first straight shave... hmmm

Dear Sirs,

Yesterday I did my first shave with a straight razor!
I didn't get to use the alum, so this is encouraging, however I wouldn't call the shave very easy or close either. The razor was pulling in the shiskers quite a bit before before
it was cutting them. Lowering the angle made it better, but I unfortunately I believe I probably have dulled the razor while stropping.

This razor came shave ready, but I didn't try it w/o stropping, which in retrospect I think I should have. I tried to cut a hanging hair and it didn't work, but as far as I understand that's not always indicative of the razor sharpness. It was honed by JoshEarl so I know it was shave ready.

I think it's my stropping technique. I tried to keep the razor just by its weight on the strop. The strop is quite wide and doing an x-patern is a bit weird. I noticed that esp when I move the razor slowly and carefully it's hard to keep it flat on the leather. Anyways I can give more specific details later.

My question is do you think I dulled the razor?

Thank you

Did you dull it? You may have. The plus side is, if you have, you now have an excellent opportunity to practice your stropping technique. :shrug: It might also just be the shaving angle, but I would expect on a first time str8 shave if you came in to steep you likely would have slipped at some point and nicked yourself. So my money is on dulled, but I don't really know... others w/ more experience may have better guesses than I...



-Michael

Probably you dulled the razor, indeed.

However - I am not sure if you did it by stropping. While this is possible, I am pretty sure that it's not likely at all if you really just used the weight of the razor on the strop - this is just not enough weight to cause enough pressure and ruin the edge in a *normal* stroke

On the other hand - if you have tough beard, and if your initial angle was mostly scraping the edge - I can imagine that it can be dulled by this.

Do you live near a member who can help you out in person?

Good luck
Ivo

Also being new, and maybe a bit shy with the blade, you may have to work on your technique a bit. My first few shaves where alot slower than they are now and maybe not the sharpest blade I've tried. It pulled alot and boy was my face red after that :p .

Practice the strop and see if anyone is close enough to set up a get together :D

Hmm, I'm in ithaca ny, not sure if there's anybody close to me.

I didn't think my beard was too tough, but looking how the razor was pulling on it, may be it is. I had just taken a shower and had really nice lather w/ one of colleen's soaps.

One question - a dull razor can't be fixed by more stropping, but I should use it to get practice with the motion, correct?

Cheers

What type of angle can dull the blade on the face. I have a tough beard and expereince razors dulling quickly. I usually lead with the heel just a bit and sometimes use the toe in hard to reach areas. I still notice substantial pulling on my neck.

Gugi,

Give the razor a few days, and if it doesn't improve, shoot me a PM. If it's dull we'll fix it. :)

Josh

It could be just your mechanics. My first shaves with the straight were difficult and had plenty of pulling. Once I became more confident in my strokes, the blade cut better. You may also have dulled it. See what happens - Like Josh said.

Jordan

That's a lot of good advice. Thank you everybody. It is either my stropping or my shaving that's the culprit. Both fixable with more practice. I'll do as John suggested - try it again in a couple of days.

Sorry to bother you again, but I'm gonna try tomorrow and I was wondering whether I should use the linen part of the strop.

I think I know what the answer is - use the leather, if it doesn't work use the linen and then the leather, if that doesn't work pm JoshEarl and use m3 temporarily.

Just thought I'd check.

Cheers

Ivan,
I use both the linen and then the leather. Just take you time working the "X" pattern on both. remembering to keep the strop taut thoughout the stroke, but you do not need to feel like you are trying to pull you hook out of the wall. the quality of the passes on the strop matter more than the quantity.

slow and steady Jim is correct. I have always used the linnen side first. then the leather. Try again when you can, you can get it. we all had problems at first. Keep at it.

Phil

Thank you Gentlemen,

I am pretty sure I keep the strop tight enough. I also used the leather band Jim sent me to make a knot(or a hook) around my towel rail, and the smaller spring constant of that leather band helps very nicely to have the right tenstion (ok, I couldn't resist it).

At the begining I had problems with the x-pattern and keeping the blade horizontal, meaning the axis of the razor/edge. I was mostly worried about not folding the edge into the leather and was trying to keep as little pressure as possible on the edge.

The low speed was a bit challenging - I managed to get few small nicks on the edges of the strop while turning the razor. Basically lacking the flow of the motion at the turning point I was trying to control firstly the contact of the edge with the leather (not to put too much pressure) but that means less control over the horizontal motion of the razor. This isn't a problem during the stroke since the razor is moving spine first, but at the turning point a slight motion in the wrong direction makes a nick. With a rhythmic stroke this isn't a problem, but when I was trying to learn it in super slo-mo i got few tiny surface nicks on the strop edge. Smoothed it off with a sandpaper as i saw in another thread.

Anyways, not sure why I'm blabbering so much, may be it's the 4:30am thing.

OK, I think I'm in a pretty good shape to give it a try tomorrow - now that I've got a better handle of the motion I will certainly do it slowly and carefully.

Again, thank you very much for seeing me through :)

ivan

Yes, two more shaves after I am glad to report that I haven't dulled the razor, at least not trrribly.
I think the pulling was to some extent due to learning how to strop but more due to learning a new shaving technique. Also I think my beard is tougher than I was giving it credit for, especially on the chin. Momentum is quite helpful, but not being confident in my motions along the curves makes it almost impossible to have momentum there.

The shaves haven't been very close, but I still don't have the skills to go everywhere XTG and ATG. However I am happy with using the straight and getting better is just a matter of time.

Anyways, just thought I'd report back.

Cheers,
Ivan

Ivan,

Good to hear that the shaves are progressing, you might want to pick up a copy of Lynn's dvd over in the b/s/t forum, it is a sticky...
in hte long run short strokes will serve you beeter but the first few weeks of shaving are usually hte worst as you skin gets used to the attention. in fact if i were you i would not be worried about the xtg and atg yet... if needed try a second pass withthe grain... the shave might not be BBS but will look decent.

Ivan,

Glad to hear things are improving. No matter how many razors I hone, there's still that nagging insecurity... :)

The coticule makes a nice edge, and for me it's plenty sharp. But there are ways to get your razors sharper. Various combinations of pastes work well for some guys, and there are always the 15K and 30K Shapton hones, which get the edge pretty close to Feather sharp... :)

For right now, I'd suggest that you concentrate on learning to shave. Once you have the skills down you can experiment with different edges and make an informed assessment.

Josh

Yeah Lynn's DVD has been on his way to me for few days now, so it'll get here soon. Yes, I think now I will concentrate on just getting proper technique on the wtg strokes, this is a good idea. Of course first thing I wanted from a new toy to try it in all kinds of ways, but now I'm going to be mature :)

Josh, I never had any doubts that the razor was perfect when you send it to me - reading some old threads I was just worried that I had managed to damage it.

Anyways, thank you again for helping me

ivan