Journal of discovery, learning to use a straight razor

**AlanII** · 06-08-2010, 07:56 AM

I've never used it (yet), but many seem to have stropped on newspaper with good results (eg see this). Seems to be more of a last polish after honing thing, but should work during the wait for your strop. I may well be pointing you somewhere that you've been already but the section on stropping in the Wiki is well worth a read too. Good luck.

**markevens** · 06-09-2010, 05:57 AM

Ok, well I was tired of waiting for my strop to come in, and with my new razor passing the HHT, I decided to go for shave number 2.

Before I started, I boiled up some water in my little tea boiler and put it in my soap bowl along with my brush for a nice hot soaking while I showered. Then I took a nice hot shower and washed my face really well. After that I applied conditioner on my beard and let it sit while I washed my body down. The last thing I did was rinse off my face really well, then hopped out, dried off really quick (except my face of course) and started mixing the lather. I got my Col. Conk's soap the night before and did a practice lather and didn't think it really lathered up as nice as the KissMyFace I had used before, so sorry Colonel, I'll save you till later.

I was surprised at how much water my brush held from the hot soak, as my lather was a lot more runny than before. Next time I'll have to shake out my brush a bit better. So anyway, I start lathering away on my face, enjoying the vanella scent while I brush around for a few minutes. I grab my new razor (which I had earlier did some light stroping on newspaper) and start my shave.

Well, what a difference a little confidence makes! I realize I was pretty scared during my first shave, with a total lack of experience and worried I would cut myself. This time I was still focusing on keeping my skin tight, the pressure light, and the angle right. I always seem to forget about one of the three, and when I realize I've forgotten one and correct it, it seems I forget about a different one. Oh well, I guess thats the way it is in the beginning. This shave went a lot better this time though. I lengthend the stroke a bit on my cheeks, and really enjoyed taking off the few days of growth in one whack. The edge of my jaw was a bit easier too.

While working around my chin, I've found that a pulling action works a lot better for me than a pushing action. That motivated me to start using my left hand a bit, but I'm still horribly uncoordinated with it. I only did the flattest areas and stayed away from my ears an nose.

I also had watched a number of shaving videos, and decided I'd try to attack my chin this time. My skin there is a bit rougher then elsewhere, and very angular. I used very very short strokes, and slowly worked my way around. I have to say though, what really guided my was the feel. Backing off when I felt the razor pulling, focusing on keeping the skin tight and my angle right. Relathering often to make sure all the hairs were staying well hydrated. Although I did find using the brush put a bit too much on, and so I would smear it around with my fingers so I could see where the boarders of my work were.

The chin took me awhile, but eventually I got the whole thing off. My first whole shave! \o/ I felt proud of myself

Shave #2, no nicks, and a full facial shave. Of course I only went WTG. I'm planning on doing WTG for a month before I start trying other angles just to give my face time to adjust. Also, by only going WTG I get to shave more often

I think one of the best things I had done in the mean time was watch the shaving videos to see what kind of strokes people were making in different spots.

And of course, wouldn't you know it. 45 minutes after I'm done with my shave, guess what arrives at the door? Thats right, my strop! Talk about timing! Now I'm trying to figure out where to anchor my strop. My bathroom is very small, so I'm thinking I'll just use a bit of rope and hitch it to the towel rack when I need to strop, and find somewhere not so wet to store it otherwise.

I've been practicing stropping a bit as well (of course). Just using a butter knife so I don't mess up my razors by accidentally rolling over the blade instead of the spine. I'd rather not use my free honing certificat Lynn sent me for improper stropping. Using the butter knife was smart, because while practicing I found it is my natural tendancy to roll over the blade edge. Better to do that with a butter knife than a staight. Since I shaved today and won't need to shave for another 2-3 days, I'll practice with the butter knife and build up the muscle memory, and then before I shave next, do some good stropping with my straights.

So anyway, thats my recent update. Shave #2 and still loving it, feeling much more comfortable with the razor and not so fearful, which also helped me relax a bit more and enjoy it.

Now back to the butterknife and stropp. Till next time!

**basil** · 06-10-2010, 01:25 AM

Congrats on a successful second shave!
Sucks that the strop had to come right afyer the shave or else you could hve had that fresh stropped blade!

Good idea on the practise with the butter knife. Keep it up and you'll be stripping like a pro for your next shave!

**markevens** · 06-12-2010, 02:32 AM

Had my 3rd shave today, man am I loving this!

Like I said before, my strop came in just after my 2nd shave a few days ago. Unfortunately, it needed a lot of breaking in before I could actually strop a razor on it. See thread here. I don't know if I got a lemon, or if this is normal for a new strop to require so much work to get into a usable condition. In any case, I finally got it in working order and in the mean time had gotten a lot of practice under my belt.

I have to say, this video helped me more than anything when it came to stropping.
YouTube - straight razor stropping

**Wfaist** · 06-12-2010, 03:17 AM

Keep up the good work! It is good to know there are other newbs out there like me.

I'm looking forward to reading more of you posts.

_Will

**Bruche** · 06-12-2010, 04:12 AM

Cool post & thanks for the info!

**KarmaPolice** · 06-12-2010, 04:22 AM

Great thread bud!
I had my first shave a couple hours ago.
My face is slightly uncomfortable right now but I'm proud as I had no knicks and had pretty decent beard reduction.

