Thread: Feel the burn!

I've completed 4 mostly successful shaves with my new str8. I've followed all of the advice i've been getting on angle, pressure, speed, prep, stropping, etc. Today i had no razor burn yet I still was unable to achieve a BBS shave. I'm not sure if it's the razor or my technique. I'd rather keep practicing vs sending my str8 back for a rehone so my question is how do i tell if i rolled/dulled the edge? I can hold out a hair and easily cut it into many pieces by just touching the blade to it. The blade makes a little *tink* sound. Its sharp no doubt - i just dont have enough experience yet to tell if its sharp enough or if i wrecked it by stropping.

And again, thanks for all the help.

chris

The trick with cutting the hair is called "the hanging hair test" (HHT) A razor that easily passes the HHT is shaveready. Not every one values the HHT to the same extent, but I've yet to encounter a blade that passed the test without offering great shaving performance.

As for BBS... It takes time to learn. When it comes to achieving total smoothness, in my personal experience, the following points are key (in order of contributing factor):

1. EXACT ATG direction.
A whisker that I don't tackle exactly against the growth direction will remain a stubble, no matter how many passes I make. If your beard is like mine, you'll need a mind map of growth direction, and figure out all the strange gestures to steer that razor in all the right directions.

2. SKIN STRETCHING.
As important as point1. Stretching during ATG pass is every bit as important as stretching during the first WTG pass. It takes time and experiment to figure out.

3. ENGAGE THE ENEMY WHERE YOU HAVE TACTICAL ADVANTAGE
Pulling certain parts of the skin to another area, so that the razor can attack the whiskers better at their base. For instance, pulling the skin under my jawline up, above the jawbone, and engage the whiskers there. There are parts on my face I can't get BBS without this technique

4. SMALL "SCOOPING" STROKES ATG
What it says, actually. Long ATG-strokes don't work for me.

5. CUTTING ANGLE
Generally very low works best for me. Envision honing a razor. Envision what would happen if that hone had a beard. I don't need to lift the spine very high.

6. UNCLOGGED VISION
For my ATG-pass I always lather up with a thin layer of watery, translucent lather. That way I can see really well how my "scoops" annihilate "the enemy". Very rewarding.

7. SCYTHE THAT GUILLOTINE
I always try to add a little scything motion to my strokes. It does not take much. Where scyting is not possible, I try to cut guillotine style, with the heel, or toe leading.

Of course, your mileage might very well vary.

Best regards,

Bart.

Originally Posted by cel

...Prior to using it i stropped it about 20 laps on the green side and about 50 on the smooth....

It does sound to me that 20 laps on the CrO pasted strop is a bit too much. Should not have needed it at all on a freshly-honed razor. And if the strop was not really taut and/or you let the spine lift off of the strop, then the CrO can round off the edge pretty quickly. I'd say from a fresh hone you wouldn't need the pasted strop for at least 10-30 shaves, and then only about 5 passes, very tight strop, light pressure, blade absolutely flat on the strop. But since Ken did the pasting, perhaps he could advise you better...