Help! I'm being visited by The Mangler!

I have been shaving with a straight for around 3 weeks. I purchased a Dovo Best 5/8 half hollow new. I diligently stropped it and for the last 3 weeks I have taken turns slicing up various parts of my face and neck. My razor does not pass the HHT, but it sure seems sharp - at least sharp enough to cut the crap out of my face. :medvl:

People at work think I have joined Fight Club. :(

Is my razor likely too sharp or too dull? It certainly does not easily cut my hair but it certainly does a fine job on the skin. I am committed to the straight, but this is getting downright grusome. Is there anyone out there that can help me figure out why i am having this problem?

Thanks!

welcome to srp

it's rather hard to say if your razor is dull or you're not using it right. if you have gotten it honed by somebody with a lot of experience honing and shaving and they tested it then it's very unlikely that it was dull.

It sounds like your technique more than the sharpness of the blade. Watch those angles and it'll start to come together.

When you say your purchased it "new," does this mean the package was unopened?

If so, it was never honed. It may have been advertised as shave ready, but from what I have read here, factory shave-ready, and well-honed shave-ready are vastly different things.

Factory shave ready isn't good enough. Send it off to someone to be honed. And fortunately for you, there are lots of very friendly and experienced honemeisters here to help.

Alternately, it could be your stropping. I'm a newbie too, but go to Wiki on SRP about stropping and think about your technique.

Factory sharp isn't good enough to shave with generally.
If it came honed shave ready, it would have been fine when you got it.
You may have rolled the edge stropping it, thus rendering it in need of correct stropping, or re honing.
It's probably your technique on top of any other issues.

Like you I am new to this. I'm only a few shaves in myself and succeeded in cutting myself up my last shave. My wife said it looked like I got into a fight with one of the cats.

After looking through the forums and the wiki I figured out that I was dulling the edge with my stropping technique. My blade wouldn't pass the HHT. Actually I had to apply a fair amount of pressure to get the hair to cut. I spent about 20 minutes stropping it and really paying attention to what I was doing and now it will cut the hair with no effort whatsoever. I still think it could be sharper but it is light years from what it was. I can't wait to shave with it tonight.

Welcome to SRP.

Where did you buy the razor? Just asking because some places won't hone it for you when you buy it. Be mindful of your angles and the pressure you use when you shave. Straight razors are a lot more effective than a disposable cartridge razor so you don't need to use much pressure at all to get a clean shave. Hope that helps some. Keep at it though, when I started 7 months ago I used to cut my face up as well.

Well here is my two cents,

I have found with out fail that when my razors start getting dull I will start cutting myself. I will bet technique is a very small part 20% but a dull blade is the rest 80%.

Get that thing honed by a professional and then give it a whirl.

Good luck!

In short order. bought a new master(before finding this site and reading the wiki) couldn't cut butter. Borrowed ggrandpas spike from mom, lot better still not quite there though, Picked up a disposible straight from the local beauty store(still can't do the hht) silced me up(wife is being very patient). Now waiting on my 2 new razors I just ordered from Ruprazor last night:)

There's much truth to the old adage that a dull razor will cut you quicker than a sharp one. I've been shaving with a straight for quite some time and consistently get great shaves and rarely nick myself. However, I recently had to shave with a razor that was not as sharp as it should have been and I ended up looking like I'd tried to shave with a lawnmower. I would suggest you get your razor honed by one of the honemeisters here on the forum and start from there.