Thread: First straight razor shave.....OUCH!!!!!

Tonight I decided to take my first stab (no pun intended) at a real straight razor shave.

The accessories were:

Taylor of Old Bond Street Pre-Shave Oil
Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort Shaving Cream
Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort Aftershave
Nickel plated badger brush
Dovo Buffalo Horn 5/8 full hollow



The razor is new and supposedly shave ready but I thought I would prep it a bit by stopping before a shave attempt. I did maybe 50 passes on the cloth side of the strop followed by 40 passes over the leather as demonstrated in a few instructional youtube videos I watched.

So showered up followed by a few minutes under hot towel, preshave oil and then lathered up the sides, which seem like the easiest spots to shave for a newbie like myself.

Well, it seems that the blade was nowhere near sharp enough. After about 6 minutes I had shaved both sides going with the grain, but lets just say it was rather unpleasant. No cuts or nicks, but I only managed to shave the areas by kind of chopping away at the hair. Any attempt to just let the blade glide across my face using the full width of the blade was met with very harsh tugging at the skin. I tried varying the angle of attack, from about 20 degrees to 40 degrees, but didnt make much difference. I ended up finishing the rest of my shave with a Mach3

I guess the razor simply isnt sharp enough from just stropping so I will wait for the Norton 4000/8000 honing block I ordered the other day.

A rough start to straight shaving but I'm not deterred.

First welcome to SRP.

The setup looks great, and yes the sides should be fairly easy to shave.
Do check with the whoever honed your razor. Folding the edge by stropping isn't unheard of, but if you keep the spine on the strop it's very very hard to do.
If the razor had only the factory honing it may not be sharp enough indeed. If this is the case does it shave easily your arm hair at skin level? It would be nice if you can find somebody local to you to take a look, or you can always send it to one of the honemeisters, who will make sure it's properly honed for a rather modest fee.

The razor only has the factory Dovo hone I believe. My barber said those razors come shave ready.

I did test the razor out on my arm and it seemed to work OK but that hair is much finer than my facial hair. As far as the stropping is concerned, I did make sure to keep the spine flat on the strop so as not to fold the edge. Maybe some light honing will be required? I was thinking maybe 50 passes on the 8000 side (when it comes in this week) may really be all it needs?

Well, that's what Dovo claims and the consensus (from people who have honed many of these) is that they are not too far off, but there is certainly a range in honing, depending on who did it at the factory. They spend about 3min per razor, while most honemeisters here spend significantly more.
Why not ask your barber to shave you and if necessary touch it up for you and show you how it's done. Seems like a potentially great local resource.
I'm a bit skeptical about the 50 passes on 8k - in any case it's almost impossible for any one here to access the exact state of the razor over the internet and make a recommendation.

Hmm

I cant imagine that I folded the edge over by stropping it. I made sure to keep the strop tight and used very light pressure on the blade - enough to basically just brush the strop lightly back and forth using the X pattern going spline first.

The razor felt equivalent to a cheap disposable after about 12 shaves. Painfully dull.

I'd say trust your instincts about it. If it feels dull then its probably dull. I own many dovos, all purchased new. There has to date only 1 that has been shave ready out of the box. And that was definately on the low end of shave ready too. As far as the # of passes on the 8 K norton. I'd recommend doing about 10 passes then try shaving to see the results. If needed do another 10 and check again. The real test is always in the shave. Its been my experience that dovos are very nearly shave ready when they leave the factory, and just require some minor tweaking.


Good luck. ( and nice looking razor too )


Patrick

i was using very tight strop and no pressure stropping before my first shave and i thought the razor may be on the dull side (pulled on my chin). that was certainly not the case and when i got less timid about stropping on the second shave the razor felt a whole lot sharper.
but that doesn't mean that your razor doesn't need honing - mine was honed and shaved tested by a honemeister who knew where the razor should be.
that's why i'm thinking that the best way is to have somebody with at least some experience take a look at your razor. since you have a hone on the way and it seems like you want to give it a try, why don't you do that. let us know how it goes and i'm sure we'll get you going.
in fact if you can't get your razor honed i'd hone it for you.

Thanks guys. Yeah, Im thinking I will try to hone it myself first and then try another shave next weekend. If it still feels rough, I will take your advice and send it out to a honemeister.

Am I just expecting too much from the razor? By this I mean can one use the full width of the blade smoothly without tugging or snagging when the razor is very sharp? Maybe it will also just take more practice/patience on my part. At least I was cut free on my first time out.

Originally Posted by CTnewbie76

Thanks guys. Yeah, Im thinking I will try to hone it myself first and then try another shave next weekend. If it still feels rough, I will take your advice and send it out to a honemeister.

sounds like a good plan

Originally Posted by CTnewbie76

Am I just expecting too much from the razor? By this I mean can one use the full width of the blade smoothly without tugging or snagging when the razor is very sharp?

seems to work for me and apparently almost everybody esle here

Originally Posted by CTnewbie76

Maybe it will also just take more practice/patience on my part. At least I was cut free on my first time out.

yes, you certainly will need practice and patience. cut free is ok, but i understand you didn't really cut much hair neither everybody can be cut free with a butter knife

yes, you certainly will need practice and patience. cut free is ok, but i understand you didn't really cut much hair neither everybody can be cut free with a butter knife

Fair point I'm sure I will get the hang of it eventually. I'm really amazed how much more skill is involved with a straight razor.

This guy makes it look sooooooo easy.

YouTube - Straight Razor Shave