Thread: A new experience

Originally Posted by steve

(click above to see quoted post)

Thanks for your help and advice, Steve.
I got a pair of Belgian coticules following LX Emergency's advice. They should arrive here soon - currently on their way to me from Germany. Once they get here, I will try honing on the rougher one (yellow/white if I remember correctly).
I'm sure I've dulled it on the CrO side of the strop, but if I can't sort it out on the hone, it's going back to LX.
I think you are right about stropping technique too. I don't think I have kept a light edge when stropping. I need to pay more attention to this and also to keeping the blade flat.
I should point out my razor is a Stainless one. Does this explain why it's so difficult to sort out?

I don't know much about stainless blades or coticule stones so I won't be much help to you, sorry.

You might want to do a search on the forum using "stainless" as a search word and see what comes up. Seems to me I've seen a discussion or two but I can't rightly remember.

Also, Lynn uses coticules so perhaps a PM to him could get things in order as well.

I know Lynn helped me rehone my razor by talking with with me on the phone and some follow up PMs. It took a while, but I think I've finally gotten it. I'm going to try Joe Lerch's procedure for a while to maintain my edge since his tests saved me from yet another honing job and it's right out of the barber manuals and it's simplistic in nature.

The great thing is you're never alone in this while you're here on SRP.

This much I do know, since LX is working with you, you are in good hands.

I hope so.,...

but the yellow/white side is the finer stone.....just so you know.

Shave #4 without having to resort to the hone. This marks twice as many shaves as I've been able to do in the past without rehoning.

I did a thumbpad test before stropping and then did about 5 strokes and retested. I could actually feel the edge develop and after another 5 strokes on the leather I could feel the edge get even sharper. A few more strokes, one last thumb test and I was ready to shave.

At first, I thought it wasn't going so well, then I realized that the cream had dried a little too much (I made a more watery batch than I normally do for some reason). Relathering made a world of difference. I got a great BBS shave again. These kind of shaves are going to become addicting real quick.

I finished off with straight Dickenson's Witch Hazel and then a mixture of witch hazel and Clubman aftershave. I will normally just use plain WH if I'm planning on wearing cologne and if not, I use the WH/Clubman mix. Using both tonight was just for fun and to help sooth a rookie mistake (I tried to hurry a little so my wife could use the bathroom and ended up cutting my chin slightly).

Well, I suppose I should post my results here.

My Belgian coticules arrived at the weekend. Very nice stones that definitely look professional.

I gave my 'dulled' razor a few laps on the (wet) white/yellow side, as was suggested to me here. I also have what I think is a finishing stone. I gave it one or two laps there too, then stropped it. The blade didn't seem very sharp, so I honed it on the white/yellow stone again. Then re-stropped.

Now, I know I have an edge on it: after doing the thumb test (and not really knowing what to expect), I went to close the razor but caught my thumb in it, making a neat little cut in it. Nice and deep and very clean. Blood went everywhere and took a good half hour to stop bleeding. I suppose it's all part of the newbie learning process.

Anyway, tried to shave with the blade, but I still felt too much tugging and dragging, so gave up at that point. After all, my lather had completely dried out and I was already running late!

I think my stropping is OK now, but need to do more laps perhaps. I might give it a try tomorrow (depending on how awake I am).

I cut deep into my thumb once too while my 4 year old daughter was in the room. Needless to say, she doesn't want to go near my razor anymore.

I'm going to let other's advise you on the coticule. I don't have one.

I finally had to go back to the 8k Norton this morning for about 10 strokes. I may not have had to but the shaves were getting a little irritable and the edge looked a little ragged under the scope. So, just for a fun experiment, I honed again (after 6 shaves without doing so). I don't really think I needed to hone it but I got curious as to what the difference would be at 60x.

I think I'll stick with the thumb/thumbnail tests for ease of maintenance.