Thread: Newish to straight razors

Well after hearing good things about straights online and liking knives as well as having shaved a couple of times with a knife when I was 17 I thought straights would be good for me, especially as I have sensitive skin and it responds poorly to repeated shaving.

So I got the full norton water stone set, and a swaty, and some strops. And while I can shave with it, it does not seem especially close and my skin does not seem to like it all that much.

I have been mostly using some old razors got from eBay(I like restoring and repairing such things so thought that would be good) but didn't do much better with the new Timor Blue Steel or Dovo Best Quality.

Ideas on where I am going wrong?

I will save you some trouble and go ahead and ask for some more info as those who may answer your question will:

What grits do you have and how are you using them? Progressive? Pyramid?

Do you have a bench mark shave ready blade? Something from a honemiester?

Are you lapping the hones?

These things will help folks figure out where you are going wrong. THAT being said, the biggest single mistake folks make is not getting the bevel set correctly before polishing. Ebay blades tend to have varying degrees of hone ware and are more often than not uneven and present advanced honing challenges. Not to say you aren't totally up to the task, just sharing what little I know. Hope this helps till others can chime in on the problem.

Good luck!

The thing is that I was as much wondering if it is a honing issue, or a shaving technique issue.

I am also thinking about going down to the barber shop on friday, I have off from work and if the owner is there, he is in his 80's and I know would be happy to simply talk about straight razors with me.

Talk to the barber, take your blades with you and you may come home with more than you bargained for. Nothing like face to face contact with people and my guess is that he will love talking to you!

Originally Posted by PonderingTurtle

The thing is that I was as much wondering if it is a honing issue, or a shaving technique issue.

Well, nobody can answer this without being a psychic. I would say it's both. You could start by telling us more - the questions were good.

Originally Posted by PonderingTurtle

I am also thinking about going down to the barber shop on friday, I have off from work and if the owner is there, he is in his 80's and I know would be happy to simply talk about straight razors with me.

Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea.

Old razors from Ebay need to be honed aggresively. The edge has oxidized so the steel is soft and will not hold an edge. The old steel needs to be removed by honing. Use the Norton 4000 for that task. 50-100 roundtrip laps should remove the old steel and establish a new bevel. Then a little bit of time on the 8000 should polish the edge to shaving sharp, 15-25 laps. Then strop and shave.

Look at the pyramid system of honing after that and perform conservative pyramids if necessary.
Make sure those Norton hones are lapped flat.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Old razors from Ebay need to be honed aggresively. The edge has oxidized so the steel is soft and will not hold an edge. The old steel needs to be removed by honing. Use the Norton 4000 for that task. 50-100 roundtrip laps should remove the old steel and establish a new bevel. Then a little bit of time on the 8000 should polish the edge to shaving sharp, 15-25 laps. Then strop and shave.

Look at the pyramid system of honing after that and perform conservative pyramids if necessary.
Make sure those Norton hones are lapped flat.

Hope this helps,

Oh I honed them quite a bit starting at the 250 norton water hone, in part because when getting the tarnish and rust off I slipped with the dremmel and put some small chips in the edge, and needed to hone those out.

So I think I am doing OK with the EBay razors, they are certainly working about as well as my new ones.

I worked on a different one recently by going from a double sided norton india stone I have had for years, to a surgical Arkansas stone to the swaty hone and it seemed to work OK(or as well as anything).

It is that I am not at all sure if it is that I am not quite getting a good enough edge on them, or my technique while shaving is the problem.

Well I went to the barber I mentioned and it was nice talking to him, but his basic advice was don't, use a mach 2. That and a bit of ragging on me for having long hair.

So I think Lynn's video is going to provide more useful information.

Originally Posted by PonderingTurtle

Well I went to the barber I mentioned and it was nice talking to him, but his basic advice was don't, use a mach 2.

That's interesting that you've said the barber discouraged you from shaving with a straight. I had a somewhat similar experience in talking with a local barber (still working) who's in his seventies. Great guy, not curmudgeonly at all. His take on shaves even back in the day were that from his perspective as a barber, a shave took twice as long as a haircut and cost less. So it wasn't one of his or his cohort's favorite services to perform. There wasn't a lick of "I wish I could strop up the old straights and start giving shaves again".

I talk about how great he is; he gave me a DD Dwarf (still my "go to" shaver at this point), a red imp and an economy razor. He refused to take any money for them.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chris L

That's interesting that you've said the barber discouraged you from shaving with a straight. I had a somewhat similar experience in talking with a local barber (still working) who's in his seventies. Great guy, not curmudgeonly at all. His take on shaves even back in the day were that from his perspective as a barber, a shave took twice as long as a haircut and cost less. So it wasn't one of his or his cohort's favorite services to perform. There wasn't a lick of "I wish I could strop up the old straights and start giving shaves again".

I talk about how great he is; he gave me a DD Dwarf (still my "go to" shaver at this point), a red imp and an economy razor. He refused to take any money for them.

Chris L

Well he said he threw all his razors out 25 years ago. Funnily enough, his son who works with him lives next door.

But I rehoned my favoret razor(the first one I restored insterstingly enough, I get better results with it than the new ones I got(dovo best quality and timor blue steel) I can get a decent shave, but I am not sure if useing the swaty instead of finishing hone is good, and I used the dovo paddle strop that came prepasted with a red paste on a balsa wood side.

I think I might have problems with the HHT because I have rather fine(if as noted before long) hair. If I had a long section it would cut but not a short section.