Thread: howdy

This morning was straight shave #3. I’m making the switch from a DE, and no doubt making all the newbie mistakes in my own special way. I’ll be lurking around for bits do wisdom. Thanks in advance.

Well, how is it going so far with shave #3?

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Well, how is it going so far with shave #3?

Shave #3

The good parts:
•No blood today. I’m fumbling about less. It takes a second or three to transition from one quadrant to another, especially during my changes from strong-weak hand, but overall I’ve improved. My stroke is getting more confident. I still inspect the spent lather, and it’s continually loaded with dead whiskers. I felt a bit bold after two passes (wtg-xtg). So I tried for another pass, xtg but opposite. I was still cutting stuff. Nothing I’d take public, but judging by the accumulated trimmings in the sink, I must be getting better.

The other parts:
•After today’s effort, my skin is left feeling a bit over-shaved. I’m not pink or anything, but I can feel it. If this were an adjustable DE, I’d dial it back one click. Maybe the third pass wasn’t a good idea, but I’m sticking to it. More time with the blade in hand is a good thing. I have some Nivea stashed at work. I can always sneak a dose if my skin continues to complain. Tomorrow is to be decided.
•During the third pass, the blade seemed to catch more. I suspect it’s poor edge maintenance on my part. When I finished up, I stropped and then tested the edge on my forearm. Results were disappointing. It’ll still sweep hair, but it wasn’t as good as before. I returned to the strop. It’s an older 4-sided paddle I snatched from a California junk shop. Stone, red leather, black leather, and naked leather. (The black stuff flaked off and disintegrated the first time I tried using it, some months back. I now ignore that side.) I gave it ~30 passes on the red, and then ~50 on the leather. Back to the arm…. Some improvement. I shelved it all and packed up for work. I’ll likely return to it this evening, and simply strop for a while. The practice and the blade conditioning couldn’t hurt, right?



Today’s lesson: Gotta learn to stop better, and more. Edge maintenance is important, and not to be neglected. It’s unfortunate that I’m learning two things at once (shaving and stropping), but I’ll work it out.

Agreed lay off the pasted strops at this point they are only needed every so often and without good technique you can easily roll the edge.

You seem to be doing very well and I too found that a month of shaves is when it started to fall into place properly. For me I did 2 straight passes then a DE ATG clean up pass, for a couple of months then progressed to a full straight shave. I found that was a comfortable way to do it.