Random thoughts about doing things right
I'm just in the mood to start a thread about the importance of doing things right. The real point of this thread is that, if I, after all these years of shaving with a straight, still find myself focusing on the fundamentals to get a good shave then they probably are pretty important.
So, here are the fundamantals that I still struggle with.
Prep is still important. I like to make sure that I put a good lather on my face and let it soak in. I lather twice before I start the first pass. As the first lathering is soaking I often use my finger tips to push the lather into the whiskers.
Stropping- I usually dork around with my stropping, mostly just to see if I can find some new epiphany. Keeping the strop taut and using light pressure seems to do a good job of keeping the edge shaving. I rarely have huge improvements in the edge, but it keeps shaving. Sometimes a little pressure followed by light passes helps, but that often ends up being a slippery slope that ends in me honing the edge a little.
The only recent thoughts are that freshly honed edges do not need stropping and if stropping truely is about edge realignment then I don't need to strop for several shaves.
My first thought, every time I strop, is always the same. Don't screw up the edge.
Honing- Nothing new here. I still find that the key is not using any pressure when honing. I should add though that I'm still a little surprised by the fact that whether I do 6 strokes or 60 on a hone, the edge does not feel any different. You'd think, based on most honing threads, that there would be a problem with this, but I can never tell a difference. I would have to say that the number of strokes you do on a grit is immaterial. The stone creates its effect in a certain number of strokes. More is not good, nor is it detrimental. It simply has no effect. It's like stropping.
Shaving- I do find that stretching the skin is key. And yea, 30 degrees is still optimum. But, what I find even more important is seeing the whiskers I want to shave off and focusing on those whiskers and shaving them off. Its almost like someone telling you to "keep your eye on the ball". I have to focus on the whiskers I want to shave and I have to watch them get cut. Oddly, if I focus on the whiskers they seem to get shaved without me thinking about it.
Finding the right direction to shave my face from is critical. I only get great results with an across the grain stroke. I often realize that I should think more about what needs to happen, and learn to do it, rather than doing what seems easy but remains ineffective. Where the stroke starts and the direction the blade goes from the beginning of the stroke makes a huge difference in shave closeness. I can do many, many, passes from the wrong starting point in the wrong direction and waste 20 minutes shaving. Until I bite the bullet and finally do the stroke from the right place, in the right direction, I am wasting a lot of time. I find that, if I'm "blade buffing" I'm actually falling into a series of low disciplined bad strokes. I have to stop, tell myself what really needs to happen, and do it.
I need a disciplined approach to finding unshaven whiskers. For some reason they hide from me. If I was on my game I'd find them more consistently.
Ok, that's it. Just random thoughts from my most recent shaves.
