A few beginner questions

I bought my first straight razor in Sept. 2013 from whipped dog and only shaved with it a probably 5 times before I knocked it off the sink and killed the edge. Then life came along and finally in April I bought a ralf aust from SRP to try straight razor shaving again. I'm getting ready to send it in for a fresh honing. Here are my questions. I'm having a terrible time with shaving the hairs on my chin. I find than it feels like it's tugging and pulling those hairs rather than shaving them. I'm sure it's my newbie technique, I'm just looking for suggestions.
How important is it to learn to keep the razor on the strop when I'm stropping? Every time I try, I end up nicking my strop. I do fine if I totally pick the razor up and then roll it. So my poor man's strop has lots of nicks at both ends. I'm trying to get my technique down before I start using the strop I got from SRP. I'm looking for suggestions on how not to screw up my edge once I get the razor honed.
I want to try learning to hone my own razors. I've read quite a bit about it, and got Lynn's video. I think I'm going to wait on that for a while, but I would like suggestions for refreshing my own razors in between honings.
Eventually I want to get another razor and get my whipped dog razor honed again.
Between my DE's and brushes and soaps, and now straights, my wife thinks I have accumulated to much stuff. She's realized this hobby isn't saving money over cartridges. It is a lot better on my sensitive skin though.

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Originally Posted by turkeyman79

How important is it to learn to keep the razor on the strop when I'm stropping? Every time I try, I end up nicking my strop. I do fine if I totally pick the razor up and then roll it. So my poor man's strop has lots of nicks at both ends. I'm trying to get my technique down before I start using the strop I got from SRP. I'm looking for suggestions on how not to screw up my edge once I get the razor honed.

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Stropping is of critical importance. Correct stropping re-aligns the edge. Bad stropping ruins the edge. You have got to perfect your stropping technique if you want to shave with a sharp razor.

Without seeing your stropping, all I can suggest is that you should watch a few stropping videos.

Congrats on your Ralf aust. I also started on a whipped dog as well and then after I learned all the basics moved on to a ralf aust. It's a very nice razor and will last you a lifetime.

Greg

You need to strop your blade.
It can take time to learn how to use a strop. I nicked up 2 of them and cut one in half in the first few months. And every time I nicked the strop, I messed up the blade. Luckily I already knew how to hone, so I could touch my blade back up.

The trick to stropping is going slow and practicing. Practice with a butter knife so you don't nick up the strop. Start with a speed around 2 seconds to go up the strop and 2 seconds to come back down the strop. Do that about 100 times for a few days to build up muscle memory. When you can do it without rolling the blade into your strop, then try it with a razor. Then slowly speed the process up.

You may also want to try a paddle strop. They lay flat on the countertop and many find them easier to use.

I wouldn't recommend learning to hone until you can strop, but the first stone to start with would be a finisher like a Naniwa 12k for touch ups. You can't do a lot of damage with it, but it will repair weekly damage and you can learn on it.

Stropping certainly is essential and if your like me, you'll go through three stages while you learn. Stage #1, you hurt the edge of the razor. Stage #2, you're not hurting the edge anymore and Stage #3, you actually start improving the edge of the razor.

All I did was to watch videos and practice. It will come, but it will take some time.

The chin hairs were the hardest for me when I first started. Technique, angle, pressure, good lather, which hand to use where, how to hold or make a face to get sections of your chin taught and not wrinkled. Lots of things to learn and it will take time and practice.

Soon you will be getting the best shaves of your life, it will come together for you.

Most of all, just enjoy your shave, every day and celebrate the little triumphs as they come, don't rush.

Right now would be a good time to try touching up your razor - if it gets better good, you can experiment some more, if it gets worse you continue with the original plan to send it to Lynn.

As everybody tells you, you need to figure out the stropping. First I'd sand the strop so that the cuts are smoothed if you haven't done that already.
Then you may want to place the strop on a hard surface, like along the edge of a table/countertop so that keeping it flat is one less thing to worry about. Take a look at Alan's stropping videos in the Library - he demonstrating it with a paddle strop.

I would second the naniwa 12k as a good place to start with honing. This should keep you shaving a long time barring accident and ruining the edge.

If you are nicking the strop you are likely flipping the razor before coming to a full stop and that is why when you lift it off you stop tje nicks. You want to be starting the flip before you stop, be half way as you stop and touch back down while moving in the other direction. Practice in super slow mo at the flip till you pick up the muscle memory. You could practice with the wd razor as the edge on that is already damaged.

Right now when I'm stropping I stop the razor, pick it up off the strop, roll it, set it back down and make the next pass. I haven't nicked my strop doing it that way.

You are supposed to keep the spine of the razor in contact with the strop and only roll it at the end of the stroke - then it's about the coordination of the rolling with the switch of direction.

There is really great stropping advice on here. When i get a straight razor, i'll have to try some of these techniques out. Since i don't have a straight razor or technical expertise, the only way i've been able to practice stropping technique is on my kitchen knives. i have a sharpening rod and i practice the x -technique with the wrist roll at the very end. Probably not the same, but since there is technique and muscle memory involved, i thought this would be the easiest way to practice.

If I order a naniwa 12000 stone, do I need to get a flattening stone with it?

I originally went with the Naniwa Flattening stone, and regretted it.

Get the Diamond Lapping plate, it lasts forever, has multiple uses, and will absolutely keep your stones true and flat.