Thread: Another newbie nervious as heck!

To give credit where it's due, it was Bart who made the volume knob analogy. Here's the thread. http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-razor.html

First up, DE blades don't have anywhere near the durability of a str8.
Your beard may be a blade killer but it's possibly a honing or stropping issue.
Did you correct the previous edge damage ?

Welcome....

I can't wait to get my razors back from Lynn so I can use a well honed razor.

I think it's more likely that I have not yet corrected my prior blunder yet! Perhaps I'll just take some time out and strop the heck out of the blade. The barber did say I was going to have a heck of a time with my beard though.

Are there any contraindications to stropping mid shave?

If you stropped more than 1 or 2 laps with the spine lifted, than I'm pretty sure that you're not going to get the original sharpness back, no matter how much correct stropping you do afterwards.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of that bad news, but to restore the original shaveability, that razor needs rehoning. If it still shaves, but not so good, a touch up on a pasted strop may be enough to get you going again. 5 very careful laps on a barber hone might even be better.

Also my warmest welcome to SRP.
You received much good advice on this thread and it sounds like you're on the right track. Almost all of us have here have prematurely dulled a razor at some point in the learning curve. Nothing to worry too much about. Just get it corrected, and you'll be good to go again.

Best regards,
Bart.

No offence but it's probably worth getting the razor corrected by someone with experience & save yourself some stress.
As Bart implied it's no big deal. Just a matter of knowing what to do & at this stage your struggling.

Sounds like you may need a wedge razor down the track.

You may need to strop on you final pass but surely not after doing one side only.

Originally Posted by jmueller8

I'll strop it another 15 minutes tonight just to get some more time in. My face was so sore this morning, I decided to skip the shave. What's the best position to mount my strop? I tried it waist high and shoulder high and it still felt funny! Even tried it with the other hand. (The down side of being an ambidextrous left hander.)

I fastend my strop to my doorhandle. Works for me... (fun to see there are more ambidextrous left handers here).

I have quite a bit of experience with up to thirty different brands of double edge blades and some beards can be thicker than others, mine is very very light, I am lucky. Some blades can not stand up to a tough beard others can better than others Those that have heavy beards have told me that they tend to like straights becuase it allows them to adapt the blade to their fce rather than the other way around. This is one of the curses of the modern age, one needs to adapt his face to the demands of Proctor and Gamble's technology rather than the maker adapting to your face. Straight's I am told are best for the heavy beard. I could do the job with a piece of broken glass and it wouldn't make any difference, if I could keep from cutting my face off.

Bart; I expected as much, thank you!

Onimaru55; no offense taken at all, my area of expertise is medicine and that's about it, obviously.

Otto; that's a good idea. I'm still finding the right place but I'm actually using my belt: looped through the strop's loop thing and wrapped around the faucet of the bathroom. Ingenuity or idiocy: you decide!

Jbcohen; when I shave with a regular razor it's generally dull after 1 shave and sucks to use it again.

Well; I'll find someone who can hone my blade and, perhaps, teach me how to do that as well.

Thanks very much everyone!

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I have quite a bit of experience with up to thirty different brands of double edge blades and some beards can be thicker than others, mine is very very light, I am lucky. Some blades can not stand up to a tough beard others can better than others Those that have heavy beards have told me that they tend to like straights becuase it allows them to adapt the blade to their fce rather than the other way around. This is one of the curses of the modern age, one needs to adapt his face to the demands of Proctor and Gamble's technology rather than the maker adapting to your face. Straight's I am told are best for the heavy beard. I could do the job with a piece of broken glass and it wouldn't make any difference, if I could keep from cutting my face off.

Sorry to jump into the middle of this discussion, however, I have found that the bolded statement is very true. Lighter blades tend to flex, whereas, a heavier blade will not flex, but will cut instead of catching, flexing, and pulling the hair. All beards are different - density, hair type - coarse or fine, and how well the beard has been prepped for the shave.
I am sure that most of what I have mentioned has been discussed many times over on this incredible forum. However, I would like to mention two things before I shut-up, 1. don't let your beard cool down 2. don't let it dry out

Originally Posted by dannyr

Hi and welcome!
This is a fun place and you have already received alot of great information. I started with a straight razor about 2 months ago. Still a tiny bit spooky specially when I'm doing the neck and I envision slicing into veins and blood spurting all over and no one else here to dial 911 and then I turn into a Zombie and attack the neighbors. BUT, that hasn't happened yet so I'm enjoying the shave.
The important part to me was learning a comfortable grip on the razor, where I felt like I was in control, and also finding the correct angle of the blade to face, so that I was actually cutting my whiskers and not just slipping over them. With the blade against your face tilt the back away from the skin about 1-2 blade widths. You hear the blade cutting whiskers.
I hope I made sense. Any way, get a good after shave lotion and balm or facial moisturizer to finish off with and you will feel great!
Dannyr

Thanks for that, Dannyr... my computer monitor needed a good cleaning anyway, and spurting hot coffee all over it just now puts it a bit higher on my "To Do" list.

Funniest thing I've read in a long time!