shave was going to be great - had it all planned out and the lathering was perfect, grabbed the SR after the stropping, went to start on my cheek and bam! Tugged harder then ever.. F***!

So, with that said I tried the arm hair test and it won't even take the hairs off my arm..

I would assume its gotta be sent away to be re-honed? Input needed Please.

Thanks,

** This post may be in the wrong forum? (razors perhaps?) however.. I'm very much a beginner)**

I wouldn't send it off for honing just yet. I am occasionally amazed how my razors sharpen themselves once I sort out a technique problem.;)

Try less blade angle, move the blade slowly and limit yourself to your cheeks only until you get a good result. Start out at a spine thickness or two between the spine and your skin.

Your edge could, in fact, be to blame, but I wouldn't pass judgement yet. Unless you have either another razor for comparison, or an experienced straight user to render an opinion, I would work on technique first.

Bill,

Thanks for the reply.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very new at this and totally understand how important technique is. With that said, when I tried it on my arm I tried several different angles over and over and it wouldn't take any hair off?

Well, the other approach is to send it out to someone you can trust to hone the razor to shave readiness. Then, at least you can remove that as a variable. You might even ask the person doing the honing to evaluate the edge before honing.

The best solution, by far, is to find a way to get some hands on help from an experienced straight razor shaver.

Bill,

No one I know owns or uses a SR in New Brunswick, that I'm aware of !! Hahaha..

I will say that Phil at classicedge.ca is very good with edges, so the blade would have come in good shape.... That's not a variable.... It may be dulled from improper stropping.... When I strop, I always go as light as I possibly can without having the blade come off the strop :) pressure, or lack of, is everything with this sport

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrspiffy

Bill,

No one I know owns or uses a SR in New Brunswick, that I'm aware of !! Hahaha..

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I'm in Nova Scotia hehe

Ecormier, thats not NB! haha

As for the stropping, I believe in the beginning I wasn't resting the spine on the strop and I think I was pressing to hard.. Damn.

Did you get a strop paste with your kit?

No paste, just the Classic Edge Russian leather strop.

Take a regular newspaper, not the super smooth ones with the adds all over it. The head line story one. Put it on a flat surface and strop your razor on the newspaper. Slow and steady strokes. If the edge can be saved and no fine hone or paste is available. That may work.

Then I'd say if it won't shave hair, send it back to Phil for your free rehone and while you're waiting, watch stropping videos on youtube and practice the motion with a bread knife

Sirtexan, ecormier

I will do both of those and go from there. I have a feeling it will have to go for a little trip in the mail though.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated !

how much pressure did you apply? we had a guy at work warp his blade, he said blade pulls hurts he brought it in I honed it back up and shaved my cheek dry to show him it was shave ready so my buddy asked him show us how you strop he says "I'm the king of stropping" so he showed us he put soo much pressure that we had to use two hands to hold the strop. needless to say he screwed up the blade again and blames us says I don't know how to hone because he didnt want to listen and screwed up a brand new TI coiffure spl 1937 which I fixed again and we bought it from so that it can live its life in peace.

Hahaha great story..

Well I certainly used some pressure but I didn't white knuckle it thats for sure !

I have watched quite a few stropping videos tonight after my ordeal and have learnt a few more things.

How's your lather and stretching? If those are find, send it to Val at the Gentlemens den. He's in toronto and has a better turn around time than Phill (he seems to always be backed up in work). He does all my work. Check him out on instagram if you'd like.

Kwlfca,

Lathering was finally decent and I've been stretching from the first shave attempt.

I'll take a peek on Insta!

Thanks.

It can help to practice your stropping with the strop lying flat on a table and go slow with very light pressure for a while. I dulled an edge due to poor stropping on the first razor I got, and I used the previously mentioned method to get used to smooth, flat, consistent strokes with light pressure, then after a couple of weeks with that I switched to hanging strop. I found it helpful to develop some of the technique and habit in a safer environment. Once you start to get comfortable, pay extra close attention. That's when mistakes happen!

Mrspiffy,

Stick with it. Patience will see you through and reading, watching vids and asking all sorts of questions. None too stupid. Don't know? Not sure? Have no fear of asking here.

I had a lot of issues in the beginning, many new user related issues and some slightly beyond my control.

One issue led me to purchasing a board strop and I haven't been happier. My first strop had a warping issue. It is a quality strop and it helped me loads. I removed that issue from my list of problems. The learning curve can feel steep in the beginning.

The more variables that can be removed makes for a more successful, smooth transition to straight razor shaving and eliminates many of the pitfalls that lead to failure.

Welcome and enjoy the ride!

If you really want to determine if it was improper stropping, or just learn about how to strop properly, see this thread... it's a treasure trove of good info.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...st-2012-a.html

I cannot recommend enough the use of a paddle strop for beginner stropping. It made a world of difference for me in the beginning. It is takes the tension variable out of the equation, and really helped me a ton. I occasionally use a hanging strop, but the paddle is still my go-to strop. I have the SRD modular paddle, and it is great for stropping and refreshing with paste or diamond spray. It was the best money I have spent on this hobby.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrspiffy

Ecormier, thats not NB! haha

As for the stropping, I believe in the beginning I wasn't resting the spine on the strop and I think I was pressing to hard.. Damn.

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Yup - Phil is a great guy, have a few razors from Classic Edge, and they are honed superbly.

Stropping is probably one of the most fundamental skills in this hobby. Go slow, the spine must always rest on the strop, and be properly, slowly rolled over with each pass. If you don't have good stropping skills, you will roll the edge of your blade, and your shave will then become very uncomfortable. Too much pressure, spine not on the strop, can definitely impact the quality of your edge and thus your shave.

