Thread: HELP!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Massive pulling sounds like dry lather to me. The HHT is generally useless to establish the shave readiness of a razor unless you are honing it. The respective Wiki article is rather unambigous about this. And unless you use force, even bad stropping will not dull an edge that quickly.

Bets are on a layer 8 problem.

Forgive my ignorance...What is HHT(hanging hair technique?) and layer 8 problem?

These types of problems are very common with new guys and this is why we recommend only doing a little at first to make sure you get the cutting angle and preparation down to start. We have seen so many posts like this only to hear that the razor was getting sharper or that the person was catching on and in a few weeks doing fine.

That said, it is never the new persons fault and always the equipment or service provider or hone or media or...... but NEVER ever the person.

I do test shave every razor before it goes out and I mean every one and if it doesn't shave me, it doesn't leave. That doesn't mean 100% of the time that it will shave you. I once re-honed a razor three times for a friend of mine and he complained bitterly that he could not shave with it. I finally asked him to show me how he was shaving with the razor and was amazed at the fact that he could not hold the razor at a 30 degree or less angle. Actually, after watching him, I was amazed the razor stayed in his hand at all. I would never have believed the coordination problems I saw had I not seen them and this friend was a pretty macho athletic dude. After that, I never took for granted that problems with shaving were only about the razor being sharp with new guys. I am always happy to re-hone one for someone having difficulty on me of course.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by WineGuyD

Thanks Mike, I live in northern Bergen county in Closter and my business in in lower Rockland in Orangeburg. If you are some what local I would be happy to meet you at any place convenient to you and show you the razor. I'm 99% sure Lynn honed it, and obviously if he did then it would be as keen as it can get, but life has taught me never to assume(ala Felix Unger).

I am near you sir. i live in Paramus and would love to meet you and see if i can be of any help. Problem is this week will be nuts for me as i am crazy at work setting up to leave on vacation. If you could wait , or even if you solve your issues with the razor, we can meet any time after the next two weeks. If you can not wait , i understand of course, maybe it would be faster to send it back to Lynn and that way you can be sure of what is going on. i would be happy to loan you a razor to use in the mean time if we can find time to hook up before I leave.

Originally Posted by WineGuyD

Forgive my ignorance...What is HHT(hanging hair technique?) and layer 8 problem?

Not one of the razors I currently own (and I only own 4) can pass the Hanging Hair Test. In fact, I just purchased a razor from SRD hones by Lynn and it does not come close to passing the HHT. This still concerns me because I want to see it pop hairs, but it did pass my shave test and that is all that matters.

I'm a newbie too, but I can honestly tell you that I felt the same way after my first 5 shaves. It felt like my blade was dull, tugging, jumping and pulling and leaving my face red and raw.

One day, I just had that light bulb moment where I realized what I was doing. Now it is just plain fun. I will also repeat the recommendations about keeping the blade at less than a 30 degree angle and using very light pressure. That helped me immensely.

Originally Posted by Lynn

These types of problems are very common with new guys and this is why we recommend only doing a little at first to make sure you get the cutting angle and preparation down to start. We have seen so many posts like this only to hear that the razor was getting sharper or that the person was catching on and in a few weeks doing fine.

That said, it is never the new persons fault and always the equipment or service provider or hone or media or...... but NEVER ever the person.

I do test shave every razor before it goes out and I mean every one and if it doesn't shave me, it doesn't leave. That doesn't mean 100% of the time that it will shave you. I once re-honed a razor three times for a friend of mine and he complained bitterly that he could not shave with it. I finally asked him to show me how he was shaving with the razor and was amazed at the fact that he could not hold the razor at a 30 degree or less angle. Actually, after watching him, I was amazed the razor stayed in his hand at all. I would never have believed the coordination problems I saw had I not seen them and this friend was a pretty macho athletic dude. After that, I never took for granted that problems with shaving were only about the razor being sharp with new guys. I am always happy to re-hone one for someone having difficulty on me of course.

