Thread: Hi from Maryland

Hi everybody!

My name is Kelvin Chung, and I finally took the plunge into wet shaving in August with the Sight Unseen deal from Whipped Dog (condolences to the Andreassen family for their emergency).

It's been fun and liberating!

I already e-mailed Scott Hardock earlier this week to rave about his Bald Frog shaving soap, since that was the bigger (and better) soap sample I got with my kit. Aside from one or two small nicks on my first shaves, and the few that crop up whenever I get greedy, I've been mostly cut-free, especially after I started "listening" to my razor to tell what parts of my face needed more passes. And I think most of that can be attributed to the absolutely forgiving cushion that Scott's soap provided me.

Anyway, I guess my first question is:
What should a razor in need of honing feel like on my face? I know what it feels like when it needs stropping, and what it feels like when it needs a session with the balsa board, but both of those cases of dullness have felt different than this harsh sharpness that I'm feeling on my upper lip with the William's soap. And of course, thanks to Larry's masterful honing, I know what it feels like when it's shave ready.

It's kind of a "feel thing" for lack of a better explanation. I know it's time for a few laps on my 12k when using the chrox and stropping still have the blade tugging at my stubble. Few as in about 5-8 laps usually does the trick, or I can go to the 10k diamond TI paste on my pasted paddle strop (depends on which wild hair crawls at that point). A few questions first though, just to see if you actually need to go to a stone at all. 1. could you be allergic to the soap? Even sensitive skin balms and soaps have broken me out. 2. Check your stropping technique, if you are tourquing, or pushing the edge down you can roll it, and the edge will dig in instead of gliding across your skin. 3. there is a difference between sharpness and dullness A. sharper tries to sink into the skin...you stroke and the razor tries to stick and any further movement results in the blade trying to cut you. B. Dullness the blade bounces or skips cutting little to no hair and requires more and more passes which can lead to irritation. 3. are you holding the spine at too steep of an angle, too far from your face b/c your nose is in the way? if so, pull that honker out of harms way and continue on. 4. you should strop before every shave, not before it "feels" like it needs it. You put microscopic dings in the edge with every shave, and without stropping prior you enlarge those more and more until stropping wont fix the problem areas making you have to go back to the balsa more than you should. You shouldn't have to go to pastes or sprays or whatever but at the most twice a month, and that's shaving some thick wiry stubble. Personally I dont go to the paste but maybe once a month or every other month. There are a lot of factors in this and eliminating one at a time will eventually reveal the true culprit to your predicament.

Welcome to SRP and wet shaving. What part of Maryland are you living in? I am in NoVa myself (Alexandria/Tysons Corner for work), and would be happy to get together sometime to help you out, if you need assistance with anything...

Thanks for the pointers! Rest assured, my daily shaving ritual begins with a thorough stropping before the blade ever touches my face, and I've started stropping between passes as well.

I don't think I need to take it to a stone either; stropping has been enough so far, and I've only had it for three months. I was more curious as to what to look for when it eventually does need honing.

To answer your questions:

1. I've never been allergic to anything before, so this would be new for me. Also, it's only the upper lip that feels it, and it's more like I'm feeling the harshness of the blade (even more so than when I essentially shaved without soap my first time )than running into any real shaving issues. I think my second shave with the William's soap was actually smoother than my usual shaves. @.@
2. I really can't give a good answer on my stropping technique without video or eyewitness, of course but I've always been careful to keep the strop straight and the blade lying flat.
3. Neither of those has been happening, so it might definitely be a bad reaction between my skin and the soap.

Originally Posted by LegalBeagle

Welcome to SRP and wet shaving. What part of Maryland are you living in? I am in NoVa myself (Alexandria/Tysons Corner for work), and would be happy to get together sometime to help you out, if you need assistance with anything...

I'm in Annapolis right now.

Welcome to SRP Kelvin

Kelvin, welcome to the forum!