Thread: I think I like my shavette better than my Geneva

Everywhere I looked I found threads about how the shavette is almost like shaving with a flint rock compared to a SR. I think I get a better shave with my shavette.

Here's some background info...
About 3 months ago I went to "art of shaving". picked up a shavette and their sensative skin starter kit (brush, pre shave, after shave, and cream). After the second day I stopped using the pre shave. After about 2 weeks I gave up on their shaving cream because it felt smoother using my old chemical foam. Haha. I blame it on hard water.

My third day shaving I found this site and learned about prep and technique. I shaved for about 2 months before I bought a vintage Geneva cutlery. My first shave was great! I soon realized it wasn't that great, I was just really excited. The seller honed it and it was shave ready on arrival but seemed to tug a lot and I bled more. I sent it to SRP to let a pro hone it and I still prefer my shavette.

I'm still only shaving WTG because my skin is too sensavtive after the first pass, and the razor really does not want to go ATG (probably due to bad beard prep). Also if this helps, my normal pass consists of many short strokes because the razor pulls on the hairs too much. I don't know how I can pull my face any tighter, which probably explaines the irritation.

Techneique seems ok, stropping seems to be working well, beard prep however is probably horrible.

Do you think that beard prep may be what makes the SR shine more than the shavette? I'm sure I'm doing many things wrong but luckily I feel like I'm making progress.

Thank you to all of you who took the time to read about my problems. I'm really a hands on learner so this has been a pretty tough experience.

This sounds a lot like blasphemy!;-) But then again it may be a matter of technique, what you are used to and as well as shaving with the canned goo.

Originally Posted by JoeTheCarpenter

Techneique seems ok, stropping seems to be working well, beard prep however is probably horrible.

Do you think that beard prep may be what makes the SR shine more than the shavette? I'm sure I'm doing many things wrong but luckily I feel like I'm making progress.

Better prep will help but all in all if your prep isn't good for a str8 it probably isn't really good enough for the shavette your using.
I used a shavette for the first (approx) 9months of str8 shaving. Not a terrible experience like some would make it out to be but even with as similar as they may appear they are two different beasts when you really get down to it. One thing that pops to mind is angles. The shavette gives you a pretty limited range of angles that will "work" whereas the str8 you've got more room to "work" with even though not all of that extra room actually "works". Folks will probably go on and on with this but right off the bat I'd say get some practice in on your beard prep and when you use the actual str8 be more attentive of the angles you are using. If your bringing the angle up too far it'll cause a lot of tugging and scraping instead of the cutting/slicing of the hairs that you want. Anyway you are asking questions so your on the right track. Also check out some of the vids in the wiki, those might help answer some of your questions.

Michael

If the razor pulls something isn't right. I don't know if it is the razor, the prep, the technique or what all but a truly shave ready razor doesn't pull.... not at all. At least not on my whiskers.

Could you be dulling the straight on your strop?

First off, thank you all for taking your time to give your feed back.

I understand angles are everything. The smoothest area to shave is from my side burn to under my jaw, since I can get a good stretch there. This is what I use as my bench mark. With my shavette I can take long smooth strokes. Along with a 30 degree bevel to my face, I also use a 15-40 degree slicing angle. The shavette seems to cut fairly smooth. My first shave with with the freshly honed, unstropped blade did not glide at all down my cheek. Nor did the hairs get cut as short.

Aside from the feel of the shave I have no way of knowing if my stropping is adversly effecting my blade. I've had 4 shaves now, so I've stropped 3 times. I don't dismiss the fact that I may be stropping wrong but it still feels the same to me. And I didn't strop before my first shave. I'm confident SRP did a good job.

I would imagine for all of you this would be like me trying to help someone install a set of double french doors through email. Haha. It can get somewhat frustrating. Thank you all. Any other feedback is greatly apprectiated. I think responded to all the posts. I'm sorry if I missed someones point.

The cold hard fact is that both methods should give you equally great shaves. One may feel different than the other and require altered techniques but in the end the result should be similar. If you are getting better shaves with one over the other you need to review your technique. With a disposible it's easier to access because the blade is new and fresh while with a straight you have to make sure the razor is up to snuff so in your case I would check the condition of the blade and then see if maybe you need to adjust your technique some.

Having transitioned from disposable straight blades to a fixed straight blade, I had to learn how to "tune" the fixed straight to the sharpness level and performance level I prefer.

Although it was honed by a pro, it wasn't until some passes on my pasted strop did it feel right to me and perform as well or better than disposable straight blades. Stropping alone on the canvass/leather did not work to "smooth" out the straight immediately after honing.

Although fond of my disposable straight collection, I do prefer fixed straight razors because they can be tuned to be sharper than disposables and offer greater forgiveness than the disposables when shaving.

As always, face prep, and good shaving soaps/creams add to the overall performance.

Pabster

My only contribution here is to say that it is probably your prep.

I can get a comfortable shave with my shavette, or my DE with canned goo and hardly any water on my face. If I want a good comfortable straight razor shave I require either a shower or two hot towels over lather before my beard is soft enough for comfort when using a straight. If I do all that prep though the straight is by far the closer less irritating shave. If I do all my prep and then use a disposable blade it really doesn't improve the shave any over no prep with that device.

After all of the above you might be thinking that a straight is far to much work, however, since I shower daily it is no problem for that to encompas all the prep my beard needs for a great enjoyable straight shave.

And the disposable can feel different because of the coatings on the blade.