I've been doing it all wrong!

Hello all, for those of you that have read my threads, I've had a maxam razor, yes a cheapo. and it's first shave was actually decent. but throughout the other two shaves I attempted the shave got worse, and much less smooth. I chalked it up to a p.o.s razor. Although that has a lot to do with it, the blade was not totally to blame for my shaving perils. I had been stropping wrong the whole time. in stead of going in an ex pattern, I was going in a v type pattern.

To get a better image of this, think of stropping, the strop straight in front of you, so your strokes are going toward and away from you at 90°. so I was going from bottom right of the strop, with the heel, to the top left,stopping at the toe. then reversing and doing the same motion toward myself when I should have gone from top right at the heel to bottom left at the toe.

I read the wiki's all over again and then read the books I've found from a couple posters around here. I've now changed my positioning to left and right stropping as opposed to the back and forth and now have the correct x pattern. I wanted to make sure I had everything right this time since I bought my dovo from srd and didn't wanna ruin this blade too. so now that I've got my technique corrected it's time to use my new pride and joy. (once my hair grows back in a few days) I'm a slow grower. ha ha.

Also as another not, the scales did not like to stay stable with the blade its self. it was loose and floppy at the point where the blade and scales were straight with each other. I've noticed the dovo is tight at any position, making stropping and everything else for that matter easier while handling the razor!

I just wanted to thank everyone around here for the immense help!

Hopefully this will help other newbies.

Glad you've got the stropping corrected. A lot of little things to learn that come together to make a good straight razor shave. Gradually it all comes together. Thanks for posting on the Maxam in the review section. You may save another new guy from wasting his money and suffering frustration with their shaves. :tu

We've all gotten it wrong some way, some how, sometime. The important part is that you learned, shared, and are ready for more. Fortunately stropping will not ruin a blade, just roll an edge...or I promise you I would have ruined quite a few SR's!!

I appreciate the positive reinforcement guys! now that I've got my technique down everythign seems to just fall into place. And yes I had to review the maxam since it was my first razor. it was not complete trash, but it's not recommended.

Great!!

I really like seeing someone stick to this through a rough patch. Too many seem so quick to walk away when things aren't perfect the first few times.

ha it's too fun to walk away from. perhaps it may me be my obsessions with sharp objects, but I'm willing to bet I clearly love str8 shaving!.