Thread: Hi!

Hi Everyone,

I'm loving the site and my new found morning ritual / hobby! The resources and advice on this forum are invaluable so i thought it about time to stop lurking and say hello.

It's a story that you've probably heard before - I was given some shaving gear for Christmas having wanted to get involved and been reading about straight razor shaving for a couple of years.

I'm using a Dovo 5/8 razor, super badger brush, TOBS sandalwood soap, TOBS sensitive cream, strop, old fashioned scuttle all purchased from TOBS. I've added a porcelain lather bowl to lather up in and have seen a video on here (apologies I cannot remember who posted) whereby you wipe the razor occasionally on a sponge.

I think I've learned a lot over the past few weeks...

-I've managed to shave pretty much my whole face WTG and ATG. The parts I don't feel comfortable with, I complete with my Mac 3.
-I've only had a couple of nicks, although that includes accidentally stabbing myself in the ear (nothing major) :-)
-I'm happy with the lather I'm creating. I started off just with soap and have added cream. For now, that is working well and I'm looking forward to perfecting just soap and generally playing mixing things up when time permits.
-I believe my stropping has developed. I'm gaining muscle memory. I've learned not to apply pressure. I'm becoming consistent with my strokes. The windscreen wiper effect seems to be working (I wasn't doing that originally and the strop is narrow so I guess that was bad practice). I've only nicked the strop a couple of times. I still don't think I'm there but will continue to learn and review things.
-My overall routine of laying out all of the kit, filling the sink with hot water, warming the scuttle, brush and lather bowl, stropping, showering, creating the (super) lather, shaving, cold flannel, clean up equipment, stropping, flossing the scales, drop of sandalwood oil occasionally seems to be working well. It's really enjoyable but still in keeping with catching the train for work on time :-)

I'm not sure if i'm in the correct area of the forum for this amount of detail but I am struggling with a few things. I've read all about razors needing to be shave ready/professionally honed and before I settled on the Dovo my understanding was that it was shave ready. Last week I doubted this and came across the hanging hair test, which worked, so I assumed again it was shave ready. I'm now starting to wonder again.

Below my chin/on my neck the razor is bouncing / pulling. I appreciate it could be the shave angle but whatever I seem to try (barely any pressure/different angles/slightly more pressure) nothing seems to work WTG (aiming for 30 degree angle). ATG (aiming for 5 degree angle) seems to work fine. It's believe it's a mixture of angle and blade but i'm starting to think it's more the blade.

I've read and taken on board the advice of learning to shave before you learn to hone but at what point should I take that on board (assuming we agree that the razor is not shave ready?)

-Do you think I should get the razor professionally honed?
-Or do you think i should try myself?
-If you think the razor would have been shave ready, could it be my stropping blunted the edge? If so, should I get it re-honed? (as I say - my stropping seems to have improved so i would hope I wouldn't blunt the blade again, if that's what has happened now)
-Could it be the case for me that I should just stick to ATG on that part of my face?
-Any other advice?

Aside from that, I have no clue how to shave my upper lip but I'll get to that I'm sure :-)

I really appreciate you taking the time to read this. Please let me know if I should post my questions elsewhere as I appreciate this is an introduction forum.

Cheers

John

Where did the razor come from? Answering that should make us able to tell you if the razor was shave ready.
If you do need to get it honed then send it away, at least the first few times, that was when you do start touching up the edge yourself you will have a good idea of how it should feel, it will also remove that variable for you.
Try a guillotine stroke on your neck, basically holding the razor slightly diagonal to the angle of cut, or if you feel confident - a scything stroke where you keep the pivot still and sweep the toe of the blade around.
If you try either just go steady and do a SMALL stroke first.
As for upper lips, you can go in from the sides, straight down or a mix of both, directly under the nose is a bit tricky, imagine scraping butter from the top of a pat (start below and parallel to your nose then gently rotate the blade towards your lip) this really is a stroke that you have to take care with as you are holding the blade at 90 degrees to your face, again only try it if you are comfortable and feeling reasonable confident.

The other thing I have just thought of is stretching, for your neck tilt your head up and away from the side you are shaving, at the same time pull down with your free hand in the hollow of your collarbone.

Many including myself have messed up an edge stropping. In the beginning it is tough trying to figure out if it is the hand or the blade, honestly it could be either. You should not try to sharpen it yourself. If you can get together with another member it would make the most sense for assessing your razor and getting a few pointers.

Welcome to SRP

I would send it out for honing first couple times. Pick up a second razor before you try refreshing a razor so you at least have a backup razor if you mess it up the first time. Look up "refreshing a razor" in the Library. Smooth shaves to you and welcome.


Mike

Welcome to the Forum!

Did you buy the Dovo razer new and did it come from the supplier in "shave ready" condition? If not, then I would suggest that you send the razor out for sharpening. This way you will have an idea of exactly what "shave ready" really means. A spare razor would be a plus, as previously mentioned. It sounds like, from your original post, that you are on the right track. Good luck with your new hobby and Happy Shaving!

Thanks for the reply Ed.

The razor came from Taylor of Old Bond Street in London.

I'll definitely experiment with 'guillotine' and 'scything', thank you.

Thanks RezDog, this makes sense.

Whether it was the blade to start with, or the fact that I have dulled the blade with stropping it makes sense to get it professionally honed.

I guess there's always the chance that when I get it home the blade is exactly the same (i.e. it was fine to start with and miraculously so was my stropping).

Either way I get closer to finding out whether it's the blade, my technique or a bit of both.

Thanks Mike.

I'd planned on getting a 2nd razor at some point so maybe that'll come sooner than I thought :-)

I'll check out, "refreshing a razor"

Originally Posted by LexTac

Welcome to the Forum!

Did you buy the Dovo razer new and did it come from the supplier in "shave ready" condition? If not, then I would suggest that you send the razor out for sharpening. This way you will have an idea of exactly what "shave ready" really means. A spare razor would be a plus, as previously mentioned. It sounds like, from your original post, that you are on the right track. Good luck with your new hobby and Happy Shaving!

Thanks LexTac (and everybody).

It sounds unanimous - get the razor professionally honed and see how that goes. Purchase a 2nd razor at somepoint as well.

Appreciate the advice