Thread: Sharp enough?

Oh - I'm not even a week into this. I have read a lot of the info on here, I have plenty more to review. I am super glad there is a site out there like this one. I may have purchased a junky razor, and used it right out of the box with some canned shaving cream, then been back to cartridges by now.. lol. I am going to concentrate on my angle more, then try some across the grain. Thanks a LOT for all of the input!

Stropping... Well, I'm just going slow, not applying hardly any pressure, and "rolling on the spine". My brain hasn't been wanting to allow that naturally yet. heheheh.

My vote is for stropping and angle. I am just starting myself but have never found that more pressure was the answer, in fact the best shave I have had yet included a couple strokes where I didnt even feel the razor on my skin and had to double take to see if the lather was even gone, it was, as well as all the whiskers. It was also the first day that my stropping went wonderfully well, everything clicked. It took me a couple months to get to that point though.

I had quite a bit of discomfortable and poor shaving results in my first few shaves as well. More pressure did nothing but nick my skin and give me wicked razor burn. As I started to use less and less pressure, the shave got better and better.

the way I learned to control my angle was to lay the razor flat on my face, and then slowly angle it out to about 30 degrees or less.

Just a general rule of thumb, and this can be found in Lynn's beginner wiki, if it doesn't feel right, stop. It is easier and less painful to go back a step than to push foward and nurse nicks and razor burn. I learned that the hard way.

Go slow, be patient, and have fun. Welcome aboard.

Originally Posted by alex357

I may have purchased a junky razor, and used it right out of the box with some canned shaving cream...

I'm sure canned shaving cream isn't helping the situation any, either...
Learning how to build lather with a brush and a puck of shave soap is another skill to work on.

-Chief