Shaving Journal

I decided to start a new thread to document my progress with the straight razor. I suspect it will be a slow going but rewarding journey and I am really eager to get started.

I am using a Beau Brummel No. 35 that came shave-ready from Gugi here on the forums, along with Truefitt & Hill shaving cream. My first experience with the razor was Friday night, and I only braved shaving a small portion of my face from my sideburn down to my jawline, like the beginner's guide suggests. I had one nick right off the bat but after that things went well.

I got the straight out again last night and decided to attempt my entire right cheek. I once again did not strop the razor beforehand because I didn't have a place to mount the strop in my new apartment. The shave went really well nonetheless. I finished up with my Gillette Fusion and it gave me terrible razor burn on my neck. Each time it makes me more and more motivated to learn how to handle this straight razor. Just running my hand over the different parts of my face was enough to show me the straight razor's quality: my technique is absolutely minimal and I still had a much closer shave than with the cartridge.

Right now I am setting up my strop in the bathroom and I hope to have it secured soon. I've been doing some research on the age of this razor I have but can only date it to sometime in the 30s or 40s. One side says Beau Brummel Cutlery Co. Solingen, Germany and the other says No. 35. I've looked at others on the forums here and they appear to say either Brummel Werk or Beau Brummel Razor Co along with Pearlduck's address in NY. I'm not sure if mine is a variant on the latter or not.

Josh

Sound like you have a good start Josh! Getting that strop in place is a must. Sounds like you're working on getting a hook in your bathroom, but in the meantime you could try zip striping it or tying it to a doorknob. Shut the door of course to keep the doorknob steady, and make sure no one opens it on you. :) Keep us updated on your progress and have fun.

ooh stropping would definitely make it even better.
I hang my strops on a towel rail in the bathroom. The carabiner type hardware hangs on a rope loop that's on the rail.

Shaving journal threads are fun :) Some day you'll love to come back.

I haven't used fusion, but my observation with those cartridge razors is that they make you push them into your skin, which is the exact opposite you should do with a straight.

Have fun!

When I first started, I tied the ring of my strop to the towel rail with a shoelace. Worked so well, I never got around to mounting a hook. Good luck with the shaving.

Well done on getting started, Josh. As you gain some experience you will get a feeling on the correct angles and pressures. Take your time. It's not a race.

As far as your strop goes, there are many methods. You don't say what kind of strop you have. A simple arrangement would be to tie some line to the end of your strop and loop it around the door knob. But you should be using your strop each time before you shave...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dward

Well done on getting started, Josh. As you gain some experience you will get a feeling on the correct angles and pressures. Take your time. It's not a race.

As far as your strop goes, there are many methods. You don't say what kind of strop you have. A simple arrangement would be to tie some line to the end of your strop and loop it around the door knob. But you should be using your strop each time before you shave...

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this

SR shaving isn't just about running a piece of metal across your face. let's hear about your stropping technique, the lathers you make up, how a boar brush feels on your skin vs a badger brush!


good luck! have fun!

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!

I mounted the strop Sunday night using a hook. I'm using a Beau Brummel vintage strop with a leather side and a canvas side (I also purchased it from Gugi here on the Classifieds). He included a dull razor to practice stropping with so I spent a considerable amount of time working with it before I ever touched my shaving razor to the strop.

Stropping is nowhere near as easy as it seems! I think I was probably going too slow. After I felt comfortable with it, I got out my actual razor and gave it thirty passes on the leather side of the strop. I didn't nick the strop at all, so I was very pleased with that. I had spent a considerable amount of time watching videos but it's an entirely different animal when you actually do it. I tried to keep the strop as tight as possible while using a very light touch with my razor. I led with the spine on all strokes and flipped the razor over the spine at each end.

I haven't purchased a brush yet since the beginner's guide didn't list it as essential, but I can already see how nice it would be to have one, so I'm going to start looking online. I've been building lather on my face with my hands and a fair amount of hot water, which has worked pretty well. I am sure a brush would make it a lot easier though.

