Making progress

I ditched the shavette and am finally making some good progress with the straight. I'm learning quite a different technique with flatter angles etc and now when I'm done I look like I've had a shave. A patchy shave performed by a badly trained chimp, but a shave none the less which is an improvement. I finish the job with a DE instead of the shavette now. I'm still not totally convinced my razor is as sharp as it could (should?) be, but by now there's a lot of amature stropping involved so I'm willing to believe it was good when it arrived. I tried shaving with the shavette again last night to compare and it's very different to use. I was thinking about posting a bit more detail about my switch from shavette to straight and what I've been learning when I get a bit more time.

Glad to know that youre making progress. If your razor is a one that takes a nice edge and was honed by a professional and you feel that your razor has been dulled due to poor stropping, it should be wise to send it out for honing BUT first ask yourself if the razor is tugging or pulling. If not, chances are that you need to adjust your angle OR the fact that you just switched from a shavette to a straight may make you feel like the straight is not as sharp as the shavette. Chances are that your straight is shave ready but your mental comparision of it to the shavette may make it seem not as sharp. I myself changed from a shavette to a straight so im just laying out my own case, yours could be different. A more experienced member might be able to enlighten us. What i have found for myself is that the shave ready edge of a straight is a balance between sharpness and smoothness, too sharp like the shavette or de blades could be a little irritating hence the more comfortable shaves with a straight (my personal opinion). Anyways, i am eager to know of your experience converting from a shavette to a straight, do tell us.
And have fun shaving.
Hal.

It sounds like you've learned the same things as me. I think the sharpness of the shavette blade allows you to get away with sloppy technique and makes a straight blade seem like it's not sharp enough. I still think a shavette is a decent staring point as it's much cheaper and you get the feel of holding something straight razor shaped. Glad you're interested. Like I said I'll post in detail when I get time. I'm between apartments at the moment so doing lots of painting and things. I've almost finished the bathroom now and hopefully my next shave will be in there. I have a place to myself for the first time so I'll be able to take as long as I like over it. What shavette did you start with? Mine's a bluebeards revenge and I had wilkinson sword blades. My straight is a dovo spike point and is much friendlier. Did you find the shavette to be a bit bloodthirsty?

Well, i got my first shavette from a very friendly barber when i was 16. The sole purpose of getting a shavette was that it provided great control of the blade which i needed to shape my goatee. Since then i had shaved everyday with a shavette, first few months with hairgel (it worked well as it provided lubrication and transparency) then i turned to williams mug soap which i stocked up on and used for quite a few years later trying arko. In all these years i found thatt the shavette never stops biting, and it bites when you least expect it. Very, very unforgiving and it always happened the moment id put the blade to my skin (pressure was the culprit) rather than nicks that one might get midway through a stroke. I never paid attention to the brand of the shavette, it only says "made in china" and i used it with feather blades and occasionally gillette 7 o' clock super sharp (yellow). True, i never paid attention to angle with a shavette (atleast not conciously). Well, thats about it, shavette until i moved on to straights a couple of months ago. And that dovo spike point is a good razor, try to find the right angle and skin stretching and im sure it will work well considering it is shave ready (honed by a professional in contrast to the factory edge). Goodluck and happy shaving!
Hal.