Thread: How are you coming along?

Well, lessee here...I shave with the grain for the first pass and then XTG from outside in and then again XTG from inside out (roughly speaking of course I have patches of hair that grow from the inside to the outside so you can rotate the whole process 90 deg in your imagination ) I find that I get a nice shave that is closer than any safety razor I ever used (never used a DE) and I love the process. I kind of have an armchair fantasy of someone breaking into my house while I am shaving and seeing me standing there half lathered with a big wedge in my hand and no fear in my eyes. LOL. Of course, I keep a Glock 21 pretty close too so that might account for the lack of fear...but I digress

Originally Posted by shaverdude

I am curious to know, how do you have then, probably first with the grain, the across the grain (XTG), then....?

This is exactly what I do. I am very careful not to put any pressure on the edge though.

Originally Posted by shaverdude

Is it ok to just dry the razor with terry cloths after you are done and leave it open until next shave?

Originally Posted by shaverdude

Chris, after last night's shave (see a few posts down) I see that it is the ATG (against the grain) shave that leaves the burn and those ugly red bumps, tonight I will do as you suggest above. Just to be clear, when you say "scything" again you just mean a second pass in same direction or is "scything" some special technique?

They way I was taught scything was to think about the angle of a guillotine blade. When the blade comes down it slices through the neck instead of chopping it (gruesome, I know). Think of the guillotine as your razor, and the neck as your hairs. Bring the blade STRAIGHT DOWN (don't go sideways, it'll cut the skin) with the heel leading the angle.

The hard part about that is you have two different angles to be thinking about. The first being the angle of the edge to your face, and the scything angle.

It is WONDERFUL once you perfect this motion.

Well, I'm about 8 months in, and I think I'm just getting out of my newbie phase - I shave every second day with a straight, and have been since September, and am still learning new things (although, admittedly, not as frequently than when I first started).

One of the revelations I've recently had was a real...well...you make up your mind: I've always had a bit of trouble stopping perfectly - I don't dull my blade by any means, but every once in a while I'd fluke into a really good stropping session, and the razor would just glide through the whiskers (same prep, so it has to be the difference in stropping).

The key to good stropping for me is to us a light touch, and to make sure that the entire length of the bevel touches the strop (as some point in the x-pattern). I always had some trouble with this, holding my strop parallel to the floor on both the X and Y axis - well, my "revelation" is that if I rotate the strop slightly to my right hand (dominant hand) I don't have to torque my right wrist so much, and the blade can then naturally rest on the strop instead of being contorted into place - I've been doing this now for a month or so, and it has really improved my shaves.

Lessons learned:
- Constantly evaluated what you are doing and experiment to see if it can be done better;
- Easy solutions are usually the best;
- I can't overstate the importance of good stropping.

Best of luck guys, and continue to enjoy the journey!

Mark

Originally Posted by Milton Man

The key to good stropping for me is to us a light touch, and to make sure that the entire length of the bevel touches the strop (as some point in the x-pattern). I always had some trouble with this, holding my strop parallel to the floor on both the X and Y axis - well, my "revelation" is that if I rotate the strop slightly to my right hand (dominant hand) I don't have to torque my right wrist so much, and the blade can then naturally rest on the strop instead of being contorted into place - I've been doing this now for a month or so, and it has really improved my shaves.

Agreed! You would think that we would figure this out sooner , but I know for me I was concentrating so hard on trying to perform things "perfectly" (hold strop at regulation 90 degree angle to anchor point, parallel to floor, etc.) that I forgot the part about adapting what we've learned to suit ourselves. After all, this should be fun, and it is!

We don't all hold our razors exactly the same way, or churn lather the same, why should we all strop exactly the same way? Holding the end of the strop up a little so that I felt more comfortable holding it helps. Baby steps, I guess.

Originally Posted by mrbhagwan

Obsession is when you don't feel right unless you hear the constant "skritch-skritch" of sandpaper on metal as you are watching TV, or seeing scraps of smoothed out sandpaper all over the place, or having so much MAAS on your fingertips that they actually shine when you wipe it off. Well, enough of that!

That is funny as heck. My wife has mentioned the "O" word a number of times since I started straight razor shaving and buying razors that I thought I'd like to restore. I almost have one finished now. Just waiting for my microscope to arrive so I can double check the edge. It's a very hollow grind and I'm always worried that I've over-honed it.

Yeah, I'm not obsessed...

Originally Posted by sicboater

[...] I kind of have an armchair fantasy of someone breaking into my house while I am shaving and seeing me standing there half lathered with a big wedge in my hand and no fear in my eyes. LOL. Of course, I keep a Glock 21 pretty close too so that might account for the lack of fear...but I digress

I have had this same fantasy, same lack of fear, and almost the same rational. Anyway, I just wanted to say that this cracked me up. Thanks!

