Thread: Something not working, help!

+1 to what others have said, especially re pressure and slowing down. I've purchased one razor from LarryAndro and he's honed 3 more for me, and they're all great shavers. You might try using no more pressure than it takes to keep the edge just in contact with your face. If you think the angle might be an issue, one helpful technique early on is to lay the blade flat against your face and, with the edge remaining in contact with your skin, CAREFULLY rotate the spine away from your face until it's about 2 spine-widths from your skin--that's about 30 degrees, which is a good starting point for WTG. Some blades work better at less than 30 degrees for WTG ( I actually have one, an old Bengall that had lost a lot of metal before I bought her), but 30 degrees is a good place to start.

Sounds like it would also be a good idea to slow way down and only shave your sideburn area WTG for a few days, and finish the rest of your shave with whatever kind of razor you were using before. This will give you an opportunity to figure out the most comfortable way to hold your razor and also to begin to get comfortable using your non-dominant hand. Straight shaving is an acquired skill with a pretty steep learning curve for most of us, and from what you've written it seems like you might benefit from taking this in small bites, you know?

You don't mention whether you've stropped your razor yet--after 3 shaves, it's probably really in need of stropping. Again, it pays to go slowly while you're learning--proper stropping keeps your razor nice and comfortably sharp for a long time. Improper stropping will dull the ege and cause you to have to get the razor honed much more quickly than would usually be necessary. And the shave will not be comfortable. When stropping, you don't need to use any more pressure than is necessary to just keep the razor spine and edge in contact with the strop--basically just the weight of the blade itself.

Lastly, you might want to use the "location" feature in the forums to see whether there are any other members in your area. You'll want to make sure that your location is entered in your profile first. Then you can pull up the map and see where other members are. Being able to get together with an experienced member will really help a lot.

Hope this helps! Hang in there, be patient, and stick with it. It will get better! And it will have been worth it!