Thread: Question

i think your razor may need stropping as well. i know that lynn hones for vintageblades, but that means that the time between the razor was stropped and you used it could depend a lot on the sales volume at vintageblades and the way they handle stock.

you don't want the edge anywhere close to perpendicular to your face, that will not only be ineffective and painfull but will also damage the edge.
close to parallel to your face is how you want it. and then you'll have to learn the muscle memory of how to control the razor, it only looks easy, but it's a learned skill.

keep us posted with your progress and i'm sure you'll get more feedback as necessary.

Originally Posted by dovomn

I recently just ordered a new Dovo kit from Vintage Blades and the razor was honed and oiled ahead of time
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Getting to the point, I am curious about one thing. When I was learning how to hold the razor and get the 30 degree angle passes down, the closer I got to what I believe was the correct angle, the more it pulled the hair and didn't cut it.
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When shaving correctly with a stropped blade and face prep, should you ever feel a tugging sensation on the hairs? I am assuming no.
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The correct angle is the one that shaves your face. Moving from
an angle that shaves to a "correct" one that does not shave is
perhaps inside out; up the down stair case or something.
Others replied to this better than I can so on to the next
near random thought.

One thing that I do notice with a full hollow blade is that I can
often feel and hear the razor cut my whiskers more clearly than
with other tools. But if I listen to a Feather DE, or Feather str8, or BiC
I can hear them too, just differently. The thin full hollow blade can act
as a sounding board almost amplifying the snick as it cuts. In all cases
the snick snack sound will change as the edge dulls. Heck even
a Norelco can sound like a cheep mower in brush on my face.

Face prep is key. Give the lather on your face a full three minutes+.
I like to mix face lathering with cup lathering. Too wet and I work
the face letting it dry. Too dry a lather and I work a thimble of water
into the cup.... face, cup, face, cup. If I get out of the shower and
build a lather only in a cup my face dries out and the clock resets to
zero. So I get a bit of soap and water from the brush on my face
ASAP and keep it live until I get it right. It takes a while to build a
good lather so do not rush it. You do not need a lot of lather on
your face you do need bunches of water+lather face time for a shave.

What you did not tell us is what you are used to shaving with.
Expectations are important.

When it's right, there is absolutly no pulling or scraping sensation. You might have some irritation after due to your skin getting used to the exfoliation, but that should go away after a week or so.

On the angle, as some have said before, you want it as shallow as possible. You are cutting the hair, not trying to scrape it off. Whenever I see someone on TV or in the movies shaving with a straight, they hold the edge perpendicular and kinda wipe off the shaving cream...which just cracks me up....

I start by laying the spine flat against my face, then barely lift it. If not cutting, then lift a *tiny* bit more...

Frequent mistake-- person gets a brand new, pre-sharpened blade, then strops it incorrectly, rolling the edge.... now it won't shave... if you stropped it, did you
1) keep the strop taut
2) keep the spine on the strop 100% of the time?

Missing either of these can cause problems. How can you tell if you've rolled your edge? Take the razor and try to cut your arm hair. Hold the razor a few mm above the skin, if it pops hair (you should hear some "pinging" sounds), the razor is good to go. It should have no problem completely shaving hair off the arm if touching the skin using either side of the razor.

-Chief

One of the old timers on this board threw out a tip a while ago and it helped me alot.

To start, the distance between the spine of the razor and the skin should be about the thickness of the blade to keep the angle shallow. Of course, this is not set in stone ... but rather a starting point.

This shallow angle also reduces the tendency for cuts.