Thread: Blood & Honing!

I found that my razor was getting dull so got a 4 sided paddle strop from Tony Miller with .5 diamond paste on one side. After stropping the pasted side then the leather side the difference was quite dramatic. The whiskers on my cheeks and sideburn area fall right off and I get a bbs shave every time. The problem is my chin, just below both ends of my mustache area. I can’t get a smooth shave without finishing with a disposable as too much pressure with the str8 leaves little blood spots. I am trying to cover all directions with the str8 and am wondering if I need to go back to the paddle strop. As soon as I received it I did 30 passes on the pasted side followed by 30 on the leather. Since then I have hit it 10-15 licks on 3-4 occasions before shaving. I don’t want to over hone. Anybody got any ideas?

Rich

“All good things arrive unto them that wait – and don’t die in the meantime.” – Mark Twain

That's a tough area on me as well. I stretch the skin and shave against the grain there to get the best smoothness. I don't get much blood anymore as I've shaved down all of the high spots.

Less pressure and lower angle.

Just what Allen said.

You will find that the experienced members continuously exhort new shavers to use VERY little pressure. While that is true, you less often have someone explain that for the typical trouble spots...chin, jawline, corners of the mouth...you have to use even less pressure! The reason is simple physics. The same total downward force applied will change the pressure applied at the cutting edge in direct proportion to the length of the edge that is in contact with your face. Thus, if you don't reduce pressure at the corner of your mouth when you might have a half inch of blade in contact with your face, you may be applying four times the pressure that you do when shaving your cheek and have two inches of blade in contact with your skin.

Just another data point,
Ed