Thread: Professionally honed? Then why the trouble?

Shaving with a straight is like riding a Bicycle. Once you master it you never get rusty.

From what you are describing it really sounds like a technique thing especially the missing half the whiskers. That's a classic rookie thing.

We always blame the tools.

I was at a golf practice range years ago when a fellow who picked up the golf
balls on the range was given a bag of balls to hit. He had no clue at all, was
hitting golf balls all over the place, sideways, missing them completely. He
looked up at me and said "These balls ain't right!"

My guess is technique. If you're really not happy I'd give the honer a call or email. I've met very few guys doing this who would not either A.) Put your fears to rest B.) Be willing to re-hone it just in case C.) Be glad to know if there was a problem, so they can correct their mistake. Razors don't always come out perfect, and a reputable guy (or gal) is going to want to make it right with you.

As mentioned in many of the posts above, it is near impossible for us to tell from this end. I would suggest picking one of the razors in question and shave with it every day or two for a hand full of shaves before doing anything else except stropping the razor before the shave and don't forget proper prep. After a bunch of shaves you will be able to tell if it is the razor of the user or just getting you skin use to shaving again.

Thanks to all. I did indeed strop the razor first, but may have been in a bit of a hurry come to think of it. Also, I primarily use a Dovo 5/8th's, and the razors in question were a 8/8 ths W&B and something else (left out on purpose)....so I'm pretty sure that I just don't know what I"m doing with these types of razors. It's just that I felt so cocky beginning my shave! Maybe I'm not the 'natural' I thought I was! I tend to have these expectations in everything I do!

From the honorable Birnando:
"three months later I returned to my Dovo, and wow, that thing was indeed most ready to shave"

This is almost exactly my story also. 'Couldn't shave w/ the Dovo inox. It sat for 6wks. 'Got a heavy grind and was in love. Soon, I found that all the stretches and strokes I could now do w/ the heavy grind - I could also do w/ the Dovo. With each blade honed, I found the Dovo got very respectable edges also.

If you set the str8 down in the midst of your first few months of learning - I could easily see how returning to them would be awkward. If you need a hand w/ edges, PM me or send one (not both) to a pro. That way you can compare the edges to see if some thing is, indeed lacking w/ your prof. honed edges. I suspect we're all presuming that they were stropped and then coated w/ oil before they were set aside.

If you did it before, you can do it again, and the learning curve will be much shorter.

Best of luck

Another vote for technique issues, over razor issues. Each razor width has a little different requirement for handling. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the best out of it. Usually the first half of a shave with a new razor is a bit awkward for me, until I find it's happy place. Still quite new myself.

I thought my honed razor wasn't sharp enough when I started until a friend shaved with it before my eyes and he showed that it was indeed more then sharp enough. And I have dulled my share of razors with stropping in the beginning.

All of these guys have made you some great suggestions. Another thing you could do is come down to my house (just south of Hugo about 5 miles) and see exactly what's going on. If the razor is not "shave ready", we can fix that. If you are using bad form, we can work on that too. Either way it goes you could meet an honery old cuss that has been at this game a couple days...

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Another thing you could do is come down to my house (just south of Hugo about 5 miles) and see exactly what's going on.

If you can do that I'm sure it would help you out with a lot of your problems. I've had some good souls that did the same for me and I learned a whole lot in just a few hours, some things you can't learn by reading on the internet no matter how many people are giving advice.