Thread: Preparing for straight razor shaving

Originally Posted by mental

1) Should I get some soap for comparison and if so, are there any soaps in particular to consider?

Yes. Contact Colleen and ask for the Leatherneck!

Originally Posted by mental

Does soap really last that much longer than a tub of cream?

It depends on the soap.

Originally Posted by mental

2) Regarding soaps, I've seen some listed as "triple-milled", some "glycerin-based"... Are those different?

Ask Colleen.

Originally Posted by mental

3) Is it necessary to store the razor somewhere other than the bathroom, due to concerns about humidity and rust?

Not likely, but I do.

Originally Posted by mental

4) Regarding stropping, some say to use the linen/canvas, some say they don't bother... Some say linen first and then the leather side, others the reverse... Some say 15 passes, some 30, some 60... Help! Lots of conflicting info.

I do only about a dozen laps on the linen, then 50-60 laps on the leather. There's no such thing as too much stropping on leather, only bad stropping. Doing more passes IS better for your edge and your practice.

Originally Posted by mental

5) Same for honing or "touching up" the blade - how quickly should I expect to need to somehow touch up (via strop and some sort of paste, I guess) or re-hone the blade? I know that a dull blade is a bad thing (heck, I've known that since Boy Scouts!) but I don't know what to expect in terms of the amount of shaving that can occur before needing to somehow touch up the blade.

Constant use? Guys go between a dozen and thirty shaves per edge. Depends a lot on the blade and the shaver. Consider seriously a pasted paddle strop for keeping her in trim for about 6 months (constant use (a rotation of 6 razors should last three years )) between trips to the hone.

Originally Posted by mental

A lot of the material I have read touches upon many of the questions above, but often the information is somewhat conflicting, so I figured it was worth a try to ask here.

Ensuring more opinions to confuse the issues further. Straight shaving is a personal thing and you'll get lots of varied personal experience I'm sure.

X

I was thinking... Instead of having too much water in the lather, what if it's not enough? I did another attempt this morning, just on the cheeks this time, and while it went a little better, there was still a great deal of pulling/"skipping"/whatever you want to call it. The lather didn't seem to provide any real "glide" - it was almost like taking a razor across dry skin.

I saw what Lynn's lather looks like, although he is using soap rather than ceam in the video, so I don't know if it's a good comparison or not. Mine seems a lot thicker than what he had.

Hmm I'm really inexperienced about lather - the only thing I've used had been Colleen's fantastic soaps and when i had thicker consistency like in Lynn's video the results were much much better.

Somebody else will probably shed some light on this.

Mental,

If your lather is like meringue, it's my feeling that it contains too little water. Fortunately this is an easily remedied situation: add more water, the warmer the better. I've returned to straight shaving after 30+ years of beard trimming and have noticed a similar phenomenon to what you describe and that is keeping "momemtum". This may be stubble strength related, dunno, but if I allow the razor to stop when it bumps up against a tough stub (singular of stubble?) and then try to move it from that point rather then backing it up to restart on shaved face, I can almost guarantee myself a nick and have even been able to go from nick to slice.

I've found that cheek, chin, and jowl are the easiest to shave and the upper lip presents the greatest challenge. Lynn's video, unfortunately, shows no tips on shaving that area.

I'm attempting to hone my own razors to find that edge that others talk about: one that renders the "oh my, absolutley smooth, silent, effortless - babies should have butts like this shave". I'm not even close yet and have to be satified with the edge that gives the "singing" shave or for me one where the edge kind of growls across my face, but does a fine job, I have to say.

Patience and practice and keep the styptic pencil handy, Bruce

Well, here is another update, with both good and bad.

I was out of town the last few days and so I returned home to find my package of soaps from Colleen. They smelled great and so naturally I was eager to try one and also to give the straight razor a shot again. This time, I took my razor back to the strop and gave it quite a number of passes on both sides, hoping both to improve my form and to get the razor as keen as I could. I notice that in my x-pattern, when I move the razor away from me on the strop, sometimes the toe of the razor lifts up and off the strop, so I'm trying to work on keeping it all nice and flat but with little pressure. I did nick the strop a couple of minor places and while it was very annoying, I think the strop is still OK in the long term (or at least I hope so). Basically a couple small nicks at each edge, down at one end.

Anyway, I didn't need to shower so instead I decided to give the hot towels a try. After one hot towel, I worked on lathering up the soap (this was new to me, never used soaps before). At first the lather was very bad but I realized I had put nowhere near enough water in the mug and so I added more. Immediately the lather started to whip up and I knew I was doing much better. Lathered again, hot towel, then re-lathered and got out the razor.

Still not the fabled "glide" I was looking for, but better than the other couple times... I made small strokes down one cheek, per Lynn's video, and I noticed that indeed, I was scraping away my day and 1/2's worth of whiskers. That was definitely encouraging, so I finished it up and did the other one. Also went pretty well, although it seemed with my current technique a WTG pass would not suffice for getting me as smooth as I wanted to be.

