Thread: A little help with my new Brian Brown 8/8

Okay, so I've been at this about 6 weeks or so. I have a few "shave ready" razors that I've been using since the beginning, and they do pretty well. They were advertised as shave ready from the seller, of whom I believe is very respected in this business. Forward to this week. I bought my first custom straight and got it on Saturday. The first shave with it was the absolute most incredible shave ever!!!! It sliced through my extremely course, thick forrest like butter. It left NO irritation or barely any stubble, of which very little there was left, was my fault. I used it for the 2nd time today and I could barely get it to remove hair. It still feels razor sharp, but even after I felt my beard after the first pass, it barely removed anything. I even looked on the blade with the shaving cream removed, (Castle Forbes Lavender) and there was no hair on the blade. I tried 3 full WTG passes and it was like 10% removed. I grabbed another razor which I knew was up to the task (Red Imp 132), and it removed everything no problem! So, what am I doing wrong? If it worked so incredibly well the first time, why the issues on only the 2nd shave? I did as Brian suggested and gave it 60 light passes on my strop "after" I had the issue. I just didn't feel it needed before my shave this morning because of how well it ended with the very last shave? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, by the way, if you follow Brian on Facebook, the razor in question is one he posted last week, The "Black Pearl".

Regards,
Geoff

You didn't mention any stropping. Please let use know if and what you did. It will be helpful!

wellcome back to SRP,Hope all works out for you.

I did 60 light laps on my Bison Horse Head from Shavenation. I am pretty confident I did a decent job stropping. Very light strokes, with decent pressure, tightening the strop. I've practiced on my other 10-14 razors, of which all seem to come out just fine after stropping.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

wellcome back to SRP,Hope all works out for you.

Thank you, I've learned a LOT from here. Like how to buy 20 razors in a month!!! Geese, thanks..... Now, that I've realized what a "real" brush does with "real" shave cream, I have a "collection" of shave creams. Sorry for all the parenthesis.

I LOVE every second of it though. My toughest decision is to wait one day to shave, or two.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

You didn't mention any stropping. Please let use know if and what you did. It will be helpful!

I don't know if this matters, but... I did have significantly more hair on my first shave, and only one day growth this morning on my second shave. Could that have anything to do with it, like when my whiskers were longer, the blade cut through them better? I didn't change anything else, i.e. my brush, lather method, etc....

You may have given it a hard time on your first shave but it should bounce back with a strop.
It may feel razor sharp but maybe it isn't. Will it shave arm hair as easily as your other blades. If not it is no longer sharp for whatever reason. Could be anything. Should look at the edge under magnification at least. Unless you live alone or it's locked up someone could have used it to cut rope for all you know.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

You may have given it a hard time on your first shave but it should bounce back with a strop.
It may feel razor sharp but maybe it isn't. Will it shave arm hair as easily as your other blades. If not it is no longer sharp for whatever reason. Could be anything. Should look at the edge under magnification at least. Unless you live alone or it's locked up someone could have used it to cut rope for all you know.

I know that might sound funny, but one time I came home to my wife cutting the tags off of some new clothes with my Finedge Ostiso!

Then, when I spoke to her about it, she confessed to using it for trimming a lily plant that was in our bedroom at the time-- so, ask around.

+3 The wife used a DD Goldedge to cut paper for Christmas presents ONCE the day after I honed it, her words when asked why the DD "I heard you say they were really sharp, and I liked the pretty handles"

@Geoff, the length of the whisker might have made a difference, IMO a longer whisker is a little less critical of angle I find a 3 day growth to be very easy to shave, however you are no newb and have proved to yourself that other razors work on the same growth...
Each razor has it's own quirks too that you might have to work around too...

Not to stretch the topic but I gave a friend a fine pointed knife once & his wife use it to open a can. Needless to say, no point, no more.