Thread: Newbie needs help

Yep, alot of good advice here. The only thing I would add is read my axioms of shaving post and as far as how many shaves you get that depends on how sharp your razor is to begin with, how you use it, your beard, how you strop and how much deterioration you will accept in the shave quality. If you use just one razor depending on those variables you might get weeks of shaving or months.

Originally Posted by gfoster

Stay focused on what you are doing and don't let your mind wander to what you are going to have for breakfast, whether your boss is a doofus or not, or the discussion you had with your wife/girlfriend the night before.

Yeah, that's a very important one. I remember before my first shave I told my wife I would need to be left alone at least for a little while. What does she do? Strike up a conversation with me right ater my first stroke. I rudely closed the door on her. It was about my third shave or so when she had tried it again I paused, turned to her and asked very nicely, "Can we talk about this in half an hour? I don't want to cut my face open is all". She's been a peach since. Rich hasn't had such like.

X

Welcome to the real world. Congrats on starting with a straight.

All of the previous advice is spot on.

Stick with it but never ever lose concentration.

Gary

Originally Posted by garythepenman

Welcome to the real world. Congrats on starting with a straight.

All of the previous advice is spot on.

Stick with it but never ever lose concentration.

Gary

Gary makes a good point as do the others. I'll give you an example of an issue I encountered when I first started SR shaving.

I was paying such close attention to my movements, and my face, but didnt take into account that many of the movements were really mostly muscle memory from just shaving in general for so many years. My problem was that I was concentrating so much on my face I would see a patch of hair I missed, and move my hand over to that spot just like I could with a double edge razor (or disposable) and not quite lift the blade high enough off my skin, thus giving myself a nice little cut. It took more times than I would like to mention for me to get over that bad habbit.

So not only concentrate in general, but remind yourself to slow down because your muscles and body still may think you are doing the same old shave you have been doing for years, but believe me that 3" blade will remind you otherwise when you slack off

Anyway, dont fret over anything. We all have stories and some of us have scars too! If I recall correctly, I think I even dulled the edge of my first razor so badly on my first strop that I had to send it back to Lynn just to get it sharp enough to shave with again!

I shave au natural. My family knows this and therefore I have peace while I shave. You need to concentrate and having people burst in on you to talk will ensure a major piece of your face will be missing

I'm over in Fairfax VA. If you wanna stop by some evening I can actually show you all the steps in the process and demo a shave for you if you want. PM me if your interested. I'll hone your razor up a little too if needed. Some things like stropping, honing, and shaving are better demonstrated; than described.

I always strop 40 times on the linen side, and 75-100 on the leather. I strop 25 times on the leather when I'm done and have thoroughly cleaned the blade and dried it. Then I put a few drops of oil on the blade and return it to it's case.

I don't know if this is correct or not, but it's sort of a superstition thing with me. It seems every time I strop less than 75 times on the leather, something bad happens that day. I've been doing it since my Marine Corps days in the late 60s. If nothing else, I always get a baby-butt smooth shave and seldom cut myself.

Semper Fi!

You've gotten great advice here. The onl thing I can add is that a we had a stropping experiment here a while back which demonstrated that stropping after shaving in addition to before did not improve the edge. It also demonstrated that 60 round trip strokes were better than 30 and that no improvement was achieved by going to 75. You can find posts on it under "the great experiment."

So, my advice woould be: strop before you shave (you can use a linnen strop first if you find it helps), and increase the strokes to at least 45.

WHen you find that the sharpness after stropping deteriorates a little, do a few light strokes (5) on a fine hone, like a swaty, to refresh the edge. If you keep the edge at peak sharpness this way, you may be able to avoid honing indefinitely.

Joe:

Regarding the stropping (60 laps ) before shaving:

If you had a routine of stropping 30 laps before and after shaving would that be equivalent?

Or do they have to be done all at once?


Forgive me if this seems like a dumb question but I was amazed to learn that the micro-serrations heal with time. Maybe this is counter intuitive as well.

Thanks
Bob

Originally Posted by JAG

Joe:

Regarding the stropping (60 laps ) before shaving:

If you had a routine of stropping 30 laps before and after shaving would that be equivalent?

Or do they have to be done all at once?


Forgive me if this seems like a dumb question but I was amazed to learn that the micro-serrations heal with time. Maybe this is counter intuitive as well.

Thanks
Bob

From a stropping point of view they were found to be equivalent.

But then you need to be aware of prevailing theories about stropping after a shave. One is that stropping after a shave helps to squeeze moisturee out of the edge and prevents oxidation. A countervailing theory is that shaving causes the microserrations to spread. This is mostly elatic deformation, so the teeth will revert to approximately their original position in a day or two. Stropping right after the shave forces them back unnecessarily and will eventually cause them to break off from fatigue. This will dull the edge, requiring full honing.

I believe both, but I also believe in frequent refreshing of the edge and very occasional honing. Stropping right after the shave would work against that. If you apply a good lube when you put your razor away, it shouldn't be a problem.

As a related aside to this. It would appear to make sense to strop a blade before honing. If you don't, the teeth are spread, and honing will remove a lot of material to restore a narrow edge. If you do, you're pushing the teeth together before honing and will remove less material when you sharpen up the edge. I actually found a suggestion to strop before you hone. I think it was at the knife center in the shaving section.

Also, it wouldn't make sense to strop a lot after honing. You've now cut the edge to a fine point and removed protruding material. What additional benefit would you get from stropping? No meaningful re-alignment, but possibly polishing and smoothing of the bevel. That doesn't require a lot of strokes. Maybe 15-20. If you've already stropped on a fine pasted strop (at least .5 micron) you probably won't benefit from further stropping.