Thread: A few (stupid) questions

Ok, I've thrown away my gillette fusion so I can work solely with the straight. Although that was rash, I suppose that I'll get to know my blade better, sooner.
Anyway, I just have a few questions.

I'm stropping with an old belt at the moment, until I reconfirm my paypal so as I can buy a strop, but it's a slim one. My razor's blade is much wider than it, so how can I strop it evenly? If I were to slide it slightly so the whole thing is covered in one stroke, might that not damage the razor (and less importantly, the belt)? On the other hand, if I stropped the razor half the width at a time, might I end up with an over-stropped middleground where the razor is stropped in the sessions of both halves?

On lather and the brush, I was wondering how you apply it. Often I use spirals and that way I get a thicker lather, but does that damage the brush at all? In youtube vids I've seen mainly people have lather already prepared and apply it using simple strokes that bear more similarity to the strokes of a painter. Do you wash your brush inbetween the relatherings of the three shaves (WTG, XTG, ATG)?

Finally about cologne. Why is cologne so particular to shaving? I like perfumes, but the only difference between cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, and parfum is the concentration of the scent. At least, that's the only difference I'm aware of.

Anyway yeah. Sorry about the incessant questions.

Cheers :-)

Originally Posted by Sheebay

Ok, I've thrown away my gillette fusion so I can work solely with the straight. Although that was rash, I suppose that I'll get to know my blade better, sooner.
Anyway, I just have a few questions.

I'm stropping with an old belt at the moment, until I reconfirm my paypal so as I can buy a strop, but it's a slim one. My razor's blade is much wider than it, so how can I strop it evenly? If I were to slide it slightly so the whole thing is covered in one stroke, might that not damage the razor (and less importantly, the belt)? On the other hand, if I stropped the razor half the width at a time, might I end up with an over-stropped middleground where the razor is stropped in the sessions of both halves?

On lather and the brush, I was wondering how you apply it. Often I use spirals and that way I get a thicker lather, but does that damage the brush at all? In youtube vids I've seen mainly people have lather already prepared and apply it using simple strokes that bear more similarity to the strokes of a painter. Do you wash your brush inbetween the relatherings of the three shaves (WTG, XTG, ATG)?

Finally about cologne. Why is cologne so particular to shaving? I like perfumes, but the only difference between cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, and parfum is the concentration of the scent. At least, that's the only difference I'm aware of.

Anyway yeah. Sorry about the incessant questions.

Cheers :-)

First off, was the razor honed by a professional? If not send it to someone who knows how to hone a razor. That is the most important thing.

Using an X pattern while stropping is the only way to have the blade stropped evenly. I've heard of stropping on a belt. I would suggest you use some lather to clean the belt first. Any grit or dirt in the belt won't be good for the edge. Sure you can strop on a belt and I've read about people doing it. I would suggest you wait until you get a proper strop though.

In learning to build lather the thing that helped me most was to practice lathering in my hand. Before the bowl, before trying on my face I just lathered in my hand. It gives good feed back about how wet or dry and how slick and thick it is. Load the brush with soap or cream and don't worry about using too much, you'll learn how much. Then swirl it around in your palm and fingers. Don't press too hard. Practice back and forth, circles, whatever and you'll find what works best for you. You don't have to wash out the brush between passes.

I can't help you with the cologne question because all I know is I like that alcohol sting from Lime Sec and Royale Lime. Outside of that I know nothing.

I hope this helps. If not, there will be some guys who know more than me along with good advice. I've never had the people here steer me wrong.

Good luck. Welcome to the obsession.

Yeah I'm not sure about honage by a professional (honage? honedness? :s), but I got the Dovo 5/8 best quality standard one, from the invisible edge. I think I'm right in thinking that Stubear owns it.

Ah ok what like for an x pattern you crisscross the strop/belt/newspaper?

Thanks for the tips on lathering, I'll try them out.

If you got the razor from The Invisible Edge then it will definately be shave ready. I dont own the business though, its owned by a gentleman called Steve Dempster who goes by the name blueprinciple on this site.

I've had a couple of razors from Steve and I can attest to the shave readiness!

Have a look at this Wiki article on stropping. It will explain the X stroke to you, and how to get the best out of your stropping.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Regarding the X pattern place the heel of the blade to the left on the belt if you're using your right hand to strop. Run the blade along the belt in proper stropping technique, bringing the edge from heel to toe as you run the stroke. Flip at the finish point, place the heel on the left again and reverse direction.



Mick

Sounds like you need to do some Wiki reading and watch Lynn's video. Watching it done while Lynn explains what he's doing and why should answer all you questions.

When I asked the barber (I went for a cut and shave too) about this who was cutting my hair, he said that he had trained as a lather boy for a few years before being let loose on the shaving.

He told me that he was always told to build the lather using circular motions, and in fact anything you like.

He pointed out that some of the brushes he had used were possibly twenty years old of daily round the clock abuse and that although tips had worn down they were still fine.

He recommended that rather than caring for the brush too much you use it to get the best possible shave, as if the later did not happen you would probably just ditch the brush anyway wondering what good it did.

He pointed out that you close the fingers around the bristles with the back of the brush in the palm of your hand (I read this some place too) and give a real good scrubbing, working the lather well into the beard in circular, up, down, left and right. Furthermore that when building a lather, use clockwise then anticlockwise circular motion to build a good thick lather.

Lather the face once, then when the lather is nice and thick you warm the finger tips some hot water (quickly) and really work the lather into the beard using finger tips.

You then squeeze out excess water from your face cloth and apply it to the lathered face like a hot towel.

Remove all the soap using this cloth. The 2nd time you build the shave lather you really want to work the lather into the grain any direction, and holding the bristles firmly as described above to almost scrub against the grain working the lather into the face, continuing with lighter strokes letting the bristles relax and go wherever they like.

The longer spent doing this the better, I take my time to do this prep and it has made all the deference to my shave. I thought it was bunkum but it REALLY works for me.

I had said that I had only been holding the handle of the brush to work in the lather and he said he was not surprised I was there for a shaving lesson!

That's really great anecdotal advice, cheers.
I'm just wondering now, when you say "close the fingers around the bristles with the back of the brush in the palm of your hand" do you mean the bottom of the brush in the palm of your hand? That's what I'm assuming anyways.

Thanks so much again.

Originally Posted by Sheebay

That's really great anecdotal advice, cheers.
I'm just wondering now, when you say "close the fingers around the bristles with the back of the brush in the palm of your hand" do you mean the bottom of the brush in the palm of your hand? That's what I'm assuming anyways.

Thanks so much again.

Thats Right there are variations like first two fingers straight and the rest gripping the brush base, that way you stop soap going in your nose. I just mix and match the two.

Use an x stroke on the strop, with the heel in the lead, most strops are narrower than the blade and force you to use the X stroke. As for smearing lather on my face, once I get the brush loaded with soap I will use a circular motion ensuring that every whisker gets lathered around its entire shaft.