It was at this point that I got more adventurous than I should have and decided to try an ATG pass on the cheek. I should have stopped immediately because the position and grip on the razor didn't feel right to me, but I tried it anyway and felt the blade cut me. Pulled back and saw that I had given myself a nice little slice, perhaps 1" or 1 1/2", vertically on my cheek under the sideburns. That bled for the rest of the shave and I tentatively tried a few other spots, but it wasn't working well and I ended up with a few other minor nicks for my time. I think whatever confidence I'd had was quickly sapped by cutting my cheek and so that was really the end of the decent part of the shave.

So, the verdict - Colleen's Amber soap is awesome and I really liked the lather I was able to generate. I enjoy my creams but I could see myself utilizing the soaps quite a bit, maybe as my primary means of lather. I don't really know what accounted for the "good" part of my shave - the stropping, the soap vs. the cream I was using, or just slightly better technique? Maybe all of the above? Hard to say.

Well, tomorrow and Saturday my face can have a break, although I will probably have to shave Sunday. I've been a bit paranoid about getting scars on my face but it seems that the cut was probably not all that deep and I'm hoping it won't be noticeable after it heals up a bit. I'm happy that I was able to shave my cheeks more effectively but also reminded of just how far I have yet to go.

Sounds pretty good to me. I have gashed myself when either I was surprised while shaving or it didn't feel right in my hand and I went ahead anyway.

Well, here is another entry in my shave journal for anyone who is interested. Having given my face a few days to rest, I gave things another try this morning. I would say it's the best I've done so far, although anything beyond the cheeks is still tough for me, although for the first time I ventured gingerly to a few other areas (neck and chin, being VERY VERY careful) and I didn't nick myself, so I must be improving. The downside is that at least at this point, a WTG pass or two doesn't get me anywhere near as close as I'd like, so working on ATG or XTG is in my immediate future, I guess. That's the part where I still get a little nervous.

I still feel that I'm struggling with the lather. Even though I add a little hot water to it and I soak the blade in hot water, the lather gets downright cold very quickly. Still getting used to making lather from soap vs. cream.

Question for you soap users: Do you make your lather directly in the mug (or whatever you keep your soap in) or do you transfer it to a bowl (I have seen this done in one of the demos I looked at on the Internet)?

One thing that I'm not sure is good or bad is that my lather gets so thick that when I apply it to my face via the brush, the brush itself sort of flattens out, like a sort of oval paintbrush, and I don't know if that means there's not enough water?

Originally Posted by mental

Question for you soap users: Do you make your lather directly in the mug (or whatever you keep your soap in) or do you transfer it to a bowl (I have seen this done in one of the demos I looked at on the Internet)?

One thing that I'm not sure is good or bad is that my lather gets so thick that when I apply it to my face via the brush, the brush itself sort of flattens out, like a sort of oval paintbrush, and I don't know if that means there's not enough water?

What works best for me when using soaps:

1)Put a little water on the surface of the soap for a minute or so to allow the soap to soften. 2) Shake pretty much all the water out of a wet brush. 3) Dump the water off the soap. 4) Swirl the brush over the soap until a pasty lather forms. 5) Splash a little more hot water on already wet face and begin to build the lather directly on face. 6) Keep working the lather longer than you would think necessary - a good minute or two. 7) At this point the lather will probably still be a bit pasty, so pass the tip of the brush quickly through running water and continue lather building. 8) The lather should really come into its own at this point. You can add a little more water to the brush if you think you need it. I finish with a few straight or "painting" swipes with the brush to even things out. Then shave. Play around with and give the lather time to build.

Enjoy

Jordan

"Dear Shave Diary..."

I eased back on the pressure tonight and it made a difference in terms of comfort. I'm getting to the point where I can get my cheeks pretty decent but as I mentioned before, a lot of difficulty on any of the "trickier" spots such as chin and neck. I've been experimenting with adding more water to the lather and I think it's helping somewhat. It still seems quite a long way from here to the point where I could shave decently enough to put away the Fusion - I have to do a lot of cleanup in the aforementioned areas.

I definitely think my stropping technique is improving, as making the x-pattern and flipping the blade on its spine is becoming a lot more natural.

I have a loaner from Lynn on the way, so it will be nice to try out a freshly-honed razor now that (I think) my technique has improved a little. Along the lines of the "Lynn Abrams is a true gentleman" thread in the other forum, Lynn indicated to me that the razor I had purchased and had sent to him directly from the vendor wasn't satisfactory, so not only did he ask the vendor to send him a new one on my behalf, he sent me a loaner! Needless to say, I was extremely impressed by that kind of service... That's something you just don't find these days anymore.

So, hats off to Lynn, and I will continue to post in my "Shave-o-logue" here, assuming no one minds...

To weigh in on the lather issue, I find I have better results building lather in a bowl. I keep my soap in my mug, so I wet it the soap to soften it, then dig around with my brush. Once I get enough soap on the brush, I put a little hot water in my bowl, then whip it like scrambled eggs.

To quote JoshEarl on how to shave, "You're aiming at beard reduction with each pass, not elimination." And something I've learned is to not overshave. If a spot is giving you trouble and you've tried to shave it with 7+ passes (for me it's about 5) with no luck, try again later. Touch it up with whatever you used to shave with and give your face a break

Oh, and for those nicks, invest in a styptic pencil. You can get them in the shaving section at Wal-Mart. For those occasional bleeders, there's nothing like the styptic.