First two shaves, not so good.

My first two shaves have yielded me a lot of tugging and pulling. :( (Got my Dovo 5/8 from Don and Lynn at Straight Razor Designs) Very uncomfortable. I concentrated on a 30 degree angle and a light touch. If I stropped this blade inadequately does it need to be re-honed? I led with the spine and did about 30 strokes. I am using an old strop, I did notice this morning before stropping that it has a slight bow to it, meaning the leather sloped away from me on both sides a bit. I concentrated on a nice smooth X pattern. I understand that if you strop incorrectly you can "roll" the blade, not sure what that means, but I am afraid of having done that. Is there a way to fix this problem if that is the case without re-honing? My beard prep a hot shower, pre-shave oil on my face, then my lather. I just cannot stress how much pulling there was, very frustrating and uncomfortable. I really wanna get this right! Please help! Thanks!

Too be perfectly honest, I'd recommend getting a new strop. Learning good stropping technique, how to shave, etc. is difficult enough without worrying about trying to overcome an old misshapen strop. My advice is to contact Lynn and discuss this with him because he's a first rate guy and he'll take care of you.

Also, checking out the great article on Razor Stropping in the tremendous resource we have in the wiki. You may well need a touch up of the razor.

:gl:

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Originally Posted by richmondesi

Too be perfectly honest, I'd recommend getting a new strop. Learning good stropping technique, how to shave, etc. is difficult enough without worrying about trying to overcome an old misshapen strop. My advice is to contact Lynn and discuss this with him because he's a first rate guy and he'll take care of you.

Also, checking out the great article on Razor Stropping in the tremendous resource we have in the wiki. You may well need a touch up of the razor.

:gl:

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Hello, Jedibapst:

My friend Paul's advice is sound. I second his thoughts.

Also, do all the research you can at SRP. Look around the site and you'll find lots of information.

Most of all, have patience. Go slowly. Ease the razor pressure. Your initial shaves will not be the greatest. The greatest lie ahead, however, as you hone your skills. Stay with it. You're on your way.

Regards,

Obie

Hang in there is my advice. I am a one-month shaver and can get really great shaves now. Here's what I did:
- forget the whole face for awhile. Focus on the sides and neck with a really light touch. Watch your angle. But don't tear up your face, or you'll have a SLOWER learning curve 'cause you can't shave every day!
- Chin is HARD. For me, just below the lip to the point of chin is thick and pulled alot. LIGHT TOUCH and rely on multiple light passes, not a single hard pass. First pass on chin area will leave hair for sure as you are starting out.
- Get an old razor from the local antique store or from SRP....I mean a decent, but inexpensive one. Learn to hone it. I found that I could get my blade significantly more sharp following Lynn's honing video's and progressing honing. Now, my Lynn-honed razor is a great shaver for sure; no troubles. I found that I could get mine a bit sharper and it was more comfortable for my beard
- Stropping REALLY matters....you can dull the edge if done badly. But it's not easy to do....if you are carefully rolling the right way, and keeping really light pressure, you won't mess it up. However, if you roll it the wrong way you'll need to touch it up.....
- If you are sure you have a good hone that you didn't dull on the strop, then some CrOx paste will help polish the edge before the leather....

Keep asking questions.

Hey Jedi.

I am also having similar issues to you. I bought my str8 from Don and Lynn shave ready as well. Although they are the tops, as a rookie I could not help but wonder if the blade was truly shave ready. I had the same tugging and rough draw against my face. My first shave even resulted in a pretty horrible gash on my right cheek. You can read about my ordeal here and there are some great tips in this thread:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...e-shaving.html

But after sucking it up and reviewing the tips from posters here, I find that my technique is improving and the blade is PLENTY sharp.

My biggest improvements were the result of:

1- Adjusting my grip so any resistance or tugging causes the blade to FLEX in your fingers rather than dig in. (Thanks Jimmy!)

2- Shorter strokes. Not the lovely swipe from cheekbone to jawline, but shorter brisker strokes.

3- Good Prep work (I was doing this already).

4- Shave in increments. I can do Cheeks and Neck pretty well now. Still having issues with upper lip and chin, but am experimenting and finishing with a DE.

Following these few tidbits got me from almost cutting my face of to a pretty decent shave.

I purchased The Filly off ruprazor.com, it has that Chromium Oxide paste on the back, so I'll run my razor over that when it gets here next week, THEN strop it and follow the bit by bit method, honing my skills as it were.

I guess it's back to my DE until my strop gets here, but that is ok...I love my trusty '49 Super Speed! Got some great Vanilla and Bay Rum Pinaud aftershaves in the mail from SR Designs today and should be getting the two shave soaps I ordered as well...Vanilla Bourbon and a West Indies Bay. So I'll be enjoying my fine array of lather and aftershave products until that strop gets here. I'll keep you guys posted! Just the cheeks for now, the rest with the DE.

Hey there, i just posted a similar thing to you not but 4 days ago, a lot of tugging on my sides and was wondering if i had rolled the edge when i shaved.
I have a dovo special and a filly strop , as well , and thanks to the guys here they helped alot.
Heres pretty much what they said that helped me.

1) it sounds like your prep is good, and your razor is good, so im thinking its your angles, the more times you shave the more comfy you get with the razor, and you will start to get the angles where it doesnt tug, and i truly believe it will tug no matter what you do when you first start to shave with a straight, because its something unfamilar to your face and you need to get used to it.

