Thread: Is It The Blade, or Pilot Error?

And this thread is now in Greek. I'm just going to sit over in the corner drooling over the razor.

Sorry, didnt mean to hijack the thread. We will keep the aviation talk for PM's.

Originally Posted by poppy926

Sorry, didnt mean to hijack the thread. We will keep the aviation talk for PM's.

Don't mind me. I actually understood most of it. My humor is lost. One day I shall be a pilot (if not only in my dreams...)

Haha, blame it on me! I made the flying reference (:

It sounds like the first shave was PIO.

I never do less than 50 laps on the strop. If you haven't yet, I'd watch a strop video. You can dull a blade very quickly if you use a strop wrong. Used right it can actually repair micro chips.

I've watched a good number of vids on stropping and I think I'm doing it right. No pressure, flat blade, cross-swipe (blade is too big for the strop), taught strop so no flexing, and flipping the blade on its spine. I'll try doing 50 laps today before I shave and see what it does. Does your 50 include the linen side, or is that on top of the 50 on the leather side?

Also, what's PIO?

PIO -> Pilot Induced Oscillation.

I don't have a linen strop so I am the wrong person to ask. People usually go to the linen between the finish honing and the leather strop. I'm sure some one else will chime in.

Less is often more when learning how to strop. With a freshly honed blade, doing one pass shaves, you can get away with a little light stropping as you get used to it. Then you can start to increase the number on linen and leather as you get a good feel for the edge on the strop and decide what suits. If you develop a nice stropping technique you can strop all day long but when you've only got one sharp blade little but often is a good way to go. I like to strop on leather before the shave and afterwards a few quick laps on linen then leather, in my head the linen cleans and dries up the edge and the leather gives it a quick polish.

Beard preparation and great lather means you have to rely far less on your technique with the razor to avoid irritation and blood. Mantic's lather video might be worth a watch: .
I find if I lather my face before I start stropping, rinse it off when done, and then re lather for the shave it makes a big difference and beats any other pre shave stuff I've tried.