Thread: Any advice would be welcome...

The blade angle diagrams , are meant as a guide and not meant to be hard line rules to follow mindlessly . Obviously , you can't shave with a protractor taped to your razor , so you're never going to know exactly what angle you're shaving at . It's a "feel" thing , for me . You will start to develop the feel for the correct angle after a few shaves . Start with a low angle and work your way up with minute adjustments , until it is shaving good . You don't need to make a big change in the angle , to make a difference , a little bit will go a long way . It just takes a little practice , and will get a little easier , every time you shave .

Everything needs to come together for a good straight razor shave. For example, what is your stretching like? A "correct" angle with poor or non-existent skin stretching won't be as effective. Try pulling the skin with your other hand so that you make the whiskers stand up in that area (rather than lie flatter). Then shave there, trying some angles, just in that area, to see how it goes. I'd suggest doing this experiment on a flat part, like the cheek. You may be surprised.

James.

Watch videos too. They helped me alot. Sometimes I don't get all the wiskers in one cut, I just continue on then relather and have at it again to do a cleanup.

I'm pretty sure it's a blade angle issue. If the razor were not shave ready, you would know it. A razor that is not shave ready is actually painful, if not impossible, to shave with because it will pull every whisker on your face. I'm not sure if you read in the WIKI about using a butter knife to practice with, but this seems to be a good way to get use to blade angle. A 30 degree angle will put an approximate gap of 1/4" to 5/16" between the spine of the blade and your skin.