2) You might be shaving too slow, and if you make confident short strokes it might help, not super fast but dont be going super slow either or you will tend to tug on the beard imho

3) It could be your stropping, and if it is i would suggest the same thing. take it slow, no pressure( and i mean no pressure at first just enough to feel the razor on the strop and the way the filly is it has a nice almost silky draw you will notice when you get it right, and do a lot of them make 75 nice and slow
When i did this it all started to work and even though im only 3 shaves in as well i can see the wheel starting to turn, no pulling or tugging

hope this helps!!!:)

jedi...,

I'm not exactly sure what a rolled edge is either. If you strop your razor such that the blade is flat on the strop, with both the spine and edge in contact with the strop all the while - until you raise the edge off the strop to change direction - you should be having no negative issues with your stropping. It's possible to blunt the edge if you raise the spine off the strop (leather and/or canvas) and run the razor on the strop at an angle similar to what you might use shaving.

While shaving, check to see that the angle of the blade to your face is more acute than obtuse - you want the angle of the blade to be what is given by the spine being raised about one spine's thickness up from our face - or less.

Use good prep techniques: lots of really warm water and soap to soften the whiskers; use some good lathering agent; take it easy on the easy parts to start; give yourself a break if you need it and work into the more difficult parts - chin, upper lip, etc as you become more relaxed and practiced with the sharpest thing you'll ever use.

Personally, I strop on both fabic and leather before shaving. The number of strokes varies with my mood - maybe 40 on each material. Sometimes I strop on linen, then flesh side leather, and then grain side leather. Sometimes only linen then grain (smooth, hair side) leather. Stropping seems to be a necessary and important step in both preparing and keeping an edge on the razor, so you need to practice stropping and do it well. FYI, fwiw, I have a couple of Friodurs at the top of my rotation that have only been stropped, as I indicated, and not touched up on a hone for at least a couple of months.

So, patience, prep, lather, strop, shave gently, and things will come together.

:beer2:

You may also want to try decreasing you angle a little - e.g. spine a little closer to your skin - to see if that make and difference as well. If so, rock on. If not, go back to 30 deg.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Jedi, are you completely new to any sort of wet shaving? As there could be issues with other things, like your prep, lather etc. I ask because this sounds just like my first attempts, but I've got the prep and lather thing nailed. I've been DE shaving for 7 months and have got very proficient with lather, technique etc, and can get excellent results. So some skills are in place.

But I could not get my straight blade to cut anything but cheek stubble (with effort and care) WTG, no matter what angle I tried. So I sent it off for a hone, even though it came honed by the seller when I bought it, so if I did really have a sharp blade to begin with, this is not going to be the experience I expected.

I read plenty about peoples first straight shaves being awkward and slow and patchy, what with so many things to try and learn at once. But not even being able to complete a shave due to tugging and skipping is not my idea of a fun learning experience.

Hi jedibapst, sorry to hear about your troubles!

Your prep sounds good, and your focus on razor technique sounds good. Obviously you had it honed by a profession, so that's all good too. So the strop and the stropping is what comes into question, in my mind.

It could still be too high an angle, not enough lather, etc, but others have covered that.

How much pressure do you use stropping? It should be pretty much none - just the weight of the blade.

Also, where did you get the strop? How was it stored?

I know first hand using an unsuitable strop can wreck your blade, even if your stropping technique is good. That is exactly what I did to my razor the first time I stropped it. When I sent it to be honed, thinking I had rolled the edge, I was sent micro-images of my blade. I hadn't rolled the edge. Instead, it was covered in tiny scratches, like being run over a very rough hone. Something in the leather I was using was eating my edge.

I switched to a proper strop, and haven't had issues since.

If the surface of the strop has been damaged, or embedded with something (which you wouldn't be able to feel - we're talking microscopic here) it will chew up your blade. And if the strop is bowing, then there is uneven pressure on your blade even if you're stropping correctly.

Often times when you buy an antique strop, it needs to be treated in some way and the surfaced buffed before it is usable again.

I would set aside the strop, and try stropping on newspaper. Tape down an ink-heavy sheet of newspaper on a very flat surface (glass is ideal) and try doing 50 strokes. No pressure at all, just the weight of the blade.

See if this does anything to improve your edge. If it does, then it's not your stropping - it's the strop.

And even if it doesn't, there's no way to tell for certain. It could be your stropping, or the edge might be too damaged to be saved without honing.

Buying the Filly was a good call. If you just want to wait until it arrives, try 100 strokes on the leather first. Is that doesn't improve it, try the CroOx side.

If nothing else, send it to be honed. Lynn, or whoever you send it to, will be able to tell exactly why the blade isn't performing as it should.

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Originally Posted by jedibapst

...I understand that if you strop incorrectly you can "roll" the blade, not sure he what that means, but I am afraid of having done that. Thanks!

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Hi,
"Rolling" the edge during honing is when you accidentally lift the spine of the razor, which puts pressure on the edge of the razor and bends it. If you keep the spine on the strop 100% of the time, you'll never roll your edge providing you keep the strop fairly taut (I suppose you could roll the edge if you had a big droop in the strop...).

I hear folks say you must be very light on the strop... this is certainly true for honing, but I for one am pretty heavy handed when it comes to stropping and have never had a problem... the big thing to focus on is keeping the spine flat on the strop. When you flip the razor over at the end of the stroke, flip it along the spine side, not the bevel side (although you'll see pros like Maestro Livi turn it bevel side, but they are good enough not to bend the edge doing it...).

When you strop, you want to feel a "draw", which means you feel some resistance. You'll hear a raspy sound when you get it right (not a ringing sound, which means you are lifting the spine... very bad). I wonder if folks are actually too light on the strop and therefore not getting a response out of the edge??

-Chief