Thanks again, threads like this really help out new guys like myself

**markevens** · 06-13-2010, 11:48 PM

No shave today, but I did put together a nice little scuttle today so I thought I'd share.

Until recently, I did not understand the difference between a shaving mug and a scuttle. It was just yesterday or the day before where I came across a thread that enlightened me on the difference. For those who don't know, a scuttle has a separate chamber below the lathering bowl where you put piping hot water to keep everything nice and hot.

So today I make a run to goodwill, where they have shelves upon shelves of cups, bowls, and other kitchen goodies. In my searches I found a two crystal bowls that fit really nicely together, and the larger one was heavily carved giving it a very classy look. In the end I decided for something a little less classy, but more functional. I found a Tabasco bowl that fit the smaller one even more snug than the crystal bowl, had a wider base for more stability as well as hold more hot water, and was ceramic so it would hold the heat better for my 45 minute shaves.

Here are some pics
Separate
Together
With some other shaving goodies.

I was going to wait till tomorrow for my next shave, but I may have to, you know, test this stuff out!

**KarmaPolice** · 06-14-2010, 01:13 AM

I hope your thrift store scuttle works as well as mine!

Originally Posted by markevens

No shave today, but I did put together a nice little scuttle today so I thought I'd share.

Until recently, I did not understand the difference between a shaving mug and a scuttle. It was just yesterday or the day before where I came across a thread that enlightened me on the difference. For those who don't know, a scuttle has a separate chamber below the lathering bowl where you put piping hot water to keep everything nice and hot.

So today I make a run to goodwill, where they have shelves upon shelves of cups, bowls, and other kitchen goodies. In my searches I found a two crystal bowls that fit really nicely together, and the larger one was heavily carved giving it a very classy look. In the end I decided for something a little less classy, but more functional. I found a Tabasco bowl that fit the smaller one even more snug than the crystal bowl, had a wider base for more stability as well as hold more hot water, and was ceramic so it would hold the heat better for my 45 minute shaves.

Here are some pics
Separate
Together
With some other shaving goodies.

I was going to wait till tomorrow for my next shave, but I may have to, you know, test this stuff out!

**markevens** · 06-15-2010, 07:27 PM

Did my 4th shave last night, and the shave was not as nice as last time. I used my Dovo Prima again, as my last shave with it was just phenomenal.

I changed 2 things in my shaving routines, and my shave was not quite as good as the last one so I'm wondering what it could be. My girlfriend was staying the night at her Mom's house and took the conditioner with her, so I didn't get to use it for my beard prep. I also used a different soap, Mitchell's Wool Fat soap instead of the Kissmyface.

The shave went okay, I did the whole face with no nicks, cuts, or razor burn, but the blade simply did not seem to cut as well as the last shave. I don't think its the soap, because it created a rich lather that lasted the whole shave, and the soap has been spoken of highly by others. Oh, and for those wondering, my scuttle kept it nice and warm the whole time as well

Its possible that the lack of conditioner made the difference. I usually let it sit on my beard for about 5 minutes while in the shower, and this time I only washed my beard and left it wet.

Also possible is my stropping technique. I preped my strop with 100 hand strokes to give it some nice oil and soften it up. I then did 30 on the linen and 60 on the leather. On the leather side it did not sound very even. Its like I was getting a good sound on the down stroke, but not a great sound on the up stroke. I also notice that sometimes my grip doesn't feel solid, usually on the up stroke. I'm not sure if its my fingers getting oily or what, but its definitely something I'm going to be working on.

Of course, it could be that my shaving technique is not good either. I notice sometimes I have to remind myself to lighten the touch. Normally I focus on what I've come to call, "the 3 ights," keeping the skin tight, the angle right, and the touch light, but I do notice that I'll occasionally have more pressure against the skin than I need. This usually happens in the harder areas, like my chin or parts of my neck. Everywhere else I'm pretty consistent on keeping a very light touch.

I'm hoping that of any of these, I hope it is either the lack of conditioner or the stropping. If I'm dulling the blade from my 3rd shave with this razor (2nd shave was with my John Williams), then I'm really doing something wrong.

As far as progression of technique, I'm finding the chin area is getting easier. I'm getting a better understanding of the curves and adjusting the angle as I shave it, and using both hands really does allow me to attack it in different ways. I'm still relathering multiple times to keep the area nice and wet and am only cutting a few hairs a stroke. The 'stache area is also a lot easier now as well. Not as easy as the cheeks of course, but hardly a problem at all.

The neck is also a bit of a pain. I don't find it hard per say, but I never get the smoothness that I get with other areas.

The left hand is also developing more comfort and coordination. I find keeping my hand and wrist locked with occasionally making angle adjustments with with my fingers and making the strokes with my arm gives me a lot better control. In contrast with my right I make more wrist adjustments as I shave.

All of this is only using one WTG pass. You may have noticed that I only shave every 3-4 days. I don't need to be clean shaven, so I'm afforded this time between shaves to let my face recover. In addition, I love taking off a few days of growth in a single whack. That said, I think I'll start shaving every other day and see how my face feels with that.

Till next time

Thread: Journal of discovery, learning to use a straight razor

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The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to markevens For This Useful Post:

3rd shave under my belt!

Scuttle on the cheep.

4th shave, different beard prep

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