Have fun,

Lynn

Hi Lynn, just read and responded to your PM. Thank you for you kind and generous offer to take the razor back for re-honing. As I mentioned in one of my responses, I wasn't questioning the quality of your work...just thinking out loud if it was possible the razor accidentally got returned without being honed. Obviously not. I would agree that the problem is 99% likely to be something I'm doing wrong so I'm still taking suggestion on technique. I consider my self to be a quick learner and good with my hands so I'm thinking my issue is somewhere between stropping and lathering...I've tried every angle and pressure. I'll take coachmike's offer to meet up with him and let him tell me if the blade is rolled or not then take it from there.

Originally Posted by coachmike

I am near you sir. i live in Paramus and would love to meet you and see if i can be of any help. Problem is this week will be nuts for me as i am crazy at work setting up to leave on vacation. If you could wait , or even if you solve your issues with the razor, we can meet any time after the next two weeks. If you can not wait , i understand of course, maybe it would be faster to send it back to Lynn and that way you can be sure of what is going on. i would be happy to loan you a razor to use in the mean time if we can find time to hook up before I leave.

At your earliest convenience Mike! I only use the Razor on Sundays because i don't want to run the risk of going to work looking like Rocky after the fight.

PM me a time and place when you know. THANKS!

PM SENT!!!!!

First, thanks to all of you that posted recommendations, I read them all and tried each one out. Big thanks to Coachmike who shlepped out to my store last week after reading my plea and brought with him several razors from his collection. Mike felt my Wosty was not totally keen, probably due to my rolling the edge from bad stropping technique, so he loaned me three razors to try out that he felt were shave ready. I was hoping that it would be night and day but in the end the razors shaved just a bit better than the Wosty, but at least it did not hurt with each stroke so I was able to complete a few shaves. Mike also suggested I go back and re-strop my Wosty aggressively so I spent an hour one morning giving it about 300 strokes as well as stropping Mikes razors about 100 strokes each.
The result was a noticeable improvement in shave quality of all the razors, at least to the point that the razors were removing more hair with each stroke and the sound and feel was more like drawing the blade over 100 grit sandpaper rather than 25 grit. I still see random stubble after each stroke but much less. I have completed four full face WTG shaves so far with Mikes razors but find that even after repeated shaving over the same area I'm still left with a rough stubble feel on my skin. One downward stroke from my Mach 3 leaves a much smoother feel than multiple strokes of the straight razors.
In a perfect situation should I expect a straight razor to make as clean a stroke as a Mach 3, or does straight razor shaving entail repeated strokes on the same area?

I think it's fair to say that it takes a few strokes.

Originally Posted by WineGuyD

First, thanks to all of you that posted recommendations, I read them all and tried each one out. Big thanks to Coachmike who shlepped out to my store last week after reading my plea and brought with him several razors from his collection. Mike felt my Wosty was not totally keen, probably due to my rolling the edge from bad stropping technique, so he loaned me three razors to try out that he felt were shave ready. I was hoping that it would be night and day but in the end the razors shaved just a bit better than the Wosty, but at least it did not hurt with each stroke so I was able to complete a few shaves. Mike also suggested I go back and re-strop my Wosty aggressively so I spent an hour one morning giving it about 300 strokes as well as stropping Mikes razors about 100 strokes each.
The result was a noticeable improvement in shave quality of all the razors, at least to the point that the razors were removing more hair with each stroke and the sound and feel was more like drawing the blade over 100 grit sandpaper rather than 25 grit. I still see random stubble after each stroke but much less. I have completed four full face WTG shaves so far with Mikes razors but find that even after repeated shaving over the same area I'm still left with a rough stubble feel on my skin. One downward stroke from my Mach 3 leaves a much smoother feel than multiple strokes of the straight razors.
In a perfect situation should I expect a straight razor to make as clean a stroke as a Mach 3, or does straight razor shaving entail repeated strokes on the same area?

I just shaved prior to going out for the evening. I was using my new Boker Edelweiss that I just recently purchased from SRD for only the second time. Like your experience, it was just not removing my whiskers. My first time using it was a similar experience, but I chalked it up to a new razor and not being completely comfortable with it. I switched mid shave to a multi blade to finish it off.

I am starting to understand that there are too many variables that go into shaving. Stropping, the lather, the angle, the pressure, etc. It is not something that can be acquired overnight.

With that said, I have other razors that usually get me close to where my fusion got me with three passes. With a straight, I think it is a matter of removing hair a little at a time rather than one long swoop from a multi blade.