Here's what I learned in exile...
It's been a week since my straight razor has been out for honing, and I've been using safety razors in the meantime. While it's not as much fun, I have learned a TON of stuff that has me even more excited about my straight coming back. Now that I'm no longing worrying about blade sharpness and whether or not I'm blunting my edge, it's opened me up to all kinds of new revelations. I'd like to share my observations for other beginners who may be in the same boat:
1. I learned that my Boar brush is a piece of junk and that I can't wait for Santa to bring me a new Tweezerman Badger Brush. While the cheap boar is inadequate and falling apart, I salute it for getting me started and will have a proper funeral when the time comes. I like the handle so I'm going to save it.
2. Shaving with an actual sharp blade allowed me to see exactly which direction my beard grows in. With my straight, the edge had gotten bad enough that it pulled in all directions. Now, I have learned exactly which directions to shave in; if it starts to pull, I change the direction until it doesn't anymore. For example, I now know that, on the left side of my face, my WTG pass goes chest-to-jaw. The right goes jaw-to-chest, and the middle of the throat is every man for himself and I just hope not to bleed. I also finally figured out the chin area...left to right across the point. BBS.
3. SHALLOW ANGLES ARE MY FRIEND. Shaving both WTG and ATG with shallower angle (maybe 15 degrees) has helped the razor glide like butter. 30 doesn't seem to work for me.
4. Now this one is just something for me, as I think most people here will disagree with me. But I have found myself to have significantly more success when I use facial contortions and head-angling instead of skin stretching. My skin seems tight enough that I get better results with a strategic twist of the head or funny mouth movements. The only stretching I do is to pull up on my sideburns (just a little) and I pull the skin on the bottom of my neck down a little to tighten. The rest is me looking like an idiot.
That's all I've got for now. I hope to be able to translate these things back to straight razors when mine returns. I was pretty upset about this whole thing before, but now I'm pretty happy because it allowed me to take the razor out of the equation and figure out what I was doing wrong without it. Now I think I know how I dulled my blade to begin with. With another week of SE/DE practice I'll be ready to go!
