Thread: 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. 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 .

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

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