Thread: Second shave, no prize winner, but, ...

Josh, thanks--your info is really helpful--and encouraging.
Let's see how tomorrow goes.
eric

Left hand is absolutely out of the question. I have no control over it whatsoever, and attempting to shave with it would entail a life-threatening situation

I thought the same thing when I started this. When you get your right hand figured out and stop getting irritation, try the left, you will be surprised that it is not impossible.

I got lots of irritation when I started as well. I don't know why, but I think my angle was too shallow. I was afraid to steepen the angle for fear of cutting my self, but the blade is fairly forgiving within reason. Now I can make all kinds of extra passes with no irritation. When I started two passes made me look like I was in the sun all day! I don't know what caused it but time and practice fixed it for me

Hang in there!

It's kind of counterintuitive, but sometimes a steeper blade angle does help. I've found that on my neck where most guys say to go with a really shallow angle, it works better to steepen the angle. It gives me more control and the razor doesn't catch and skip the way it did when I was trying to keep the spine close to my skin.

I think it has something to do with the angle that the hair lays on your face. In some spots my whiskers stand out from my face more, and for those parts I use a shallow angle--20 degrees or less.

But on my neck the hair lays really flat, hugging my face. A steeper angle might allow the hair to hit the blade at a more favorable angle. I'm sensing a theory developing here...

Josh

Thanks, guys for all your help. You're a terrific crew, and I really appreciate it. I spoke with Tony Miller today and we agreed that I should return the blade to him for his examination. As there has been no appreciable difference from the first shave to the third, it is entirely possible that this one somehow escaped the honing process and wasn't really shave ready. It's also possible that I rolled the blade,--hard to do with a paddle strop, though I'll bet I could manage it! At any rate, Tony will let me know. My subjective sense: regardless of the angle, I would have to bear down really hard to do any cutting. So, we'll start again when the razor is returned to me.
Clearly it's not beard prep because I've been wet shaving for over 40 years, and after giving up on the STR8 this morning, I picked up my DE and it glided right through my beard. Granted, a Feather DE blade will always be sharper than a straight, but I couldn't get this one to cut at all. this brings us to the other possibility: that I may simply not be the guy cut out for a straight razor shave. Let's wait until the razor comes back and we'll see what develops there. I'll keep you all posted, including if Tony judges that I did something really dreadful to the blade.
Eric