Thread: any advice???????

bought a brand new straight and it was tugging and pulling so i decided to try honing it on a 4000/8000 hone. alrite so i gave it about 10 minutes on the 4k maybe 100 laps and about 20 on the 8k. then i stropped on the canvas and leather for about 20 strokes each. so i prep my beard, and everything try the razor out and...........to my astonishment most of the hairs were still left on the skin..........tried a second pass and same thing. At this point my skin started turning red and I was feeling the razor burn so i finished off with my safety razor. So any advice? Was it an overhoned razor?

First, welcome to SRP!

Second, some clarification questions: what kind of razor did you get? Some are great, and others are worthless. Where did you get it? Did you get it professionally honed?

It could have been a wire edge, or over honed razor. Also, and this is not meant to sound confrontational in any way, but how is your honing technique? It is possible that you may have done more harm than good if you're like me, and don't have that much experience honing.

A few other questions: have you shaved with a straight before? how's your technique? do you remember to stretch your skin? I had a similar experience when I started shaving with a straight: tugging, pulling, razor burn, little effectiveness. But as my technique has improved, so have my shaves; especially since i've started remembering to stretch the skin. Stretching can make or break a shave!

Lastly, it will take your skin a little while to adjust to a new way of doing things, i.e. shaving with a straight, but once it does, it will be a more comfortable shave.

assuming you have the Norton 4k/8k do a search for "norton pyramid". It sounds like you may have overhoned it. Test it on your arm first, if it doesnt shave your arm dont let it touch your face. I'm sure there will be more people with more info to follow.

Welcome to SRP! Many times an inadequately set bevel is the culprit. In his excellent video series Heavydutysg mentions that most razors sent to him by members who cannot get them up to speed lack a sufficient bevel. It is the foundation upon which the edge is built.

Here is a good read to start out with and here is the video section of the forum. Lynn's video and Heavyduty will help a great deal. As others have mentioned shaving technique and prep are all important as well.

I think (but I could be wrong) that the bevels put on by the Dovo factory (and possibly TI) have a much different angle than the bevel you would put on by laying your blade flat on the hone. Since you didn't "reset the bevel" on your new razor, the chances are pretty good that you were honing an area of the razor *behind* the very edge. So you either need to find what angle the current bevel is set at (probably not very easy), or reset the bevel on a 1k (or if you have the patience, a 4k) stone. That way, you are assurd that you are honing the very edge of the blade and not an area behind it.

Check out the honing section of the shaving Wiki, especially the magic marker test. It'll tell you in a heartbeat what part of the edge you are actually honing.

Originally Posted by theworldover

First, welcome to SRP!

Second, some clarification questions: what kind of razor did you get? Some are great, and others are worthless. Where did you get it? Did you get it professionally honed?

It could have been a wire edge, or over honed razor. Also, and this is not meant to sound confrontational in any way, but how is your honing technique? It is possible that you may have done more harm than good if you're like me, and don't have that much experience honing.

A few other questions: have you shaved with a straight before? how's your technique? do you remember to stretch your skin? I had a similar experience when I started shaving with a straight: tugging, pulling, razor burn, little effectiveness. But as my technique has improved, so have my shaves; especially since i've started remembering to stretch the skin. Stretching can make or break a shave!

Lastly, it will take your skin a little while to adjust to a new way of doing things, i.e. shaving with a straight, but once it does, it will be a more comfortable shave.

hey i wanna say thanx to everyone who gave input any info is appreciated...................

it is a dovo 5/8 straight hollow ground. no i did not have it professionally honed. i honed it in a X pattern with the spine trailing, make one cross then flip it over on the spine and go at another lap.

yeah i did stretch my skin. and on previous shaves it was pulling and would be skipping sometimes but there was no irritation so i figured it needed some honing.

Originally Posted by dappa12

bought a brand new straight and it was tugging and pulling so i decided to try honing it on a 4000/8000 hone. alrite so i gave it about 10 minutes on the 4k maybe 100 laps and about 20 on the 8k. then i stropped on the canvas and leather for about 20 strokes each. so i prep my beard, and everything try the razor out and...........to my astonishment most of the hairs were still left on the skin..........tried a second pass and same thing. At this point my skin started turning red and I was feeling the razor burn so i finished off with my safety razor. So any advice? Was it an overhoned razor?

That was me last month - except I decided to hone before even trying the razor, as it failed the hanging hair test.

I'm pretty sure I ended up overhoning, I had the same thing as you - I went through the motions of shaving but most of the hair was left behind.

I made sure I got rid of any wire edge by very lightly running the blade over the wooden part of a pencil. You are supposed to use a matchstick for that but I didn't have any. (Alternatively you can just back-hone to remove a wire edge.) Then I did some "pyramids" of honing as recommended here. That got it shave-worthy if not the perfection I was hoping for.

Further improvement came when I stopped trying to hone the hell out of the blade, and instead started stropping more and working on my shaving skills. I kept feeling the urge to hone more but I resisted and it paid off. Shaves just kept getting better and better.

Doing hundreds of laps on the hones and 20 of stropping is completely the wrong way round. You need to do the minimum amount of honing needed, and do 50 or more laps of stropping before each shave.

Use the marker test to see if your honing is working on the whole bevel. Once it is, hone on the 4K until the blade passes the thumbnail test. Then hone on the 8K until it passes the thumbpad test. (Do not use the thumbnail test once you've started on the 8K side.) There are guides to these tests on this site.

If that seems complicated or doesn't work for you, try doing "pyramids" (again, guides are on this site.)

You should get to the stage where you can shave hairs off your arm. Don't think the hairs will "pop" off as soon as the blade touches them at a height above the arm. It's great if that happens, but don't make that your target, just get the blade to where it can shave.

Then do 50 laps stropping on leather and do a test shave. Hopefully you will see improvement.

Edit: But yes, if you can get someone to make your razor shave-ready that makes things easier and teaches you what to aim for in future. Go to someone who KNOWS how to sharpen straight razors, not a knife grinder.

Yes I agree, get it sharpened by somebody who knows what they're doing. If you don't have anybody local to do it, look in the classifieds->member services
Honing is not rocket science but as you found it's more than just doing x-pattern. Holding the razor flat on the hone without pressure is essential. Your razor now is duller than it started, so your hone did work on the edge, but the effect was the opposite of what you desired. Don't tackle learning to hone at the same time as learning to shave, or you'll suffer a lot more pain.

i cant give much advice on honing but i noticed you said you stropped as many on the leather as you did on the canvas. whatever you strop on the canvas x2 on the leather

You wrote about amount of time and number of passes on the hone and strop, but those are meaningless. What is important is checking the progress of your honing (regardless of time and number of strokes) and stopping only when the edge is sufficiently honed per the sensation of the edge on the thumb nail. Did you check the progress of your stropping? Then proceeding to the shave only after determining that the edge was keen enough to shave?

Sounds as though you are relying on luck to get your razor ready for the shave. If you want reliable, consistent quality shaves you must learn to check your edge with the thumb nail and thumb pad.


Scott