Almost Two Weeks into the Grind

Monday will be my second week wet shaving with a straight. I acquired all of my supplies before finding SRP. I came here via B&B thanks to a member. I prefer SRP, because it is oriented around straights. As I said before I had all of my supplies before coming across any forums. I have a youtube member to thank for leading me here, because I asked him some honing questions. You see, I had it set in my mind if I was going to straight razor shave I would do my own honing. This is likely a bad idea for a newbie, but I am determined and methodical in all my practices.

In the infancy of my SR experience I have fallen in love. Never have I looked forward to shaving as I do now. The prep, the shave, and the post shave are a time I spend to myself. It is a practice I find therapeutic and invigorating. I walk out of my door with a slightly higher chin. Thinking, "yes.. I shave with a straight."

You may be wondering, so what supplies?
To begin: Dovo BQ 5/8 Full Hollow
Body Tools Horse Hide and Canvas Hanging Strop
Vander Hagen Shave Set (bowl, soap, badger brush, stand)
Fromm Strop Dressing
Flowery Styptic Pencil
1000x4000 Japanese combo water stone
8000 Japanese water stone (combo and 8000 from Lee Valley)
DMT D8C

I had over $300 invested before my blade reached me. There was the option of having it honed, but as stubborn as I am I decided to in jump head first. After research and study of honing videos I was near the sink lapping my hones. This first honing experience lasted about 2 hours. I worked mostly on technique and finger dexterity. I realized later that the condition my blade was in was good enough to start at the 4000 grit, but I began at the 1000 grit. What I learned most from that first experience is to count your strokes. Being I'm not at the level to determine a properly set bevel counting helps keep consistency. Where as an experienced honer can tell by looking at the bevel and other sharpness tests. I also learned not to neglect a good stropping after honing. I performed no more than 50 strokes on the canvas, and 50 on the horse hide. I should have done 100-150 strokes. To make matters worse I zoned out while focusing on technique and did an uneven amount of stropping.

So I was showered, my face lathered, styptic pencil near by, and blade in hand. I began at the cheek and worked my way down. I have irregular hair growth and where one area of my face will grow straight down it very quickly makes a 90 degree angle or swirls out. This made shaving ATG difficult. I didn't give up though and I went through the entire face. The neck was the most difficult. I got a nick where I am prone to razor burn on the neck. I have no cuts to speak of yet other than nicks that result from shaving over bumps.

Since then I have honed 2 more times. This last time was the most successful. I began with the 4000 grit and worked in about 200 strokes, because I messed up once and sandwiched the blade during one of my sweeping x patterns. I did a hanging hair test, and arm test before moving on to the 8000 grit. I did about 100 strokes on the 8000 grit, once it looked mirror finished I decided that was enough. I then did a total of 100 strokes on my strop, 100 on the canvas, and 100 on the horse hide. The feel was amazing compared to the first week. I'm beginning to contemplate a good razor. Except since I will be investing nearly as much on the new razor as I did on my entire shave set I will have it honed by a honemeister so I can compare a truly shave ready edge to the honing I have done.

The first two are my first shave experience, the third is my shave set, and the last one is today having shaved the night before.

Hello and welcome! I like your high-chinned exits; I feel the same way.

Your signature line is good too. And, rather than be really gentle about it, I'll be efficient instead: your honing stroke counts are crazy, man! Especially starting with a factory edge. As you get older and wiser, you'll start at 8k, maybe 15 laps, when tuning in an out-of-the-box edge. It's good that you're practicing the motor skills, but that many strokes should have honed dozens of blades for you.

Check out the honing articles in our wiki, especially the Pyramid Honing Guide.

For stropping, less may not necessarily be more, but neither is more more. One of our members researched this (if anyone remembers who, please chime in and credit him) and found that beyond 60 laps on leather there was no further improvement. Of course, your mileage may vary. The conventional counts are 20 on linen and 60 on leather.

For every aspect, shaving, honing, and stropping, a light touch is key. Even with your dense beard, a properly sharp blade should require no more pressure to shave than it does to scrape away the lather. If you hone with any pressure, you can actually weaken the edge because it will deflect up from the hone and you'll thin the blade just behind the edge. Without that support the edge will crumble under use. You might get one or two good shaving passes then it'll feel really awful. And with stropping, too much pressure can also deflect the edge (also called "rolling the edge") to the point that it won't shave properly any more.

Sounds like your grain is all over the place. Many of us share that, and our face mappings get better over spans of years. After four years, I decided to reverse direction for about two finger widths below my jawline, and get faster, more comfortable shaves because of it. ATG is a difficult pass, and requires the very best edge you can get. If you can't do a WTG pass because of sworls, opt instead for the pass that is easiest and most comfortable for you, so you'll have the best control as the resistance changes under your blade.

OK, blah blah blah by me. Many of us jumped in like you've done, and most who did wished we'd started a little more slowly. You might want to buy a cheap shave-ready blade from Whippeddog.com so you have something to guage your own honing against. That was the biggest hurdle for me as I learned honing and shaving at the same time. I didn't know how sharp the blade could be, much less was supposed to be.

Best wishes to you. You're off to a good start. Very ambitious!

I can only say that Roughkype tells you right - as another guy that jumped in. If I had it to do again - I'd have learned the shave first, w/ prof. quality edges. 'Hope the joy continues.

Welcome to you. :chapeau

You are every bit as ambitious as most of us as newcomers. I will say I chose to purchase a blade to practice honing before I tried it on my actual blade. I found with my neck growth the easiest way was to work at a slight diagonal down from the center for my first pass. Not saying it will work for you but it took me a couple shaves before the Aha moment came to me that I shouldn't be going straight down.

Good luck.

Thanks roughkype I just checked out whippeddog, I really want to be proficient before moving on to good steel. I am not so worried about the Dovo, but a second blade to guage from can help keep it as a daily shaver.

welcome to the club! enjoy the shaves