Thread: sharpness of shavette vs. regular straight

I have used a shavette now for about 5 months and i like it....but even with new blades i can't shave more than once every 5 days. Anything sooner than that and the razor pulls and rips at my hair. This isn't just a problem with the shavette, as i switched from a mach 3 because it does the same thing. I guess my question is: is a shavette just as sharp as a well honed straight, or is there a world of difference. I now have the money to invest in a real straight, but don't know if I want to if it's going to be the same experience. I first got interested in straights in hopes that a sharp blade that i can keep sharp would help with my beard problem. I'm pretty sure that it's not blade angle, as i have tried every combination of angles and i'm getting pretty proficient at it. Any advice would be appreciated.....thanks

What kind of preparation do you use? And what kind of lather?

my usual lather is usually C.O. Bigelow cream from Bath and Body Works...using a boar hair brush purchased from a local store. I almost always shave right after a hot shower, and always wash my face with a face soap first. If i ever can't shower, i use a hot hand towel for at least 5 minutes first. The other thing is that no matter how well a shave is, all my hair follicles raise up for a couple of days after shaving.

one other comment: if I wait 5 days or more before shaving again, my beard is soft enough that i can get a baby butt smooth shave, just not sooner.

thanks for the quick reply also......

Are you streaching your skin when you shave ?

yea, i'm stretching the skin.....i don't know if its adequate though because my fingers can't get a good hold on the slippery skin.

How much pressure are you puttting on the shavette when you make your pass(es)? I've been using a shavette shince March of this year and one of the biggest issues I ran into was that from shaving with a disposable Gillette (or whatever else was on sale) that I got used to having to push the blade into my face which will cause issues. JimmyHAD's sig line has a good point to follow about the pressure being light, basically to the point that the razor "floats" between your fingers. Also if your having trouble stretching the skin you might want to keep a damp cloth to wipe off any excess lather from the sides of the neck or where ever before you stretch.

My advice would be to get a shave ready straight and strop. They're the only shaving tool that I've found to give a pain free shave when used every day. Should that not be your experience, you should get more or less all your money back in resale.

The advice on getting a shave ready straight, strop, etc is going to be the best bet overall. I got 2 shaves out of a NOS Filly #10 (a little 3/8) before I rolled the edge stropping die to my inexperience. Those were the smoothest shaves I had ever gotten. Granted not BBS but the actual shve experience was amazing. There's a lot of talk that the shavettes etc are as sharp if not sharper than any regular striaght but I think that the final polish you'd get on a true straight is what will really make the difference. Don't know if you do or not but you might add conditioiner to your beard in the shower to help soften the wiskers making it easier to cut during the actual shave. That's been brought up a couple times in other posts. I've been trying that now for about a week and a half and it's helped smooth out my shaves quite a bit.