Thread: 5 Shaves under my belt...Blade dull already?

New to the world of straight razor shaving. Long time fan, but I never was able to get into the game until I received a sight half seen deal from whipped dog on Friday.

First shave was rough, I got careless and gave myself a nice slive on my left cheek. It's nearly healed now.

Next shave was without incident save for some razor burn and a subsequent ingrown.

Shave after that was fantastic. Almost no burn, only one or two (very) small nicks, and very close save for my neck under the jawline...I still can't figure that out.

4th shave was largely without incident save for a nick under my lip.

This morning, I lathered up and the blade felt like it was catching a lot and required more pressure to cut. It also was skipping a bit...those two combined made for a difficult, not very close, and bloody shave ( I got my ear...of all things my damn floppy earlobe).

After the shave I tried a HHT with one of the hairs from my head. No Go...it required both pressure and motion to cut.

I strop leather and canvas 15 times and 25 times respectively before and after each shave. I have no nicks on my strop and have been very conscious to not touch the blade on anything.

Is it likely that poor tecnique has dulled my blade already?

To that end, I received a barber's hone from WD as well. Would I potentially be able to touch up my blade with this and how, or should send it back to Larry for a re hone after only 5 shaves?
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Strop more, a lot more. 25 is nothing

how much more?

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I would do 50 laps on the linen and 100 laps on the leather

Originally Posted by geauxtig3rs

how much more?

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This is something you have to experiment with. I believe somewhat of middle of the pack numbers are 30linen/60 leather. Try those and adjust from there. I am not sure how much experience you have on the strop but you need to have good technique for best results.

Linen then leather? I've been doing it backwards? doh

I agree, 15 - 25 passes on your strop is not enough... I make at least 150 - 200 passes before a shave. This maybe excessive, but it has now become habit. I myself have been straight shaving for 5 - 6 months. Like you, my first shaves were good. However the one thing I didn't have was consistency. It wasn't until my 3rd month that I felt each shave would go flawlessly. My point is that although I stared great, my learning curve only began to start from my 8th shave onwards and I felt like I had taken 5 steps back at that point... Of course your recent experience could be the result of not enough time spent at the strop. Best advise is to strop for 10 minutes while concentrating on your technique. As your technique improves that 10 minutes will be halved and so on... Good luck.

Geaux,

New Shavers are MUCH harder on edges than someone w/ a year's experience. Both stropping and the shaving stroke itself affect edge longevity. Steep angles in the stroke, straight line strokes instead of scything/guillotine strokes contribute, but the biggy is stropping.

I'm no expert - more like succeeding in spite of a deficit of natural talent by overwhelming amounts of practice. For your linen, it cleans, but also straightens so the leather can sharpen and burnish. To increase the abrasion of your linen/canvas, check the method of the honorable Sixgunner:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...vas-paste.html

Dovo white paste or Glen's method simply add chalk to the surface.

Others have found that more than one stropping cycle can give a real improvement: linen, then leather, then linen, then leather - sorta like a pyramid routine on the strop instead of the hones.

In a month or two, look up the 'advanced strokes' in the wiki, looking for the scything and guillotine strokes. They're easier on the edges also.

+1 to comments made so far with one caveat. Eliminate the linen and focus on the leather. That is where it counts and this removes another variable that may not be helping the blade at all. 50+ passes is what I do sometimes between passes. A really sharp blade spoils you quick and I have a very dense beard. My chin almost requires a machete! You are on the right track. Keep it up and the fine edge should return, especially after only five shaves.

Originally Posted by Gammaray

+1 to comments made so far with one caveat. Eliminate the linen and focus on the leather. That is where it counts and this removes another variable that may not be helping the blade at all. 50+ passes is what I do sometimes between passes. A really sharp blade spoils you quick and I have a very dense beard. My chin almost requires a machete! You are on the right track. Keep it up and the fine edge should return, especially after only five shaves.

I bought this really cool old razor a few months back, a singing frog manganese steel bladed model with about a 5/8 blade (half hollow? I don't know or recall) and I REALLY like the way it works and feels in my hand. I've played with stropping a LOT, currently using an AMbrose 3" horsehide and having very good results with ABOUT 50 laps and using the linen side maybe 25-30 times. I have these ADD moments and frequently lose count. THIS seems to be the magic number for THIS blade. For now.

I've got a Dovo I like a lot that takes a LOT more stropping to get right. I'm real new at this, and I'm sure I'll discover the combination of leather/linen that works for various blades, I assume each has its best lap count to finish ratio.

Norm