Thread: I want to like my straight razor

I've decided that its time for me to evolve from a lurker to a poster. Why? -- because I am very frustrated. I am still a newbie though, so I will try to be pateint.

I desperatly want to enjoy shaving with my straight razor, but no matter what I do, it never seems to shave close enough and it always pulls and tugs at my beard. Its nearly always painful.

A few years ago, I began using a double-edged razor by Merkur after finally giving up hope on catridge razors due to constant in-grown hairs and irritation. Switching to the Merkur and Shaving Brush was the best thing that I ever did for my face. My skin irritation was cut nearly in half, and my hope was that my situation would improve that much more by switching to a straight razor.

I orderd a DOVO Genuine Olivewood SS 5/8 straight, and found that right out of the box it gave me a much worse shave than my Merkur DE, so I orderd a strop. That helped, but not much. I learned everything I could about shaving technique, but that didn't improve things much either. Finnaly, I decided that it just wasn't sharp enough, it failed the "hanging hair test" with everyone's hair I tried, so I ordered a Norton 4K/8K and set out to hone it.

Well, now I've honed it using Lynn's Pyramid scheme (stopping to test along the way), and while it is sharper, it still won't pass the HHT, and it still is painfull to shave with. After shaving my whole face with it, I had to go over my face again with my Merkur DE to get rid of the stubble. One pass with the Merkur felt like heaven after what felt like scraping my face with sheet-metal.

Am I just asking too much out of a straight? Please Help!

No, you're not asking too much of a straight. But this isn't like shaving with a mach 3 - a lot of things have to go right before you get an effortless shave.

Did you have your razor professionally honed, or did you try to use it right out of the box?

Did you lap your norton before trying to hone with it?

Did you use any pressure at all on the razor when you were honing it?

Did you verify that the hone was touching the entire edge of the razor, on both sides of the razor, all the way to the edge?

When you tried to shave, how did you prepare your beard?

What angle were you holding the razor at, relative to your face?

etc etc.

Vectorcide,

I'm having the same problem. The past few days I've spent a lot of time trying to get an edge on my razors using Lynn's pyramid technique. I have yet to pass a HHT. I did shave with it but it wasn't the most comfortable and I finished up with a twin blade under my chin. So, I watched Lynn's dvd again and started reading some of these posts and decided to try again. I took my Norton 4k/8k stone and a #2 pencil and drew the "grid" on both sides. To my surprise, as I lapped the stones, neither side had been flat (at this point I wondered if the lap stone was flat...lol). The pencil grid disapeared in the middle of the stones first and finally on the edges.

At this point I went through the pyramid technique for a razor that was in good shape....3/3, 1/3, 1/3-5, 10 on the belgian coticule, strop and test. The razor looked right under the radio shack microscope, however I still couldn't pass a HHT. I stropped on an older jemco strop 15 times, with the TI white paste on the linen side (15k?) and then 25 - 30 times on the leather side. I'm very careful to go slowly and evenly with the razor.

Although the edge looks good, I'm obviously doing something wrong. The shave isn't comfortable because I'm pretty sure the razor isn't as sharp as it could be or should be.

I may slide over to Tony Miller's site and order a razor...tonight.

If finances are not a problem I would suggest having it honed by Lynn or one of our other honemeisters. I also suggest the paddle strop from Tony Miller. I have 1.0 micron and 0.5 micron. Even after having had mine honed I use the 1.0 micron and then the 0.5 micron.

My usual daily routing is to pick one of my razors, use Tilly's barber hones a couple of times, then go to the paddle. THEN I strop being VERY careful not to lift the spine and do the move strop. I believe the "movie strop" method dulls the razor . I also not strop using the X pattern, but rather perpendicular to the strop.

If you are still having difficulties I (so another member) can send you what I (or they) determine is a "shaving sharp" razor.

Usually I can determine if the blade is sharp enough by how my neck feels afterwards. If it is BBS then it was sharp enough for me!!!


Jerry

Don't be discouraged by learning to hone. It takes time. I started straight shaving by buying a hone and some ebay specials and honing until I could shave. At first it wasn't comfortable, but the more you practice, the more you understand how the hone affects your shaving edge.
I am certainly no expert at honing, but from my learning experience I would recommend getting your razor honed by somebody who knows how. For me it would have saved so much trouble to know what I was aiming for.
I would shave with a honemeister razor, and keep honing other razors as a hobby, this way you will learn your shaving technique without worrying about whether it is angle, pressure or simply a dull blade, and also you will learn the non painful way, how to get your razor shave ready.

Nick

Heya Vectorcide. Welcome aboard.

Your situation sounds much like those many go through, and the key issues- pulling and tugging- could be as much technique as an improperly prepared blade. Coming from the DE realm myself, I can tell ou the learning curve is somewhat steeper with a straight than it is with a DE. The DEs gave me bbs shaves everytime after about two weeks of use.

Instead of worrying about honing right off the top, your best bet is to get a razor off of one of honemeister/merchants or to send your current razor to one of the honemeisters. If your Dovo is the prettiest razor you've ever seen, send that one to be honed and get an entry level razor from someone on the board. Normally people recommend practicing on an eBay cheapie, but I'm of the belief that getting those things in shape sometimes take more knowledge than someone just starting out is going to have. Better to practice on a razor that wasn't too costly to begin with and you know full-well can get to where it has to be through normal honing, as opposed to refurbishing.

Once you've got the razor in hand, your next best friends, in order, are Lynn's DVD, the help files here and patience. You no doubt already have beard prep down-pat, and know that the blade works best with a lighter touch, as a DE does. Stropping correctly is the next hurdle, but not really one so daunting. Go slow and watch the blade's contact with the strop.

The shave itself also takes getting used to and you'll begin to figure out what areas of your face require what sort of blade-handling. Getting the angle right is probably step one. Some of the stuff I'd read suggested shaving a single area of the face until you're used to it and finsihing the rest of the shave with your prior instrument, then expanding that area until you're eventually doing your whole beard with just the straight. It's probably a good plan, but one I personally was far too impatient to follow.

Two weeks in to using a straight I was wholly convinced Lynn and everyone here was either quite mad or just too embarrassed to admit they're not getting smooth, comfortable shaves. About 2 months in, I felt guilty for ever doubting them.

You'll get better advice from others, so don't be shy to ask. People here are quick to assist.

Well said Mr. Todd

Jordan

Originally Posted by Sweeney Todd

Normally people recommend practicing on an eBay cheapie, but I'm of the belief that getting those things in shape sometimes take more knowledge than someone just starting out is going to have.

Too true. Let's see: smiling blades are not the best to start on, and a lot of ebay blades were either made that way, or developed a broad grin over time; and a lot of the cheaper ebay blades are going to have dings and chips, which take knowledge to remove. You really don't want to try a test shave on one of those things! I'd want to start, as everyone suggests, with a good quality but cheap razor sharpened by an expert.

But you will learn fast from an ebay cheapie. By all means buy one to hone your skills on :-).

If you want lots of honing practice, you may as well get a razor that needs lots of honing :-)

Get a few of Woj's and practice on them. That way you won't feel too bad if you muck one up. J.