Thread: Can't get sharp enough

Actually, I take it back. The razor I was shaved with today was a dovo R POL 201 000. Maybe I should just get one of those...

you have a fantastic razor already. send it out to get honed.

pick up some cheapies on ebay and work on honing along with stropping. learn this way. it will take some time, but you finally get to a razor that will shave your arm hairs and then strop it. see if you get it more sharp or more dull. learn by doing again.

you get your good razor back. you have learned to strop lightly and correctly. now you strop your just received honed razor and shave... repeat for a week. the entire time you are still working on honing/stropping on your cheapies. now your GOOD razor needs a touch up, you can do this now since you been practicing with the other razors. so you touch up your good razor, and wah la! you are on your way to razor acquisition disorder!

congrats!

A few things come to my mind:

A TI can take a pretty strong hand at the beginning of the Norton combination pyramid, but definitely ease off to very gentle contact at the end.

A well made bevel like you'll get from Lynn or Joe will be easier to get back to keen once it dulls.

When you are ready to hone up a razor whether it's a practice razor or your TI, work on advancing your technique. Even pressure along the blade is a mistake IMHO. There is no such thing. If you have one level of presssure at the heel it will be different in the middle or at the tip and that will be different yet again if you are using two hands on the blade. Roll the main point of contact from the heel along to the point as you progress along the honing stroke. The 'X' stroke is intended to help facilitate this necessary action. Keep your pressure even throughout this action as each part of the razors edge gets successively focussed on and you should get better results.

X

Originally Posted by russellnyc

it shaved okay in a couple places and not as well elsewhere. For example, on my cheek with the grain in a variety of different angles and orientations, it will cut some of the hair, but not give me an especially close shave. If I lay the spine on my cheek and go back up very lightly, I can get it close under my sideburns and it feels perfect. If I drag the razor lightly on my face at 20-30% anywhere, I get serious razor burn.

It still could be a sharpness issue. Whena razor is not sharp enough, it may still shave OK in some places on your face.

I find your description about shaving with the spine touching unusual. It's usually notpossible to shave that way. The spine needs to be raised from the face between one and two spine widths.

Originally Posted by russellnyc

First off, he said to hold the razor at a 45 degree angle to my face on the cheek. I would assume that if I did that at home I'd end up with a nice red face. Is this possible just because he used disposable blades?

That's not a good idea. You need to be skilled to use that steep of an angle. The standard wisdom is to use a 30 degree angle, but ti's to your advantage to use a shallower one, if you can. I would say try two spine widths off the face.

Second, he said not to shave with my left hand, but instead showed me a couple different grips to use with my right.

That's a matter of personal choice. For example some guys use both hands equally well, whil others can't use the left hand at all.

Third, he showed me how to strop a razor by saying that you had to push the spine really hard into the hanging strop. When he did this, the strop was bowed at about a 30 degree angle. Now his strop was very well broken in, so I assume he uses it. Can this be good for a razor in any universe?

The strop should not sg noticeably. If it does you will be rounding off the edge of the razor, dulling it.

I got the razor sharp enough to shave with, I think it was my stropping that was bad to begin with. Of course, the problem now is that I've over-honed it to death trying to get it sharp, and last time I shaved I gave myself a few bad nicks just from touching the razor to my face -- this sounds like a wire edge.

I already contacted Lynn (turns out he and I had already e-mailed long ago when I joined the yahoo group), and am going to send him the TI to see if he can make it right again.

In the meantime, because I have razor acquisition disorder, I couldn't bear to be without a straight razor while sending the TI out, so I bought a Dovo which does appear to have been professionally sharpened and gave me one of the best shaves of my life out of the box. I'm enjoying the experience of the differences between the two. I will say that the TI is very light and maneuverable, which in my case isn't always the best thing. I find the weight of the Dovo steadies my hand and has made me more accurate.

At any rate, I think the TI is more of an "advanced" shaver, and I anticipate that once I grow into it I'll find it to be quite good.

Which Dovo did you buy?

The Bergischer Lowe. I really love shaving with it, and I really hate shaving with the TI. I'm sending it today for honing, if I don't like it after that, it's going to ebay.

Just an update, I've been shaving every day this week with the Bergischer Lowe and am finally experiencing the kind of irritation-free shaves I had finally mastered on my DE before switching. I had tried for 6 bloody and painful months to make that TI work for me, and it wouldn't. Now I get everything done in 2 passes that used to take me an hour with the TI. The Dovo is so much easier to balance and MUCH easier to strop, and actually feels good going over my face. It also makes the "singing" sound the TI never did. It's very addictive, and I wish I could muster just a bit more shadow so I could shave twice a day.

To those of you newbies who can't seem to get it right, persistence is key, and perhaps finding a razor that better suits your style (or making sure the one you have is optimally honed, which I should have done long ago). I get a totally different shave with my grandfather's 1940s Gilette DE than I do with a Merkur 1904, using the exact same Merkur platinum razor blade. The Merkur is clean, smooth, easy and perfect in either direction, and the Gilette is temperamental and requires much more careful control to get the same shave.

Ah, shaving!

The Bergischer Lowe is not just a Dovo. It's a great one, and I love mine too.

I don't know which TI you have, but don't put it down just yet. If it's one of the premiuim models (silver steel), it should be every bit as good as your Dovo, if not better. I've never found one of those TIs that wasn't great. Maybe I'm spoiled mine were almost that way out of the box. I never required more than a quick refresh or just stroppiong.

Let us know how you like the TI after Lynn fixes it up for you.