When I visited Phil once, to learn how to refresh my blades on a coticule, he had a look at some of my blades. Here I was, thinking I had this stuff down pat, I had maybe 7 blades then, half had rolled edges from bad stropping. I went back to the beginning, watched stropping vids again, and learned how to strop, slowly, spine on the edge.

Haha...it was a lesson I hope I don't have to learn again, so don't worry, it's happened to most of us. I'm sure Phil will look after you if you send it in....

Cheers!

:)

As far as I remember classicedge shoukd have a one time free re-honing. You could use that
Just my 2 cents

I'll definately look into a paddle strop for beginning.

And I think the Dovo is going to go in the mail to classic edge for a re-do!

Thanks for the input fellas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrspiffy

I'll definately look into a paddle strop for beginning.

And I think the Dovo is going to go in the mail to classic edge for a re-do!

Thanks for the input fellas.

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I'd email Phill first. Every time I tried to get him to hone for me, he always had a huge wait time. He even removed his honing service on the site for a while...not sure if it's still down or if he put it back up.

Yeah, I emailed yesterday inquiring but have yet to hear anything.. I'd rather not drag this out seeing as I only have the one SR and was just starting to get into it.

Oh well!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrspiffy

Hahaha great story..

Well I certainly used some pressure but I didn't white knuckle it thats for sure !

I have watched quite a few stropping videos tonight after my ordeal and have learnt a few more things.

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No pressure is what you should strive for. Yes of course the razor (spine and edge) should rest on the strop, but we really should not PRESS at all. In fact, in the beginning, less stropping is better then more stropping at too great a pressure. Also, in the begging keep the total laps down. Normally I do 30/70 canvas leather, but one needs to learn how to concentrate through all that, and i think beginners can lose concentration.

These days after two and a half years of SR shaving I can actually strop without even looking at the strop; just going by muscle memory and feel, but that takes practice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrspiffy

Yeah, I emailed yesterday inquiring but have yet to hear anything.. I'd rather not drag this out seeing as I only have the one SR and was just starting to get into it.

Oh well!

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You could also send it to Val at the Gentleman's Den, he does a spectacular job and his turn around is very quick, he's in Toronto:

https://www.facebook.com/Gentlemansden

Love the title. A word not used nearly enough in my estimation :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phrank

You could also send it to Val at the Gentleman's Den, he does a spectacular job and his turn around is very quick, he's in Toronto:

https://www.facebook.com/Gentlemansden

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

No pressure is what you should strive for. Yes of course the razor (spine and edge) should rest on the strop, but we really should not PRESS at all. In fact, in the beginning, less stropping is better then more stropping at too great a pressure. Also, in the begging keep the total laps down. Normally I do 30/70 canvas leather, but one needs to learn how to concentrate through all that, and i think beginners can lose concentration.

These days after two and a half years of SR shaving I can actually strop without even looking at the strop; just going by muscle memory and feel, but that takes practice.

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This is a good point. When I was learning to strop, I'd do 15-20 laps, go do something else, then come back to it later and do another 15-20.

Additionally, not all razors feel the same on the strop, so, I find you have to get to know an individual razor in order to get the most out of your stropping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kwlfca

.Additionally, not all razors feel the same on the strop, so, I find you have to get to know an individual razor in order to get the most out of your stropping.

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So true. I learned to strop on a razor that always feels a bit "wrong" to me on the back-draw; it still takes a lot of attention for me. When I got a second razor, it surprised me by just feeling "right" immediately. I could probably strop it well while standing on my head.

Reminds me of my first razor and what I did. My first shave ready razor was a dovo best quality 5/8. What I did was when I was rinsing my razor it tapped the faucet. Nice ding. Good luck with it tho and I would have it homes. Also get a second from whipped dog so you can let your razor rest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deepweeds

So true. I learned to strop on a razor that always feels a bit "wrong" to me on the back-draw; it still takes a lot of attention for me. When I got a second razor, it surprised me by just feeling "right" immediately. I could probably strop it well while standing on my head.

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Shoulderless razors are like that for me, gotta switch up my grip a bit to get it nice and even on the backstroke.

Swerve,

Good call on the whipped dog second razor, would be nice right about now :)

That's a real shame to have to send it out again after just getting it, would annoy the hell outta me! Can't think of any way of improving the edge besides stropping the bejesus out of it though, unless you can get your hands on some chromium oxide or something. Never tried the newspaper myself but have certainly heard it is a viable option. Best of luck with it :)

Hi I strated shaving whit a SR not long ago it will take a bit of time but it will come around. It sounds like you have a dull ST. Go to You Tube type in lynn abrams or staight razor there are a lot of videos. If you need to have your ST sharping write be back & I will do it for you for no charge to help you out. PS. I live in CANADA also.

I'm a beginner as well, but I found that as my stropping technique improved, the blade felt sharper than when I first got it (which of course it wasn't ). Keep at it!

A good way to maintain an edge, and also try to get an edge back, when you don't have a hone or pasted strop is to use the second component of your hanging strop. Whether it's canvas, cotton, hard pressed wool, poly webbing fabric, whatever...they all do the job. Remember that light, but even pressure is all that is needed. Try 20 strokes, then 50 on your leather, then shave. Don't bother with any other tests, your not setting a bevel here...after the shave, take mental note of how the edge feels in comparison with your last shave. At that point, you can decide if you want to do 30 or 35 on the second component, then the leather. Good stropping will do more than you think...