Thread: New guy from Michigan

So it was not shave ready.
Do you have stones? How does it shave now? I would think not great.
It would be worth sending it out to have it honed properly so you can see the possibilities of what's can be attained when honed well.

Sounds like a good plan. Maybe I should. Have to find a place to send it.hope I can find a place locally. If not I’ll have to go online.

Good Luck Old Man! Welcome here!

Originally Posted by grayray

Sounds like a good plan. Maybe I should. Have to find a place to send it.hope I can find a place locally. If not I’ll have to go online.

Beware of finding a local unless they are a member of a forum that shaves with a straight.
Seen many a good razor get trashed from someone who thinks they can but does not shave with one.
Unless they use one regularly I would avoid them, it doesn't hurt to ask!

Bokers are usually pretty good razors. I would urge you to not let it anywhere near a stone or a pasted strop until you absorb some background knowledge. You will only make it harder for a knowledgeable person to fix it for you.

Here is a good test for you. Sweep the razor through the air about 1/4" above the skin of your forearm, a bit higher if you are a very hairy person. If your razor is sharp enough for shaving, it should "treetop" at least one or two hair tips with each sweep and leave those hair tips lying on the razor. Shaving your forearm is a test for your pocketknife, not your razor. You want to see treetopping at 1/4" ABOVE the skin of the forearm.

If you get that, then next examine your edge under a single bright point of light, with a very strong magnifying glass. You want to study the reflection of the light as it sweeps across the bevel. The edge is formed by two bevel faces meeting together in a line of intersection. For best results those bevel faces are flat and consistent, and as smooth as possible, so that the edge is also smooth and straight, instead of toothy. Also the edge itself, the very edge, should not reflect its own line of light. When the edge is turned up directly toward your eye there should be no sparkles of light from divots or incomplete honing or burr, which is when the fragile edge is bent over from the light pressure against the stone. As you roll the razor slowly in the light, the point of reflection should quickly sweep across the developed bevel surface and simply disappear as it runs off the edge.

The first test, treetopping, establishes very quickly and conveniently that the edge is currently useless or that it is sharp enough to remove facial hair. The visual check goes further, and establishes that the proven sharp razor has a smooth and consistent edge that will shave comfortably, if you do your part. Finally there is the shave test, which of course as a beginner you will find tells you approximately nothing at all until you have actually learned how to shave properly. The great paradox is you need a shave ready razor in order to learn to shave, but you need to learn to shave before you can fully judge and appreciate and make a shave ready edge. To break out of this logic loop, you need to begin with a razor made shave ready by an acknowledged skilled honer.

Many people claim that they are selling shave ready razors. Few of them actually are. On the internet, you can claim to do or have or sell or are anything you want. Sellers quickly realize that by adding the magic words, "Shave Ready!!!!!" to a product or item listing, they immediately triple their sales. I have heard of your vendor of course, but I have never had any experience with them. However, the fact that they would suggest a beginner take his razor to stone or pasted strop rings alarm bells.

Honing a razor is quite a bit different from sharpening a knife. I am not saying you can't teach yourself, but the process will be very frustrating. You will never know if it is your shave technique, or your razor's edge, that is holding you up. The majority of those who try to learn to shave with the same razor that they are trying to learn to hone, end up throwing in the towel. I did this pre-internet and it took me YEARS, and I still had a lot left to learn when internet straight razor forums brought people together.

To keep this short, let me say that first of all, either buy a shave ready razor (vintage is fine, save your money!) from a KNOWN MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY, or send yours out for honing if it does not pass the treetopping test and a very careful visual inspection as explained above. Starting with TWO shave ready razors is even better, because when the first is dull, you can send it out for a refresh while you shave with the second one. Eventually you will learn enough in passing, and have enough confidence, to try refreshing your own edge.

Honing from the beginning, means edge repair and correction, bevel setting, a midrange progression of grits, and finally the finish. That is a lot of stones or in my case lapping films. Proper razor stones are not cheap. A basic kit of Naniwa Superstones from 1k to 12k will cost you a couple hundred bucks, and you will also want a coarser stone like a 600 grit Naniwa Chosera or a 1k Norton (yes, it is actually a lot coarser than the 1k Naniwa Superstone) so that's a lot of Simoleons. But, if you start with a shave ready razor and do not damage the edge, and it just gets dulled through normal use, you can refresh it with just your 12k finisher easily enough. So refreshing your edge dulled normally is your gateway into honing. The Naniwa is probably the most popular 12k finisher. I like 1µ 3M type 261 or type 262 lapping film, myself, followed by a progression of lapped and backed balsa treated with diamond paste, but honestly without knowing the entire method and following it precisely, it won't really help you much beyond the 1µ or 12k stage.

I do hope that if you have already put razor to stone, that you are aware that the spine must be in contact with the stone before the edge touches down, and the edge must lift off the stone while the spine is still in contact with the stone. The bevel angle is sort of critical, but CONSISTENCY of the bevel angle is of EXTREME importance, and the spine serves as your built-in bevel guide, without which your efforts will only grind away razor steel that cannot be replaced. Also be aware that the flatness of your stone is important, and no, not eyeball flat. They are not necessarily flat right out of the box, either.

