Thread: First Shave with Straight!!!!!

Shave ready straight came in the mail today!!!! A shave ready 6/8 Cleff Co. Looked beautiful, except for one scale that was slightly warped, nearly causing the blade to foul on the scales. No big deal really, just gotta pay attention when closing. After a hot shower, stropped 15 strokes on my Illinois, and lathered up with some Proraso. The with the grain pass was like butter, but the against the grain passes were a bit more cumbersome. Seemed to be a good deal of pulling on the ATG pass. Is this pretty normal?? I tried making my angle more steep and this seemed to help a great deal, but the pull was still there.

All in all the shave was way better than I'd expected for my first. Got everything except the cowlicks on my neck Baby Butt Smooth!!! I am definitely hooked now, and will be sending my 5/8 Joseph Rodgers and a Berliner I recently acquired (anybody know anything about Berliner's?) off to Lynn for a hone job!!

The only thing I'm still pondering is the drag on the ATG pass. Seems like this should be pretty normal, but was wondering if it may still need some tuning. I don't think my stropping technique dulled the blade, as it still passed the HHT afterwards, and I spent a great deal of time making sure the strop was nice and tignt, and the spine didn't lift.

Anyways, sorry for the long post. Just a little exstatic is all!!! Any feedback will be graciously devoured in its entirety!

This was your first shave, and it sounds like you did extremely well. Heck, just surviving without major blood loss counts for a great first shave in my book. This isn't like shaving with a Mach 3, there's a lot to master and a lot of little techniques to learn. Improvements in prep and other assorted techniques will help a *lot*, in comfort, closeness, speed, and the pulling issue.

I usually find that I have to lower the angle for the against-the-grain passes.

sounds like you had a great first shave!! congrats. That is better than most of us can say.

Congratulations . . . it's fun isn't it!

Congrats. My first left a "chevron" or two on my cheek where I cut myself. No major blood loss, but definitely not as good as your first. But it is getting better, though!

I use to strop about 15 passes and got the same results you did then i tried 30 passes and it made a big differance, so try that

Thanks for the encouragement! I also found that the pull was greatly reduced when I stretched the skin more. I will have to get used to this, as shaving with my DE didn't require much stretching.

Applied mink oil to my strop last night to soften it up a bit as well. Yesterday was my first stropping attempt, so I'm hoping things will only improve with time. Now if I can just get a few more Shave ready straights in my arsenal without breaking the bank!

My hair grows funny on my neck, in a side to side smiley face pattern in places. Any tips on how to hold my razor to actually go against the grain (parallel with my nose)? Holding the razor and actually getting the blade close enough to the skin proved problematic last night. Will be making attempt number two around 4:00 this evening before work, so I will self indulgently keep everyone posted on progress.

So the shave this morning was much better than the previous two. I've found that my lather seems to be drying up a bid since I have to spend much more time and attention to the shave than with my DE.

Tried a wetter lather, and replenishing the lather before the pass, and this seemed to work nicely!

Also seems that blade angle is much trickier than I first perceived. on the ATG pass, getting it flat against the face is the way to go, though I'm still experiencing some pull in spots.

Found that my razor isn't passing the HHT quite as easily after the 2nd shave. Should a few laps on the strop be enough to restore HHT sharpness?

Originally Posted by BBSWANNABE

Found that my razor isn't passing the HHT quite as easily after the 2nd shave. Should a few laps on the strop be enough to restore HHT sharpness?

Have you not been stropping every shave? You should give the razor 30 or more laps (back and forth) before shaving every morning.

I strop 50-60 lps before each shave. I think you'll have less ATG issues if you employ a cutting angle, leading your strokes with the tip slightly ahead of the heel.

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