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

Cool post & thanks for the info!

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

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!

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!

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

markevans,

I think we're going to be great friends here hahah..
I say that for 2 reasons:
1) We both have sweet Thrift Store Scuttles
2) We seem to be on identical learning curves.

I just had MY fourth shave last night and it wasn't quite as good as my third. (Coincidence?)

I believe both of us need to slow it back down and really take time to learn. I know in my case I've gotten a bit too comfortable and ended up with 3 knicks, one of them being nearly the length of the blade (ouch).

Your stropping issue sounds very familiar to one I was having. The downstroke sounded great, then the upstroke sounded way off. I solved this by slowing WAY down (slow-motion here) and watched the blade as I went through the movements. Doing this I realized that I was lifting the edge slightly on the upstroke causing the spine to drag and make a way different sound. The video you posted helped me out tremendously as I was stropping exaclty how he said NOT TO.

While shaving this morning I felt over confident and went faster than normal. My chin area, while not horrible, wasn't nearly as clean as my 3rd shave, as well as my neck. Though my mustache area came out quite nice (I'm noticing 2x XTG passes in alternate directions on my stache do excellent.)

After this last shave I had a good amount of irriation afterwards. The Brute aftershave doesn't help being mostly alcohol lol. I still need to pick up a good astringent and alcohol-free AS balm.

What I am going to do for my 5th shave:
1) Take it SLOW.
2) Use smaller strokes
3) Lighten up on the pressure
4) Concentrate on learning my hairs direction of growth
... and of course, concentrate on angles.

I'm very lucky as I am left handed but am almost as comfortable using my right hand.

Keep up the great work and remember that I'm right here with ya cuttin my face up trying to learn

Yeah, I got the feeling that I was lifting the edge a bit on the upstroke, but when I started to put more pressure on, it felt like I was using more than "the weight of the blade" so I backed off.

In all likelyhood, it was the stropping. I'm wondering if a better strop would make a difference. My Illinois is still pretty stiff, and when its hanging on its own its a bit wavy. I'm going to stick with it and maybe do some more breaking in so soften it up.