There are a lot of common beginner mistakes that you will make, that will set you on a course of 1 step forward and 47 steps back.

The fast way to learn to hone is to pick one skilled honemeister, preferably one that favors synthetic stones, and use exactly the same equipment he uses, and exactly the same techniques that he uses, in every detail, with no exceptions whatsoever. Then if you can mimic his actions you should very quickly be getting edges that are similar to his. Random mix and match of technique from an assortment of honers will slow you down. You will learn more in the long run, but the long run is well, rather long.

Shave technique is a little more universal. There are basic truths that pretty much ensure that your shave will suck or not suck too badly or even be quite good. The nice thing is, most of straight razor shave technique can be practiced and learned while using cartridge or DE, i.e. Double Edge razor and blade. "Safety razor", though to be technically correct, a single edge razor could also be a safety razor, or a razor that does not use disposable blades. It is a safety razor because the edge is guarded, not because King C. Gillette proclaimed it so back in 1904 after there were already various safety razor shave systems on the market.

Anyway, good face prep will improve your shave no matter what shaving tool you use. Good lather, made from proper shave soap or cream with a badger brush above "Black" grade, and not goop squirted out of a can, is the foundation of a good shave. Slick, slippery lather, with a hint of cushion, and not a santa beard of fluffy foam that actually contains very little water or other lubrication. Mapping the face and shaving WTG, With The Grain, for one or better yet two, complete passes over the entire face, with lather renewed as needed. Your first full complete straight shave should be two WTG passes. That should give you a SAS, or Socially Acceptable Shave. You aren't looking for BBS, or Baby Butt Smooth. Oh, and you probably noticed we use a lot of acronyms. After you master the two pass shave, you can start trying to add a third pass, XTG or ATG, i.e. Across or Against the grain. You need to study your face carefully and make note of which way your whiskers grow at every point. Then there is stretching. Tight skin reduces cuts and irritation. Stretching "upstream" allows more whisker to protrude above the skin. Light pressure. Let the razor do the work. Let it sort of lean against the skin. A nice shallow shave angle helps, too. The sharper the razor, the lower the angle. The spine of my razor nearly drags the skin. A good general angle is where the gap between the razor's spine and your face is about the same distance as the thickness of the razor's spine. A dull razor will require a little bigger gap to shave. More than one and a half thicknesses probably means your razor is simply too dull.

Just like honing is done with the spine always on the stone before touching the edge and after lifting the edge, stropping is done the same way. A good rule of thumb is at the end of the stroke, lift the EDGE off the strop and leave the spine on the strop, flip the edge over, and walah, you have switched directions for the return stroke. Keep the strop tight enough that there is zero sag and only a slight deflection downward from the weight of the razor, but not so tight that you are stretching the strop and causing cupping or other deformation over time. A razor that comes to you shave ready may be used the first time without stropping. After that, you will strop before every shave, or feel the pain.

Do not allow your primary strop to be contaminated by any abrasive whatsoever. Let the leather do the work. Stropping is not for making your razor sharp. It does not remove any steel. It straightens and aligns the thin and fragile edge, restoring much of its cutting ability. Abrasive material on your strop will make new scratches in the bevel and new teeth in the edge. Abrasive "stropping" is totally different from actual stropping. Abrasive stropping does remove steel and more properly would be considered a form of honing, to be TTC, or Totally Technically Correct. I just made up a new acronym for you.

Main thing is don't be in a hurry. Take your time. Absorb knowledge. Don't read online shaving forums while your credit card info is handy or you will buy about 5x more stuff than you actually will find a use for. Stay away from fleabay, etc for the first few months, though I admit there are sometimes bargains to be found, as long as you never trust an online seller to sell you a "shave ready" razor. There is shave ready, and there is internet shave ready. You should never trust someone who does not shave his face daily with a straight razor, to hone yours. It will end in tragedy and disappointment.

Keep an eye on the BST forum, where you can sometimes score stuff from forum members who have a reputation at stake.

Welcome aboard. Good luck, and happy shaves.

Welcome, Greyray! Enjoy the ride

Originally Posted by grayray

Sounds like a good plan. Maybe I should. Have to find a place to send it.hope I can find a place locally. If not I’ll have to go online.

I suggest letting only known members of the community hone your razor. There are guys here and on other forums that can do it for a fee. Some few will do it just for fun, if you pay postage, actually. This is not a big community. Everybody sort of knows everybody at least by reputation and by screen time. Internet self proclaimed honemeisters who are not known or respected on the forums should NOT be used.

Thanks for your advice. You sound very experienced. Yes that that’s a good suggestion. Start from the beginning. Send the razor to someone who has honing experience and learn to shave with it first.

Originally Posted by grayray

Sounds like a good plan. Maybe I should. Have to find a place to send it.hope I can find a place locally. If not I’ll have to go online.

Maggard Razors is in Adrian Mi. He's also a member here, (Undream) he'll fix you up (and runs a great brick and mortar store with all the supplies you'll ever need!

Welcome!!
You need to toss that Boker into the wind chime pile, else it may hurt you. Decent blades can be quite reasonable.
The man needs a razor I figure.
JMO

No respones required. A discussion of the razor should tell the truth.