Well, I tried to shave last night and stropped it about 50 times. I started to shave and my pocket knife cut better than my DOVO!!!! I've just about had it! Last night I took my razor to the classifieds!
..... and stropped it about 150 times......
that was after I did the 5, 3, 1, 3, 1, 5 honing process on my 4K/8K Norton Stone...... after that I took it to the classifieds, and then I took it to the strop and hit it for about 30 times using my new hand position. WOW What a difference!!!!

Well 1/2 of the blade (Heel end) will pass the HHT test and the other 1/2 (obviously the toe) won't pass the HHT..... I still have to smack the hair with the toe edge to cut the hair.....

I found that I get much better results if adjust my hand while holding the razor.....

My index finger is placed extremely lightly on the midle of the blade itself, only to keep it flat..... my thumb on the spine of the shank and my middle finger opposite of the thumb on the "balance point", using my thumb and middle finger to push the blade, depending on the direction....and the ring, and pinky fingers under the handle only for support......

It worked for me last night.... We'll see if it keeps working!......

Hi All (hope you don’t mind goin’ to bore you all again with the latest shave update, comments welcome as always, you can skip to the bottom of this post for an easy three line summary)

Well, shaved again last night, this time went with right side of face (cheek and neck). Now, unfortunately (fortunately) I ran out of my AOS shaving cream, I thought there was plenty in there, but I could not get it out, maybe the tube was just heavy, I don’t know. Anyway, earlier I had bought a shaving bowl to mix my shaving cream in and it came with shaving soap. Because I have just started straight-razor shaving, never used anything but the AOS shaving cream. Thought the idea of shaving soap was ridiculous. I could never lather up by Dial soap and even if I could, the lather would be too thin. (If I ever was going to try soap, what I feel is more advanced than cream, I would first attempt with Colleen’s soap).

Anyway, I prepped the soap by placing it in some water and took a shower and lathered up. Surprisingly, it lathered up very quickly and smelled nice. I applied it, it felt so much better than the AOS shaving cream; I was shocked, the AOS cream (I thought) was quite expensive at $14 (this was the travel edition size). The shave went beautifully, still had burn and bumps, but for the first time the burn was gone in about an hour after the shave. However, the bumps, all along my neck were still about 50% there come morning.

The soap, L’Occitane, was really good and I look forward to another shave tonight. I also want to thank cwrighta70 for post #24 of this thread. I did not shave against the grain and got an even better, (and less irritated) result than if I had. I shaved WTG, than sideways from left to right (very difficult) than sideways again from right to left. The neck is still very challenging and I think I need to get a razor that is shorter so I can achieve better angles for various patches in the mid-neck area….

Oh yeah, I also found this neat little tutorial mentioned in some thread here at SRP, I found this hold/grip to be solid (and stable).


So in summary, tried three new things:
Not shaving against the grain – positive result
Using L’Occitane Shaving Soap – surprisingly, positive result
Using new grip – positive result

This thread is a great idea Cobo. I think it should be made into a sticky, or a fresh sticky created in the same vein, maybe called The Newbie Support Group. I think a lot of people expect too much ( I did ) when they first start using a straight, and give up or are too hard on themselves.

When I first started researching straight razors on the net ( before joining SRP ), I read that they give the closest shaves and don't produce the irritation, bumps and razor burn other shaving systems do. Well, imagine my consternation when I started shaving with a straight and was getting these symptoms for the first time. I'd never experienced razor burn before! If I hadn't had access to SRP and all its wonderful members and advice, I might easily have put my straight away in a drawer and returned to my Gillette Fusion. I kept going with it, and every shave is better than the last; still a little irritation and not as close as I might hope, but I'll get to where I want to be in a few months.

I've got a setup that's working for me: nice razor to shave with, a couple of razors to practice honing on ( a couple sitting around until I get my honing sorted ), Norton 4K/8K, pasted Tony Miller paddle strop, hanging strop.

I'm not in a position to give any sage advice, but for all those just starting out let me describe what I have experienced so far:

It takes a while before you get comfortable shaves; I've only had a few so far. Learn to live with razor burn.

Your first few shaves will take ages. I'm down to about 15 mins, but I only do two passes.

You will nick your strop. Let it go.

You will junk at least couple of razors learning to hone. Let 'em go.

This hobby is pretty expensive, and RAD sets in quickly. Surrender to it.

Your shaves will get better.

Love to my fellow Noobs, Leon