Thread: A Progress Report after 2 Months of Straight Razor Shaving

I thought I would share my progress after 2 months of almost daily shaving with a straight-razor, as this may be encouraging for beginners just starting out.


Shaves 1-10 were not good. Lots of razor burn, and quite a few bleepers and bloody nicks here and there. A bit discouraging, although I was very much aware that you cannot expect fast results with straight shaving. It's an art, and only time makes you master it.


Shaves 10-20 were progressively better. I was slowly refining my technique: getting the proper blade angle which may vary depending on your face configuration; reducing the pressure to a low level; making sure I always stretch my skin as much as possible wherever the blade was going. By shave 20, I was getting a very acceptable shave (not BBS) with close to zero razor burn or nicks. I was sold to straight shaving and was convinced I could make this work and eventually master it.


Shaves 20-30 brought me to a plateau: no more progress really. I was kind of stalled. What was bothering me is that it seems I just could not get a shave as close as I was getting from a DE razor. Especially on the upper lip and chin area, I could still see and feel some whiskers. Although I had my razor honed by a trusted honemeister, I was wondering if my beard perhaps required another honing to make it more sharper than what honemeisters will typically do.


Then I read on the forum about the Feather Artist Club straight razors, with disposable blades. Opinions varied about them, but most people seemed to agree that they were terribly sharp, more in fact than any traditional straight razor can ever be honed. I figured I could do no wrong trying one, so I ordered the Feather Artist Club SS model (new model) with the professional, regular blades.


I have been shaving with the Feather since and I must say I am incredibly impressed, now that I have passed the learning curve after about 20 shaves with them. The marvelous thing with the Feather is that I get BBS everytime with only 2 passes WTG (and a few ATG touch ups on the lower chin and jaw). The drawback is that I initially got a fair amount of deep nicks and bloody gashes too. My goodness, those blades cut deep... They are so sharp that you really need to back off the pressure (especially with the first 2 shaves on a new blade) and stretch, stretch and stretch again so that your skin is the flattest it can be to prevent the blade from catching into it. But whiskers it cut, and cut them exceedingly well...


Now that I have adapted my technique to the Feather, I am honestly getting the best shaves of my life: BBS, no razor burn, no nicks, perhaps one or two very minor bleepers sometimes. I am ecstatic. I seriously think that if you master this razor, you can master any traditional straight razor, as those are more forgiving than the Feather Artist Club.


However, I'm missing the stropping and honing of a traditional straight razor. So my next objective will be to up my honing skills to eventually bring my "practice" straight razor (one I bought to practice honing skills) to a level of sharpness similar to the Feather, or at least to a point where it can also give me a BBS shave.