Thread: My second straight shave. Getting better. But I still need guidance

Originally Posted by gnomore

Shaving well is a relative term. I had to shave my entire face with my electric razor just to be able to shave without pulling the first time. When you guys say no pulling should occur. Describe this for me a bit.

As a test, I just tried to shave the trail on my stomach. It gets about half an inch before it is "stuck" in the hair.

I will try again on my face tomorrow, know I am a noob, and I dont want to blame my equipment. And even with the problems, I am sooo adicted to this lol... I find myself planning my next shaving (attack) often during the day. Was it the same for you guys when you started out?

A good sharp straight over your stomach should feel like you are dragging a letter opener over your stomach...it should feel comfortable, solid, and effortless. the only difference is when you look down you wouldnt have any hair in the area you just passed over.

As far as your face and neck. I think you just established that your blade is definitely NOT sharp enough to shave with, I would send it out or hone it yourself (if you know how) before your hurt yourself or get to frustrated. Even with a shave ready razor your hands have to get used to your face and your face and neck need to adjust to the blade, it took a while on a very sharp razor for my neck to not get irritated by the shave.

I know its frustrating and hard to admit that your new razor that you have been looking forward to using is not ready to shave with. Trust me though, a bit of patience now will make a world of difference when you get it back and its REALLY shave ready. BTW, this same thing happened to me with my first straight, and thats when I decided to send it out to Lynn. This happens to more people than not I think, so dont be to frustrated by it.

Hehe the thing that makes this bite is I had it sharpened by lynn 2 shaves ago. I must have did something to screw it up. I just dont know what... I must have stropped incorrectly. I was very very carefull to go slow, and I it a point to make sure the spine was on the strop at all times. The only lifting that occured was the edge coming off the strop sometimes as I was developing my technique. Not once did that spine ever come off the strop....

Maybe I should pm lynn and see if I can send it back to him to see if I ruined the edge, or I am just being a noob and have crappy technique.
Lol its so hard though, even with the pulling, I still dont want to pull out the mach 3 ever again. The last time I did that, my face had to heal for 5 days. I was dumb enough to try an against the grain pass...

Also, I havent bought any honing equipment yet, what should I get to start me out? Pasted paddle? Or the norton 4k/8k?

I am going to get the radioshack microscope to check things out a bit more.

Originally Posted by gnomore

Hehe the thing that makes this bite is I had it sharpened by lynn 2 shaves ago. I must have did something to screw it up. I just dont know what... I must have stropped incorrectly. I was very very carefull to go slow, and I it a point to make sure the spine was on the strop at all times. The only lifting that occured was the edge coming off the strop sometimes as I was developing my technique. Not once did that spine ever come off the strop....

Maybe I should pm lynn and see if I can send it back to him to see if I ruined the edge, or I am just being a noob and have crappy technique.
Lol its so hard though, even with the pulling, I still dont want to pull out the mach 3 ever again. The last time I did that, my face had to heal for 5 days. I was dumb enough to try an against the grain pass...

Also, I havent bought any honing equipment yet, what should I get to start me out? Pasted paddle? Or the norton 4k/8k?

I have purchased a usb microscope that zooms into 200x though, so that should help me get a close look at whats going on But it wont be here for about 2 weeks.

I dont want you advise you on honing, because I dont hone yet either...I have gotten away with a 4 sided pasted strop so far. As far as Lynn is concerned. I am sure he will be happy to look at it for you. I had him do this for me as well with a TI of mine, and it turned out the blade was just a little strange and he has to do some extra work with it. You wouldnt be the first person to dull a good blade, but either way Lynn should be able to tell very quickly by looking at it if you managed to dull the blade or if there is another issue.

I would recomend getting a less expensive shave ready razor ASAP so you dont go nuts waiting, and then sending your current razor to Lynn. www.billysblades.com has some great stuff, I think you could probably get a truely shave ready razor for around $50.00 including shipping. there may also be some users on here that would be willing to let one of theirs go for less, it cant hurt to ask.