Thread: First shave and don't know what to think

Hea guys,

Just a quick update on the situation. I haven't been able to make the video yet because of something quite positive. I got in touch with the original honer and he told me that I could send in the blade so that he can rehone it without any costs. I noticed that the bevel on the blade was quite inconsistent but at first I didn't think a big deal out of it. After asking the original honer, he told me that it should be corrected. I included some pics of the edge and bevel so you any reader can see what kind of inconsistancies I am talking about.

In the mean time I have been shaving with my shavette. After watching the shave test video I changed my shave prep to a hot towel approach and it works like a charm. I have been able to get my beard really soft. I do have been getting quite some razorburn from my shavette. I think it has to do with to great of an angle. The tip on trying to keep the blade as flat as possible definitetly helped with going ATG. Just need to introduce it when going WTG and get that feel right. The feel I am talking about here is that you hear and see it cutting the hairs but you don't feel it cutting.

After some practice I noticed I can get my lather in about 3 different forms. The first one is a bit dry and it is really thick, the second one is the heavier form of soap and the third one(which I finally got once today) was in between. A thick layer that feels foamy and protects your skin from the razor like a harness. I reckon I need that third one? Partially I finally got to this form of lather is because of the breaking in of the brush I think. It is much less sturdy than in the beginning and just feels great.

All and all I think I caught a bug :P It takes 30-45 minutes to shave, but I love it!

Hea again!

I finally received my razor back from the original owner. I was a bit disappointed as the bevel was not as corrected as I had hoped. Anyways, I tried shaving and the edge dulled very quickly once again for as far as I can tell. This time I took a closer look to my blade. It seems it has a small frown! I included some pictures(including the ones I forgat last time) and I was hoping if you guys could tell me if it is anything serious and that my blade might need a trip to a more experienced honer before I can shave comfortably with it. If it turns out I have been making a loud ruckus about nothing, please tell me :P

With this blade I still had a lot more razor burn then I have nowadays with the shavette. Of course those 2 are very different, but I took a lot of care in making sure my angle was not too steep (actually had some area's where the blade missed the hairs, haha).

Hope you guys can help me further with the pics I provided!

*I did strop with it just in case before the shave. I had a lot of draw on the toe of the blade and it sounded and felt like metal was catching the strop. I stropped a couple of laps more after I felt that draw lessen to the point it felt like the rest of the blade.

EDIT: It seems the forum has sized the pics down by a lot. I have higher resolution pictures if someone wants them.

There are a couple of cheap shave ready razors on the classifieds here right now, from stimpy. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get one so you have something to compare with. I am sure his razors would be shave ready, and he offers a couple of free re-hones. The edge when honed is so fine that you could have damaged or rolled it slightly by just resting it on the edge to take photo of the frown. Incorrect stropping can also cause problems.

I took the photo after the shave. I took care in making sure the razor edge did not touch anything except for my skin before the shave.
EDIT: Getting an experience I can reference too is something that is suggested multiple times here and is of course a great idea. I just saw somebody
responded to my message if I can visit a more experienced member of the forum. I will try to get an agreement with him so we can meet up and discuss what is the fault in the entire setup and procedure of the shave.

As a new straight shaver myself, I can attest to the fact that it is very easy to ruin an edge with incorrect stropping. I did it a couple of times! Really pay attention to your stropping and make sure that you aren't putting any undue pressure on the razor as you are running it over the strop and not dragging the blade the wrong way at any point. As pointed out earlier, just enough pressure to keep the spine and edge of blade on the strop.

Also try to keep your angle at less than 30 degrees. For me, the equivalent of two spine widths seems to work best, more like 15-20 degrees. No pressure should be needed if your blade is sharp enough. Going against the grain you need to lay the blade almost flat against your face. Use a very gentle touch, always, like you are stroking your skin with a feather!

Good luck and keep us posted.

I was able to set up a meet with the other member (Puerco) and the result turned out great! During the entire evening I learned a lot and he honed my razor for me once again. He let me try out the newly honed razor and he also gave some tips during my shave e.g. how much water to add to the lather(it is a lot more than I thought) and how to keep it hydrated. The combination of the improved lather and the rehoning of the blade took care of all my problems. The try-out shave was the most comfortable shave I ever had and surely made me dead set on learning to hone for myself on different types of stones to experience the different results.

The frowning of the blade was nothing serious. The inconsistency of the bevel was also something that was fine and only is a cosmetic pain. It seems all the Dovo blades (and their rebrands like Mühle) have some warping on the bevel when they ship from the factory. When he tested the razor, it was already quite sharp and only needed some touching up to undo some dulling caused by fidgeting with the blade. In the end the main problem was probably the lather that was too dry and I got away with it when using the shavette as the shavette is just really sharp.

I just did my first sr shave today and had the same issue with my lather. I'm glad I know now that I need more water, and really looking forward to my next shave.

I find using the heel of the razor is the best way. I use a lot of the heel and the belly for the entire shave, but only the heel for the edge of my goatee.

Originally Posted by Fathardie

..It takes 30-45 minutes to shave, but I love it!..

Not that you will necessarily want to, but you can get that time down to 10 minutes or so after time. My daily morning straight shave is ten to 12 minutes regularly...Of course, a leisurely shave is a lot of fun but it's also good to know I can have a good shave when rushed...

Originally Posted by WadeS

I just did my first sr shave today and had the same issue with my lather. I'm glad I know now that I need more water, and really looking forward to my next shave.

I didn't do a lot of research about the shaving soap and it is the main thing that I should have thought about but didn't. Be careful with your lather as the type of cream or soap depends on how much water is needed. It turns out that my shaving soap is really hard. As it is so hard, the soap needs a lot of contact with the brush to get the soap loose. Only after getting enough soap loose, the lather will be able to hold enough water to create a comfortable shave. My mistake was that I did not collect enough soap from the shaving soap and it ended in a too dry or too soapy lather.

The morale of this story, is that depending on the soap or cream you really need to take care in the amount of soap you are actually getting on your brush. Just having a bit of soap on the brush might not be enough and will result in a soapy lather once you added a bit of water or a dry lather with not enough water. Getting to that sweet spot with enough water and soap is than impossible.