Thread: razor sharpness. . .?

In fact, I'll only be on my fifth shave this evening. But I'd be willing to bet it's one or both of those latter two options (bad stropping, and/or poor shaving technique). I know I was overzealous with stropping before my first shave and really dulled the edge. But I took it back to the hone for a few laps then went back to the strop very slowly and using almost no pressure. If you have a pasted strop, you probably won't need the hone to bring back the dulled edge. If you don't have that, then you might be able to bring it back with a bunch of perfect passes on the linen or canvas and a bunch on the leather.

As for shaving, remember to go slowly and if you're still learning, don't even try for those perfect shaves. Concentrate on the angle of your blade and using very little pressure. If your angle's wrong or you're using too much pressure, you'll end up going over the same spot too many times, and as I've found, that can really cause some irritation. I try to not go over the same spot more than twice with ATG or XTG, and if I leave some sandpaper, that's better than weeping blood, and there's aways tomorrow. So go slow and don't force it. That sticky-smooth all over shave will come in time. I take it since you're used to DE that your prep is good, but I've found it's even more important here. If you don't have a pre-shave oil, olive oil or really any vegetable oil will work. It does leave a slight greasy feeling, but I noticed a difference in the smoothness of my ATG pass, and it really helped knock down the irritation factor.