Thread: First post looking for some help?

I had my first Straight shave four months ago at a barber shop. Best Shave ever!! While in SFO I was at the ART of Shaving store and bought everything. Pre shave lube, shaving cream, brush and a nice Razor. I tried it out that day and OMG what a shave. I strop before every use but noticed after four months the blade is not as sharp as it was when I bought it?

I have taken it to a shop for honing since my stones haven't come yet. The cutlery shop should me how to hone.

So now my question are: How to strop, how many times on the leather and when do I use the linen. But most of all what is the paste for? Does it work on the strop to polish the blade or to sharpen it better than just stropping alone without the paste? How much paste to use. Do I use two strops one with one without? They sold me a Small Dovo strop should I buy a thicker one? Sorry to ask so many questions, but Straight razor shaving is the best thing ever.

Is the Art of Shaving product any good or is there better stuff out there for my face?

Thanks for your feed back, I wish I found this site long ago!

Hi, smoothface, and welcome to SRP! There are many threads dealing with stropping here. This is just the latest one, and I think in the fullness of time, will be of the most use to you: http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...st-2012-a.html

"So now my question are: How to strop, how many times on the leather and when do I use the linen. But most of all what is the paste for? Does it work on the strop to polish the blade or to sharpen it better than just stropping alone without the paste? How much paste to use.":
SRP Senior Member AFDavis has (or had) a good stropping vid on the SRP homepage. Check it out!
I strop 10 times on the linen and 30 times on the leather after every shave, and 30 linen/60 leather before every shave. I don't use any pastes. Some members swear by their usage, however. Crox (chromium oxide) does help to sharpen a blade. Hope this helps!
As far as AOS, many members have expressed their satisfaction with their products on the whole. I can't speak for or against it as I've never been in one nor purchased any of their products. YMMV.
See you in the trenches, buddy!
MLA

Here's my noobish visualization so far... Someone let me know if I'm totally off base...

Think of the edge as a piece of foil.

Strop - straightens out slight bends in the foil

Pasted Strop - removes small jagged pieces of foil that are too far gone to be straightened back out

Stones - remove enough of the blade to give you a fresh new strip of foil.

Originally Posted by smoothface

Is the Art of Shaving product any good or is there better stuff out there for my face?

Personally--after trying the AOS pre-shave oil, shave cream, and aftershave--I think that there are better, less-expensive products out there. Their products have great scents, but I do not see a justification for their high prices. I get the same lather texture and slickness from a $3 tube of Arko cream as I do from the $25 AOS cream tub. (I compared the ingredients between the two creams and noticed that they were very similar.) Also, my $16 tub of Taylor of Old Bond St (TOBS) gives me a much better lather than the $25 AOS cream tub.

Originally Posted by Nubo

Think of the edge as a piece of foil.

I like your thinking my friend!

Originally Posted by smoothface

Is the Art of Shaving product any good or is there better stuff out there for my face?

I got my AoS sandalwood soap on sale at 50% off. Excellent product? Yes! Worth the non-sale price? Well, it depends on your wallet really. Similar products out there in terms of performance? Yes. Scent? I love the sandalwood scent!

Really, it's up to you...

Regards,

Ash

First and foremost get your razor away from a cutlery shop! Most of them have no idea what they are doing!
They all seem to think that they are experts, yet know very little about straight razors. Look in the classifieds here for someone to hone your blade.
Its very possible you rolled the edge while stropping, look at AFDAVIS's videos there is a lot of information available there.
Do not paste your daily use strop.
If you have any specific questions please ask. If you cannot find anyone to hone your blade please contact me or one of the other mentors about which direction to head.

Welcome to SRP Smoothface - it's good to have you on board.
I've said it before and I'll say again - NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, let ANYONE hone your razor who doesn't use one themselves.
Let us know how your journey progresses

Thanks for all the great replies. I did however make sure the guy knew what he was doing before I went there. I spent a lot of money on my new razor and don't like my things being gone. I looked at his work and handled some of his razors he had for sell, the ones he honed. Very nice. I know this because I looked at this site to see how sharp the razor suppose to be. I thought you buy some stuff start using and thats it, no way there is so much to learn about getting the best possible shave ever, it fantastic. I look forward to someday getting everything right. Thanks again for all your replies!

You will get everything right, just takes time to learn to shave all over again...then there is the maintaining of your equipment that you will eventually learn as well. Give it 4-6 months and you will wonder why you had a hard time with it. We all went through this.

If I can ever be of assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me. If not me, ask some of the other guys who have been around here for a while and you will find that they are all here to help...it's just how the members of this site are.