Thread: The Learning Curve Continues...

So yesterday I beat my face up severely with a new blade in a shavette and Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouqet shaving cream. My face was screaming red with more weepers than I have ever seen. Pen's doesn't lube that well, then when you put that in combination with a *very* sharp shavette blade... ouch. I almost didn't shave today.

But after receiving my new hanging strop (my very first proper strop), as well as reading Kaptain_Zero's post on making lather from soap, I just couldn't help but shave in spite of the fact that my face was screaming not to.

I "stropped the crap" out of a Lynn sharpened Hess 44 stainless. 50 laps on the linen, followed by 200(!) laps (400 total strokes!) over the course of two days on the Red Latigo leather.

The combination of the Kaptain Kream and well-stropped blade brought my level of straight shaving to a new high. Not only was I able to shave my irritated face, I was able to do three full passes, and I'm sitting here with one of the closest straight shaves I've had so far.

REAL Important stuff:

1. Have a really sharp razor
2. Strop the crap out of it with a real, legitimate hanging leather strop (not a paddle strop).
3. Have good quality, *properly developed* lather.

What I really like about Tabac is how well it works when it is a bit drier than what you'd normally want a lather to be. Even without much water, the stuff lubes very well. Maybe even better than if it's at a "normal" moisture content. The only thing I did different from the Kaptain's method was I did end up tranfering the lather to a bowl so I could add a few drops of glycerin to it to get the extra needed working time I need here in the desert. Soap just dries up too fast without a touch more glycerin in it here. Tabac works so well, I"m finally even getting over the scent!