Thread: Pure Beginner with the Straight

I would have to say you did the right thing in stopping. It you do not have the confidence in your razor bad things may happen. I am a newbie and take my word for it.

Suggestions:

1. Stretch the skin in front of the razor. Otherwise, the angle of attack _at the edge_ will change, and the razor will be trying to dig into skin, instead of cutting hair. Not good !

2. Use a lower angle (flatter blade) than you think is correct. If razor just glides over beard, make the angle a little steeper.

3. If there's _no_ angle that works, I'd suspect a dull ("not shave-ready") blade.

4. I have had good luck using CrOxide pasted strops to fix slightly-dull edges. But that introduces another possible cause of trouble for a beginner, so I don't recommend it. If your stropping technique is good, 100 - 200 laps on a leather strop might help. If your technique is poor, it will do more harm than good.

That razor may have shaved hundreds of faces in the past. that doesn't mean that it's sharp enough to shave your face, today.

Charles

Hi Neep,

Yep, it is a whole new world. You've got a good head start, though... you already know how to make lather, and from what I've read, double-edge razors aren't very plug-and-play either. As others have said, you were wise to stop. Just keep at it, expand your straight-shaving range as you become more comfortable with it, and eventually you'll abandon the DE completely. It took me about three months to transition from disposables to straights.

Good luck with it!

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

Suggestions:

1. Stretch the skin in front of the razor. Otherwise, the angle of attack _at the edge_ will change, and the razor will be trying to dig into skin, instead of cutting hair. Not good !

2. Use a lower angle (flatter blade) than you think is correct. If razor just glides over beard, make the angle a little steeper.
Charles

Sounds like incredibly good advice. Thanks!
If I think about it, I am pretty sure that the "stop" effect was due to angle of attack, and the weight of the blade pushing up a bump of skin in front of itself. With a DE razor I am subconsciously slightly changing the angle just by feel as needed. I have to get used to reading (hearing, seeing, feeling) the "feedback" from the straight blade in the same way. As a woodworker I can skim off a thousandth of an inch of wood with a hand held tool on a lathe spinning at 2000rpm... just by "feel". Same kind of thing in many ways, getting the angle correct. Its just repetition and practice doing it right. The only problem with shaving, is having to wait 24 hours before repeating the experiments.

Rod

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

Suggestions:...

2. Use a lower angle (flatter blade) than you think is correct. ...

This is commonly given advice, and good advice. Laying the blade flat(ter) reduces the length of your whiskers without as much danger of razor burn. However, you should be aware that this sometimes increases resistance to the razor since the blade is slicing thru whiskers at a more exaggerated diagonal angle.

Reducing the length of your whiskers to skin level is the hardest part of shaving for many. You can shave to stubble with a safety razor, skipping the hard part, and finish with the straight razor. On subsequent shaves, slowly phase out of the safety razor, leaving more and more for the straight.

OK... better

A new tool.
A superb razor kindly sent to me by Mikael, a Geneva Cutlery Co straight which he describes as a "shaver". Oh yes thankyouverymuch! It is, and it does. I still limited it to one cheek, but pulling the skin as recommended. It worked nicely.







Rest of the shave was with a brand new Feather AS DE (with Feather blade) which also arrived today.

Life is good.

Rod

Hi Neep, welcome to the forum. I'm new to straight razor shaving myself, and from the dozen or so shaves I have had, I can tell that it will be a long, yet very satisfying learning curve! On my first shave I did my whole face, and while it went surprisingly well, I think I that was a bit of a one off - my shaves since then have been quite inconsistent in quality, smoothness, etc. I then adopted the approach you're taking, i.e. shaving little bits with the straight razor at a time and finishing off with a safety and found that helped alot.
I see you have some Scottish Fine Soaps products - I came across them earlier and wondered what they were like. How do you find them? I really like the look of the dish the soap comes in, very classy! Maybe as a Scot I'm just a bit biased though

Originally Posted by barrieduncan

I see you have some Scottish Fine Soaps products - I came across them earlier and wondered what they were like. How do you find them? I really like the look of the dish the soap comes in, very classy! Maybe as a Scot I'm just a bit biased though

The soap doesn't just come in a classy ceramic bowl. You should see the silk lined box it comes in! The sort of thing that you would set before a king for his morning shave.

It isn't expensive either!

Oh yes.... the soap is exceedingly good too.
I like it. A lot.

Rod

Yeah, I saw the presentation box the brush comes in - looks very suave! I'll add the soap to my ever-growing wish list, cheers!