I only shaved the right side of my jaw and neck this time, taking extra care to keep the skin stretched and to keep the blade angle as close to 30 degrees as I could. I'm only doing WTG passes right now using the standard grip shown in the beginner's guide. Sunday night's shave wasn't as close as my others have been but it was still a very passable job. I've been wiping off the excess shaving cream from the blade using a towel that I've draped around my neck, and it seems to work pretty well. The only tricky part I've encountered so far is the size of the blade: I wear a goatee so I have to be careful not to accidentally "trim" it while I'm making passes down my cheek, which I amusingly did Sunday night.

No nicks though! Unsurprisingly, the razor burn on my neck looked much better after I didn't shave that side with a cartridge.

Thanks again Gugi for providing me with such a great kit. This blade has been really easy to learn on and definitely came shave-ready.

ah yeah, the brummels take very nice edge. it's also easier to keep nice lines with a square point like this one - there is no ambiguity which part is sharp and which isnt :)

you need to strop on the canvas too. it is what keeps the edge sharp for long time. the speed will come with practice, but it's more important that the strokes are good. afdavis can strop an edge with just 10-15 laps, but i think most of us do a 'curtain fire' approach. also the leather being cordovan you don't get much of a draw, but it imparts a very nice edge.
since you didn't strop for the first two shaves and the third you used only leather, the edge will probably benefit from at least 50 canvas strokes. canvas is more abrasive than leather, especially cordovan and removes microoxidation from the edge.

looks like it's coming along nicely :)

Thanks for the advice gugi!

I've been gone for a few days on job training so I was eager to get back into it. I gave it about sixty strops on the canvas and then another sixty on the leather to be sure the job was done.

I've moved to shaving both sides of my face and neck. It was a little tricky to get used to using my left hand for the left side of my face, but with a little practice it felt very comfortable. I fortunately wear a goatee, so this will actually be all that I need to shave on a daily basis.

I can tell that my technique needs some serious work, but I'm still getting pretty close shaves, and better yet, I'm not getting any razor burn on my neck now that I've quit using the cartridges.

I'm planning on sticking with WTG strokes for a while before moving on.

It seems like the next step is to look into purchasing a brush to help build a good lather. My hands work pretty well but I have a feeling it would be much easier with the right stuff.

Things are going great with the straight razor!

I took about an hour this afternoon to go through a slow, leisurely shave. I've been stropping on the canvas and leather sides with good results, but today I felt like I had a major success. I worked up a good lather and really made sure to pull the skin tight on my cheeks and neck before shaving. I ended up with an incredibly smooth shave (even using my off-hand for the left side of my face) and only had very minor razor burn near the bottom of my beard line on the neck.

I did want to throw out a question...what is the best way to clean the razor of shaving cream at the end of the shave? I watched a video where the barber just wipes it onto his palm:

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Unfortunately, I tried this at first and ended up nicking my palm. :D I guess sometimes you just have to learn the hard way. So, I tried wiping it onto a towel, which seemed to work well, but I'm not sure if this would dull my edge or not.

All in all a great shave though, I was really happy about it.

Josh

i usually use mu fingers, or running water. both need care though.
the faucet and the sink are mean and dangerous and if you're using something to wipe off the lather you need to do it with a small component in a stropping type of motion, i.e, the edge lagging behind the spine.
otherwise the edge will catch and slice into whatever you're wiping off.

Thanks gugi,

I've been sure to wipe the lather off using a stropping motion and that's cleared up my problem immensely. Shaving is still going well, although I find that it's easy to get into a hurry and nick myself along the way. The blade is sharp as ever and I've been stropping it before each time. I'm making progress slowly but surely...now I'm thinking it's time to buy a brush.

I thought I'd update this journal with a bit of new news.

I finally bought a shaving brush from the Body Shop a couple of days ago. It's synthetic and it's fairly cheap, but I wanted to start with something simple.

The brush makes it much easier to build up a really thick lather. I'm using Origins Blade Runner shaving cream and it works very well.

I'm planning on buying a scuttle very soon and adding that to my collection.