Thread: Hello from Texas

Just signed up this evening and wanted to say a quick hello.
I use a double edge and own 4 straights that I have yet to get a good edge on. I am working on this skill and hopefully will get it right soon. Using the Norton 4000/8000 and a Dovo strop.
Anyway, I sure enjoy the Straight Razor Place.
Thanks,
Rick

Welcome to SRP Rick ! Sounds like you have what you need to get going in style. I would suggest sending the best one or two of the four out to a honemiester . You can find some here. It will give you a benchmark to check you honing against and it will give you something to shave with until your honing is up to speed.

Go to the Wiki at the toolbar above and there are tutorials on honing, stropping and shaving. There are helpful videos here and a great starter post for shaving here.

welcome.

i would suggest you get one of your razors honed by somebody with experience.
you may need a coarser stone, but some of the experts are good without one too.

Thanks guys,
I am twisted between buying a shave ready razor here or send out a couple as mentioned. The classifieds lost a " Hess 44" I was thinking seriously about.
I have Lynn's CD "World of Straight Razor Shaving", very good information. I am also very lucky to have a close friend who straight razor shaves and is the person who got me going on the DE and now the straight razor.He was over this evening helping me with honing, making good lather and did a shave to show me how he does it.
What I learned was I have been using way-way too much pressure honing and stropping. As far as shaving I have been using too much angle causing the dragging and catching of the razor on my face. I had been thinking the razor was dull. Something else, not pulling the skin tight will cause the razor to drag like it is dull. Does all this sound right?
The way I have been comparing sharp is by cutting a hair pulled from my chest. I use a double edge blade as an example of sharp.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Rick

the hess 44 is a great razor in my opinion.
looks like you've got somebody local to help you, that's probably your best option.

Originally Posted by gugi

welcome.

i would suggest you get one of your razors honed by somebody with experience.
you may need a coarser stone, but some of the experts are good without one too.

Hear him, hear him... 'Tis true on both counts.Send one of those straights to one of our honemeisters (found in the classifieds). You can use that razor to compare your edges against. As to the hone, yes, you can set the bevel on the razor using the 4000. But, it's likely going to take some time to do so. I am still earning to hone myself, and I sometimes get into a quandry as to whether I haven't truely set my bevel correctly, or have over honed. Gugi correctly suggests a coarser hone to set that bevel. Then you can move to the 4000, 8000, etc... to progressively perfect and polish your edge.

One thing to keep in mind is that there all sorts of tests for the edge (HHT, TPD, TNT, etc...), but only one test really matters. That test is the shave. And for that I recommend you start shaving using that professionally honed razor so you know what a proper edge feels like. Learn your angles and blade manipulations using that razor. Otherwise, you will spend a good amount of time trying to figure out if your bad shave was caused by poor technique or by an edge not being right...

Rick, Shave only a small easy area at a time until you get your moves down. Go slowly and keep attention to the task. It works. Robert

Thanks Dan,
I received an Email from a SRP member, boballman, who is pretty close that will hone my razors. This place amazes me.
The 4 razors I have are not the pretty razors I see pictured here on SRP. They were razors from EBay. A Dubl Duck Satin Wedge, Henckels #81, F.A. Clauberg and a Rogers plated type razor. I question sending these out to get honed because of their condition.
It seems that if you have a couple shave ready razors there would be no need for a less than 4000 grit stone, no need for setting an angle, it is set. Does this sound right?
In the learning mode.
Rick

Originally Posted by Raudrive

It seems that if you have a couple shave ready razors there would be no need for a less than 4000 grit stone, no need for setting an angle, it is set. Does this sound right?
In the learning mode.
Rick

Maybe and maybe not. It is best to have some sort of magnification to inspect the bevel along the length of the blade. A lot of guys buy one of those inexpensive hand held microscopes. I have something like that and also a 30X eye loupe that I got from Widget Supply thanks to Kaptain Zero.

The bevel should be uniform from the cutting edge up the belly of the blade to where it ends. It may or may not be the same width from point to heel. The color should be the same in the light under magnification. If you have two or more colors you have more then one bevel.

There is an article on setting bevels and on the tests to gauge the progress of the edge as you hone in the SRP Wiki + way more good stuff.

Thanks,

Just read a thread titled "Tape" started by Bruno. This thread assured me that I will never understand honing!

Is there a place to learn all the acronyms people use? That alone is challenging.

I have been using the straight razor on all areas of my face except the area under my lower lip to just past my chin. The razor wants to hang up or jump. The other areas have been hit and miss as far as the razor hanging up or sticking. I do have to get a known shave ready razor. My friend who came over yesterday was unable to get any of these 4 razors shave ready. I think this is a good example of the need of a 1000 grit stone to get the angle set. A microscope would be nice too.

Straight razor shaving is like hunting and fishing. The tools can get expensive.

Rick