Second shave. Big difference, not there yet though

Alright, I just finished my second shave. I was so pleased with it this time that I felt a need to post a new thread. The shave took me about 25 minutes in total if you include building the lather and rebuilding the lather, and rebuilding the lather once again. I shaved my entire face and in most places I ended up with a shave equal to that of a cartridge razor. The area I had trouble with was my chin and jaw line. I have relatively no razor burn other than a couple nicks on my jaw line and chin, and a little bit of burn under my nose(actually less burn than I usually get from my cartridge razor).

What I did different this time:

I stropped my razor before shaving. I don't know if it was necessary, as some people say they strop before every shave and others say every 10-15 shaves.

I used Taylor (OBS) Avocado Shaving Cream instead of soap. I found it easier to reload my brush with the cream than with the soap making relathering mid shave much easier.

I stopped trying to cut hair. I was browsing the forum the other day and stumbled upon a thread where the poster was describing how they improved there shave(I wish I could remember who it was). They described it has just wiping the lather away with the razor. This analogy helped me a lot. I think the main issue I was having with my first shave was that I was shaving with a heavy hand.

One thing I did run into that didn't happen last time was that the lather actually started drying on my face in areas where it was left untouched. I didn't notice until I started seeing snow flakes floating around the bathroom.:p

Anyways, just thought I would share.

Certainly sounds like you're moving in the right direction.

Sounds like a great second shave.
I did not get that good results that early.

Stropping is important!
I do about 40 on linen and 60 on leather before each shave.
In addition I do about 20/40 after each shave.

I know some people strop less frequent than before each shave, but the vast majority strops each and every time.
My advice is for you to do it too:)

+1 to Birnando, I always strop before and after each shave. The general consensus is that stropping after the shave helps to clean (on linen) and dry (on leather) your blade for the next shave.

My congratulations. You are doing fine. I do strop my razor before each shave.

Thanks.

I have a question about stropping. I see people talking about nicking their strop a lot, especially as beginners. How does this happen? Maybe I'm missing something, but with the cutting edge always trailing it seems near impossible to do damage to the strop. What am I missing?

Every once in a while we begin the return stroke before having flipped the blade, so it is travelling edge first. That's how I nick my strop, anyway. It happens when you try to strop to fast, or when your mind wanders.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HCarleton

Thanks.

I have a question about stropping. I see people talking about nicking their strop a lot, especially as beginners. How does this happen? Maybe I'm missing something, but with the cutting edge always trailing it seems near impossible to do damage to the strop. What am I missing?

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Beginners get out of sync on the flips fairly easily, with more experience you can catch it before it happens

Good stuff.

You will find that stropping before each shave is the
ideal time to strop. Consider 5-10 strop strokes
each time or 15-30 strokes every third day... but
what day is it?

Most folk end up stropping between 40 and sixty
strop stroke pairs (up then down equals one stroke).
Some thirty seconds perhaps a min. of stropping.

After shaving five laps on the canvas and
five on the leather will clean the razor and
apply the thinnest layer of "oil" (strop dressing)
to minimize rust and corrosion on the fine edge.

Sounds like you're off to a good start.
As you improve your technique lather drying will become less of an issue.
Until then you may want to lather half your face at a time.

I always strop before and after each shave. Can't prove it but my razors seem to hold their edge better.

As for trying to find threads again later, At the top of the page there is a "thread tool" button, If you see something that interests you but do not want to reply click it and then click "subscribe to this thread". Once saved click "Quick links" at the top of the page to find your Subscribed threads. You can always get rid of it later if you decide to.

Yup, nicked my first strop several times while learning by moving the blade the wrong direction at the end of the pass. What happens is that, when you stop at the end of the stroke, you can barely move the blade the other direction as you are raising the edge. With a blade that sharp, it will nick the strop.