Thread: 2 months in

Ok 2 months into straights from DE's, last night was the 1st time with no nicks, but still have hellish razor burn. What do i need to change/do

For the most part it is about pressure, blade angle and skin stretching/holding. Your skin should be held taught, the spine of your razor should be no more than 2x it thickness from your skin and you should be wiping the lather off as though you were trying not to touch your face. The expression you hear a lot is shave the lather not your whiskers. There are basically two thing that can get you the hand holding the razor or the razor. The first is most often the cause.I am presuming that your edge is still shave ready. Getting together with an experienced member in your area can get you up and running much much faster.

Most likely pressure is to much or angle to great. The other thought that comes to mind is your razor itself, do you know if it is truly shave ready i.e. has it been professionally honed or just factory shave ready which is quite frequently not very ready.

Razor was given to me by my father in law, belonged to his grandpa. Its sharp & shaves, but tugs a little, I have someone I'm going to send it out to for rehone & polishing once I get the funds tucked away.
The only other straight I have is a Titian that almost scared me off of straights, think I have to send that one of also

Unless you have a very heavy beard with coarse hair, there shouldn't be much tugging. Sounds like your razor isn't sharp enough, and so you're using more pressure to cut the hair. That's a sure ticket to razor burn city.

Once you get the honed razor back, remember light pressure; just shave off the shaving cream, and the hair will come, too.

Welcome to straights! You have gotten good advice so far--very light pressure while simultaneously holding the skin taut and moving a wicked sharp, unusually shaped piece of steel across your face in an unpracticed fashion. Seems easy? I would add that a single pass with the grain is also a good idea for a couple months. No multiple passes (burn) and no against the grain (bumps or stripes). One other thing will speed up the learning process (after you have a decent edge to work with)--shave with a straight ONLY. Keep it simple. It's just shaving!

One other thing to remember is that its about beard reduction - dont necessarily try to get it all in one pass. Also do you have a Strop and using it? If not, I like whipped dog for starting out, good bang for the buck.

All good advice above. You may want to go back to the DE until you get it properly shave ready.

If you don't have a strop, also check out Chef Knives To Go. They have a strop for $20.00 that actually looks nice. I haven't seen/heard any reviews about it here, but I'm thinking of getting one as well.

As a newbie, I can tell you that a sharp razor, a shave ready razor, makes all the difference in the world! Since I started 2 months ago, I've become almost obsessed with straight razor shaving. My first attempt was with a razor that I tried to hone and strop on my own. I thought it was sharp, especially compared to my fishing/hunting knives. But it was nowhere near ready to shave. So I purchased a feather ss shavette with pro blades, and was blown away by how sharp a razor can be!

The feather ss pro blade is my guideline if you will, of how sharp I want my razors to be honed. I'm not there quite yet, but feel my research, and dedication to honing in my spare time is getting me very, very close to shave ready razors. This past week, I've experienced shaves that rival my feather ss, and all my razors are now passing the Hanging Hair Test (HHT). Not bragging, but just sharing my experience - either send out your razors to be professionally honed, or dedicate yourself to learning how to hone to shave ready.

Also, follow the advice from the others above. Keep at it. I'm enjoying the process very much. I hope you will too once you experience the satisfaction of shaving with a straight and getting no nicks or burn.

Shave right after you shower, make sure your beard is soft. Give your beard some time between shaves too. I shave every other day so my whiskers are a bit longer and easier to cut. Get some good soap too. I'm really liking some Crabtree and Evelyn paste I was gifted. Nice thick rich lather. Experiment and enjoy!

He gave me a Red Imp from the same collection. I have pics posted in the Strop section, asking about cleaning the linen & what to use on the leather, if ya'll care to look at it & tell me what you think. By no means do I have the strop technique down pat but I don't think I've done anything wrong.
Never heard shave the soap not the beard before, have to remember that. As far as soaps go, I have a "healthy" rotation of RazoRock XXX, Several PAA, & Van Yulay.