Thread: Best shave of my life!!!

Ok so I have been straight shaving for almost two months now and I have been adjusting my technique as I go. The only problem was that I have been getting continuously worse shaves. Lots of irritation, and it didn't seem like much hair was bein cut. I have two razors and until now I have only used one as a daily shaver. The second I saved after the first shave, to test the shave readiness of my main razor. So last night I switched and it was like night and day. Four days of beard fell away as my razor went through it like a hot knife through warm butter. In two passes (wtg atg) and I was soo smooth and zero irritation. Sadly this means that I have dulled my other razor with stropping. I have watched countless videos, I hold my strop taught not white knuckle tight I use 25 on the felt and 50 on the leather. It's a big daddy strop so I dont need an x pattern. I have not marked my strop, I use only the weight of the blade. It feels like the blade is gliding. I'm not sure what I have done wrong. I was thinking of buying some crox. Does anyone think that would help?after getting that amazon of a shave I am hooked. So I must fix this!! Thanks guys.

Congrats on a great shave!

As for the stropping, if it's not up to snuff, adding paste to it isn't going to help anything. At least, it seems, you may be moving in the right direction in your stropping technique. All things come with time.

Where did you get your razors from originally? Where they hand-honed to shave readiness?

BG, not quite 1,000 shaves later, I still get a big smile, hearing about a great shave. A great shave still puts a day-long smile on my face. Enjoy each one. I too, clobbered my edges w/ my stropping. Its not at all uncommon. Some can keep a fine edge w/ only 20 strokes on a strop. I'm not one of them. I'm more at the other 'strop 'til you drop' extreme. I almost never have to touch up an edge.

Now on the edge that's gone south - you have a low/no-cost trick to try. If you have a smooth, flat, hard surface like a pc of plate glass, polished marble tile or the like, cut 2 shts of newsprint to lay on the hard surface and do 70-100 stropping strokes. 'Doesn't have to be zero pressure, but no more than very light. After these stropping strokes, do maybe 50 on your felt, then 1-200 on your Big Daddy (after some hand rubbing until the surface starts to feel a little warm). While the newsprint can help w/ the sharpness, it can be harsh - which is the reason for the leather strokes.

If the edge has gone too far, this may not be adequate and some stones are needed. While pasting a strop can help, its a short-term solution that can only extend the date w/ the stones. Should you need a hand w/ the edge, I'd be happy to help - just cover postage and envelope cost to return it to you. You will get so most of the shaves are excellent and the great ones get greater.

BTW - kudos for having a 2nd blade and letting it serve as a reference edge. 'Very smart. If the daily blade has to be sent out, you still have a known good razor to use while the other one is out.

It has been a long time since I did fewer than 100 laps on leather. I'm often tempted to go further, but my testing of the blade (and, Lord knows, I would never use that parlor trick HHT!!) usually has shown me that 100 is a magic number. Of course, I'm one strop lathering, night stropping son of a gun!

You didn't say how many shaves you had on that razor. it may just need a good touchup hone job.

Thank you all for the replies. First. I got my dovo from srd and had Lynn hone my second razor ( which was an antique find) as well. Second. I was thinking of using crox on a piece of balsa. But maybe ur right if my stropping isn't that great maybe not. And third. I'm sorry I forgot to mention that I have done about 25 shaves on that razor. That idea with the newspaper is a good one too. Also. A few drops of water got on my gelt and now there is a lump in the middle of my felt strop. Does anyone know how to fix that? And could it be a problem with my razor?