Getting there ...

This is a continuation from: 6 Shaves Done - Straight Razor Place Forums week #3 06/09/08 #7 mon I stropped 60 times. I applied more pressure to the stropping stroke. It made the blade sharper; maybe too sharp. The shave seemed to go well except for a few nicks on my chin. I again open the scratch on my upper right cheek. I guess I should concentrate on moving the razor downward before contacting the skin. My shave was in the afternoon. When I showered in the evening I noticed that my scratch was now a flap of skin. I managed to push the flap back into place. I hope my wife does not notice. That wapi sure is sharp. 06/10/08 #8 tue It was just a scrape, not the flap of skin that i feared. I stropped 60 times. I shortened the length of the string holding my belt. It was advice from Tony at TWSG. It has much better control now. It does not flip over as much. 06/12/08 #9 thu I lather and shave my jaw over and over. It does not look shaven until the ATG pass. I thought the blade might be getting dull. My lather is too thin. I reread how to make lather. I am adding too much water and stirring too quickly. I can not get the left jawline. I think the hair is growing in weird directions. Week #4 06/16/08 #10 mon I got my vegan starter strop from Tont at TWSG. It is really solid. It does not turn over like my belt used to do. I started doing 100 strops. The blade feels sharper. 06/18/08 #11 wed I did 100 strops again. It felt ok on my cheeks but dull on my jawline. I was able to shave the jawline in a different direction. I changed my grip to 3 fingers and pinky (from Dr Moss's Guide) instead of 2 fingers and 2 fingers as Joel from B&B suggested. The middle part of the wapi passes the HHT. The part near the point fails. I will try to sharpen just the tip tomorrow with 100 laps; and 50 in the middle. 06/19/08 #12 thu I am almost there. I lapped 100 on the tip and 50 on the heel. It seems that when I do the lapping X stroke the top part of the blade near the point spends very little time on the strop. I will try to modify my X stroke so that the edge near the point and the heel get equal time on the strop. Maybe 1/2 stroke on top and then 1/2 stroke on bottom? I got a much more presentable shave. I am ok on the cheeks and the neck. I was able to get a good shave on the nose with the sharper point. I still need a little work on the jawline.

If you'll strap the whole blade throughout the stroke, the entire blade will be smoothed out as much as possible. I assume you didn't apply any paste to the Vegan strap. Strapping just the tip or just the middle of the blade seems like a misunderstanding of what strapping does. You want to smooth out the whole blade - if it needs sharpening at the tip, you will have to sharpen it using some method of abrasion other than vegan or leather strapping alone.

Glad you're progressing in your shaves, and I hope your cut heals quickly. As toolarts has suggested, I chime in: aloe vera could help your cut heal quickly, I used it when I was a kid to help heal minor cuts and scratches

I was stropping the entire blade. But it seems that the top got dull because the bottom was getting stropped much more than the bottom. I think I was starting at the top, and then quickly going to the bottom. I will try to modify the X stropping pattern so that 1/2 is the top and 1/2 is the bottom. I did not paste the vegan strop.

How is the bottom getting strapped more than the top? Isn't the handle getting in the way? It seems like the tip would always be on the strap more, unless your strap is not rectangular in shape

It seemed that when I was stropping, I was doing the X pattern too quickly. Thus, the bottom spent more time on the strop then the top.