Thread: day 2, mostly success, no one mentioned the sound...

So just out of the bath. Tried a few new things today
Lathered the stick up in my hand first and got a noticeable improvement over lathering on the face.
And I managed to get all three grains shaved mostly.
GOt stuck with technique going against the grain and finished with my mach under and on the chin, but the rest of my face is actually smooth.

Going on my first pass with the grain It didn't feel like it was shaving.
Going across it felt more like my mach does after going with the grain.
But then on the last if felt more like it

The sound though, this bugs me, I can hear almost every hair scraping off, I suspect this is because of
1) Bad blade alignment, I am roughly at 30 degrees mostly nearer 35-40 on some parts against the grain this just felt safer.
2) Not sharp enough, possibly? I touched up after second pass on a lightly loaded strop.

I tried the oil soak first too, not sure if this made a difference, tough beard sensitive skin, I can still feel the friction, so I know I need a better oil too probably.

My moisturiser today is coconut balm with orange oil poured straight into...

ANy suggestions tips etc for tomorrow?

Firstly, well done on your first couple of shaves!

A few thoughts though:

- ATG is probably the hardest pass to make and you need to have the blade almost flat against the skin in order to do this successfully. 30 degrees is way too much here, you want to be more like 10.

- Is your razor hollow ground? If so, thats the noise you can hear. Its not a sign of a fault with the razor or your technique, its just the sound of a very thin piece of metal being dragged through your beard! Sounds a bit like eating crisps doesnt it? You'll always get that sound on a hollow ground razor. Wedges are much quieter though.

- DONT be tempted to use your paste to touch up your razor! At this point you'll do more harm than good. If your razor was shave ready when you got it, the pulling and lack of cutting will almost certainly be a result of your technique, not the shave readiness of the razor. Seriously, leave that pasted strop alone for now.

- 30-40 degrees is too much, you want to aim for 30 degrees and under. I personally prefer to think of it in terms of spine widths. I usually hold the razor at an angle of one to two spine widths on my face when I shave. More than that and I notice I get cut more and the shave quality drops.

From what you've said here, the angle is the biggest problem. You'll find that lowering that angle improves the shave, reduces irritation and probably makes things a little quieter too, as the razor will be cutting through the hair not skipping over it.

I'm the same as you with a tough beard and fairly sensitive skin and I find that rubbing a load of conditioner into my beard in the shower helps soften the beard before the shave.

I also think that a good pre shave prep helps, and hot towels are a good thing to add here.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Originally Posted by Stubear

I usually hold the razor at an angle of one to two spine widths on my face when I shave.

Useful tip, thanks

I am very new to the straight shave myself, today was day 5.

Yesterday this is what I did after the shower and it worked better than the 2 previous.

Lathered the face then wandered to the kitchen with a wrung out face cloth and nuked it for 20 seconds. Put cloth on face and watched the local weather. Then returned to the bathroom and re-lathered and shaved as previous days.

The extra warmth and soak did seem to help me out quite a bit.

Still a newbee so take this with a grain.

Like I said in my intro post, this was not a shave ready blade.
It's second hand, had rust, but a german blade, see it for details as I have no idea whether it's supposed to be ay good.

I will try lowering the angle in two days. But I am happy enough that a super cheap blade with my own limited honing and stropping skills is nearly or actually shave ready.

I have no idea whether it is what you guys would consider shave ready, infact I doubt it very much.