Strange things afoot; something wrong with my techniques?
Okay, so I've been shaving with a straight razor and brush for about...I guess a year and a half now? It's practically the only thing I've ever shaved with. I get along fine, my face looks fine, feels good, shaves could be closer, nothing to complain about...
But I've finally gotten tired of a few things that I can't seem to get right, and one thing strange happened with my shave just now.
Okay, so my big thing is my brush and soap. I've got a Vulfix something or other, it's the one with the pewter handle, it's quite decent, so I've heard. All badger hair, of course. As far as soaps go, I've got two varieties of classic shaving's stuff and some of the bay and clove soap from thewellshavedgentleman. I have three razors...a Dovo HCS pearlex-handle, professionally honed, a wapienica from thewellshavedgentleman, obviously professionally honed, and an antique one I can't tell much from...it's got marks of "Blackhawk", "Solingen", and "Coast Barber Supply" repeated in various places on the razor and box. I honed it myself and it drags a little more than the others but if I shaved well the previous day it shaves competently. I have two strops, one is a new Chicago 206, the other is an antique family relic labelled "Imperial Koken Companies 221". I typically do 30 laps on the cotton side and 70 on the leather side. For honing, I have a 4000/8000 norton waterstone. When setting a bevel I usually alternate 4000 and 8000 in a 25/5/20/10/15/15/10/20/5/25 pattern. When touching up I usually do from 5 to 20 laps on the 8000, I go by feel. My shaving technique is to lather my whole face (I soak my facial hair in the shower beforehand), go straight down (pathwise, my actual cuts are somewhat scything) on the right side, re-apply lather to the left side (which by now is starting to break down slightly), go straight down on the left side, re-lather my whole face, go straight up on the right side, re-lather left side, go straight up on left side, wet alum block, rub on face, rinse face with cold water, towel off face.
Now, here is my main issue...everyone around seems to work up their lathers, by charging the brush with soap and then working up the lather in a bowl or cup with a small amount of water. But, no matter how much or how little water I use, I can never, ever, ever, work up anything vaguely resembling a lather that way, no matter how long I whip, how little or how much force I use, and no matter how little or how much glycerin I add. I've tried twice a week for most of the time I've shaved, changing things a little each time, and I never get anything more than bubbly water. I've also tried working it up in the palm of my hand and occasionally I'll get something creamy but it always breaks down into bubbly water after 15 seconds on my face. The only technique that works for me in any way is to work up the lather on top of the soap with a generous helping of glycerin. Nothing else even distantly comes close to working. As well, trying to refine lather on my face always just breaks it down faster no matter how much or how little force I use, same with water.
What exactly am I doing wrong? Keep in mind I've altered every variable several times a week for a whole year and nothing ever works.
Another strange thing that's happened, is I recently touched up the sharpness on my wapienica and my blackhawk. The wapienica I've used thrice so far and it's shaving fine, feels different, in an unexplainable way but shaves just as fine as ever. The Blackhawk I've used twice. The first time was fine, it never shaved better. But just now, I used it and it was absolutely horrible. It isn't dragging like it ever used to, not like my razors do when they're dull or insufficiently stropped, and yet it just wouldn't cut. It didn't drag but my face is still visibly stubbly and when I run my hand across it it feels exactly the same as it did before shaving. What happened? I even re-stropped in the middle of shaving and it did nothing. On one section of my face I even re-lathered and re-shaved no less than 4 times with no appreciable difference except a horrible case of razor burn, it still feels exactly the same as before shaving.
Another thing I've had problems with is shaving my neck. I keep seeing diagrams to shave left-right and right-left but no matter what angle I tilt my head I find it impossible to actually maneuver my razor around that way, it's hard enough to get every part of my neck just going up and down. Anyway, the main thing is my neck shaves are never as good as my cheek shaves and my neck will break out into severe razor burn if I apply the lightest pressure on my razor for even a second.
And finally, why is it that no matter how much attention I pay while honing, I still never get as close or easy a shave as when I use my shavette?
So these are my questions that I have, what am I doing wrong?
I also have a more general question: will shallow cuts (more like flaps) on a strop affect stropping?
I also have a small tip to give that I discovered on my own. As you work up lather on top of classic shaving soap, it starts to work up lather worse and worse until eventually it's impossible. If, at this point, you then put the soap in some boiling water, and let the soap itself boil for a minute or two, once it cools down, it starts working much better.