Thread: New guy saying hello and thank you.

Ed,

Thank you. Well I'm still slow but getting good results now. I can do my cheeks and down half a centimeter below my jaw line quick enough, but I have a couple of challenges. A big dent in the middle of my chin that I try to get smooth without digging any deeper :-). And a beard at the lower half of my neck that grows directly sideways. I finally figured out the rounded toe of the blade does a rather nice job on the dent. Serious stretching and contortions and using both hands, I can shave sideways on my neck well enough to get a smooth clean shave, but I am not quick about it yet.

I was pleased to figure out a few things which make for better results, and by figure out I mean read the ideas here and tried them out :-). Softening my beard helps (lather and hot towel), concentrating on WTG (even doing extra passes WTG provides better beard reduction with no irritation), then I go XTG which is irritation free, finally I go ATG. I am mindful of keeping the blade extremely sharp. Add in careful skin traction (especially for ATG) and a light no pressure blade -- well it really started working well then. Figuring out the process, technique, and my beard while keeping a scary sharp blade were the biggest steps forward.

I've finally got a great diagnostic for how sharp is the blade. I have some small lay flat whiskers on my chin. When the blade is very sharp they come right off WTG. Once that isn't true, it is time to refresh the blade. I am using pastes and strops to keep the blade fresh, but I've used the 8000 and 12000 hone now too. I've got a long way to go with blade maintenance, but again there is great information on SRP.

Thanks for saying hello! Ed to Ed