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After 3 weeks with a shavette, I'm 3 shaves in with a straight. Doing my usual 3 pass WTG, XTG, ATG. I'm doing great with just a weeper or two each time and fairly smooth results. ATG seemed to offer a lot of resistance, until I did 20 laps then, voila!, it mowed the whiskers fine.
Anybody else strop between passes? Maybe my technique is misaligning the edge...
I never had or felt the need to strop during a shave. It the razor isn't doing the job you'll know it the first swipe you take. I do however strop heavy before a shave well over 100+ laps, but that's just me. Y.M.M.V.
I tried it a couple of times but noticed no benefit, however, I've never used a shavette, so have no experience with the quality of a shavette blade. I'm very respectfully wondering why, with 'three shaves in', you are doing three passes? Do you have a very heavy beard growth? I know very few experienced straight razor shavers who would do three passes; many only do one (me included).
As a beginner, I feel the weepers are caused by the three passes. I would advise that you're over doing it. My advice would take it back to just one pass. If you must do a ATG pass, ensure you use a very light touch, very short strokes, and weaken your lather with a little water before applying the lather for the ATG pass.
Hope this is of some help.
Carl
I think the only time I did this was after I refreshed a razor once and it was a bit off on the first pass, but that probably indicated more about my refresh. I have seen a few threads about this and have come to the conclusion that with a razor made with decent quality steel that is correctly honed and maintained mid shave stropping is unnecessary.
Ed.
Thanks Gent's for the quick feedback! I'm fighting my way up the learning curve, and appreciate the hand up....
It kind of leads me to question what kind of razor you have and if it was professionally honed or not.
Oh my goodness, this would be insanely tedious; not to mention how would you keep your lather from drying out while you strop? I strop only after shaving and that is too much stropping already for me. Stropping for me is the most unenjoyable aspect of SR shaving. I am sure there would be some benefit, but not so much making it practical. Rather than doing 75 strop passes per shave this would bring me up to 225.....I might just start hoping to hit an artery while I shave if that's what it come to. I would also encourage you to limit yourself to two passes or less. I also started out doing three but realized I was mostly causing skin irritation vs getting a closer shave. If I can't get it done in two passes with the occasional touch up then I grab my DE. As you get better with your razor and understanding YOUR facial growth you will need less passes.
I think you need to look to the [arguably agreed???] use of stropping, that being to remove micro corrosion and debris from the edge.
It seems a bit like re-polishing your boots on the bus on the way to work...
[EDIT] I haD to Google 'Pennsyltuckey'. Interesting.
Good advise ,, don't take on too much at this way of shaving at first ,, got to learn how to shave before really going all out ,, and that takes time to figure it out ,, now for your razor is it shave ready ? Maybe it's not the best edge if your having to strop between passes ,, if it's a shavette no need to strop,, but weepers and tugging are one sign of a blade that's not right. Good luck. Tc
Never have stropped between passes during a shave....stropping occurs for me before and after a shave.
Bentlink,
Like Carlo, I tried for some months many Moons ago : I didn't feel it added anything, so I stopped.
Haven't stropped between passes since.
Like many things in straight razor shaving, experiment and try them for yourself. It is almost like tasting food by asking somebody else what it tastes like.
The experiment may not achieve anything postive, but it is interesting and you are adding to the body of knowledge :)
Have fun !
Best regards
Russ
Bentlick, there was a period in my learning curve when I was stropping between passes. As I recall, I was early on in my honing efforts and was probably producing edges that were not yet very good but which would cut okay--briefly--after a good stropping. Or, they wouldn't. Or, they might scrape me red and raw. Things were a bit of a crap shoot, and the extra stropping seemed to help me limp through any given shave.
While all the variables are still coming together for you, do what you must, but take the need for between-passes stropping as a symptom of a problem somewhere. And congratulations! Sometimes I can't believe any of us manage this at all.
Don't for the most part, but I have been known to when I go for the whole caboodle (prep, towels, etc malarkey).
It's when I'm going for that uber glass smooth feel to the skin which is not very often (usually Valentines night).
I think it does offer something in these circumstances. It might all be in my head, but it can do no harm?
Joe
I strop before and after. If I had to strop mid shave I would grab a different razor and re hone the one that needed stropping. Technically you should be able to get a few 3 pass shaves from a shave ready razor before needing to strop although it would drop off a little and not something I would recommend
I have a really coarse beard and I have the feeling that stropping between passes could be of some use, as the second pass seems to not be as smooth sometimes. However, I have a much more intense feeling that I' m too lazy for this and really don't want to stop mid-shave so I haven' t tried it.
My best guess is that, unless you have razorwire for beard, if your blade really needs mid-shave stropping, there might something wrong with it.
Well said! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by PhatMan
So what does the edge look like under magnification?
The edge is lacking sharpness to begin with and you are noticing it ATG.
I doubt two passes on any beard, can completely dull, a properly prepared edge.
I would suspect stropping as the cause, for the novice completely normal, proper stropping can take some time to learn.
If it works for you, go for it... what ever it takes.
That's interesting...Why not three passes on a daily basis?Quote:
Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider
Why not three passes? For me, lots of reasons:
(1) I don't feel that for me there is anything like WTG, XTG and ATG; at least for an entire 'pass'. I feel many interpret WTG, XTG and ATG to mean N to S, E to W (or W to E) and S to N. Of course, in reality my hair doesn't grow like that. When I do my first pass; I'm actually already shaving a good deal of my face in a XTG pass. I sweep my razor slightly across my cheek; and in effect am coming up squarely against the hair growth; so part of the first pass is XTG anyway.
(2) I don't need it. One pass normally removes all hair. Yes, if I feel my neck running my fingers upwards, I DO feel some hair, but I'm acceptably clean shaven. Now I DO have a light beard growth, and what is there is quite patchy (esp higher up on the cheeks).
(3) I don't have time. It only takes me ten minutes from the very beginning to the very end to do one pass, but most mornings I still only have time for one pass. On Sundays, when I shave in my bedroom in the afternoon at my old fashioned shaving stand, I will sometimes do two passes (a ATG touch up on the neck) but I've never done three passes.
BTW, someone said something about 'Can you even strop a shavette...'. Remember, you can get an apparatus to strop razor blades, so why not a shavette? However, you'd do it before and after for the same purpose you strop a straight; to remove micro corrosion and clean the edge.
Oh just a sec! Sorry! I re-read your original post, I mistakenly thought you were using a shavette still! Sorry!