Thread: Hello and thanks, very helpful site Jeff McCoy Middletown, OH

Lots of questions, found answers here.
Bought first razor last week, need to have sharpened. Not happy with dragging and leaving lots of stubble. My face is not very sensitive, but ended up with red face and razor burn.
How smooth should the razor move across your face, easy as a DE?

G'day Jeff, there's a good chance that though your razor is sharper than anything else you own, it still isn't what we here would term as "Shave Ready". Razor sharp might not quite cut it (pun intended). Where did you acquire your razor from for a start?
There is also a learning curve involved in using a cut-throat razor properly, getting the right angles, lathering and stropping amongst other things all play a part in getting a good shave. We're all happy to help you, but we will need more information or questions from you first.


Mick

Bought at Art of Shaving store 140.00 Thiers-Issard
Shaved with it straight out of the box.
Used pre shave oil and lathered with brush and shave cream bought at same store, hot shower first.
I can take a single edge razor, the kind used in a box cutter and shave same areas with smooth results and no drag.
I know I need time shaving with straight razor to get use to my face and develope my skill, but razor drags and stops on all areas of my face. I tried laying razor flat then progressively increased angle, still drags and leaves stubble.
Would a new razor be that bad or do you think I'm just that bad at trying to shave.
Can shave hair on my arm very smooth.
Thanks

Sound like it needs to be honed up. Check in our Classifieds under Member Services for someone thats in your area.

Colin

Jeff, I'm not sure whether or not Art of Shaving has the razors they sell honed prior to shipping them to customers or not. A member from the US might know more, we don't have those stores in Australia. If they don't Pro hone their razors prior to shipping then that is the first thing I'm going to suggest you have done. A member in your area may be able to help you with this, and hopefully someone will come along soon that is able to make the offer, otherwise there are honing services offered in the classifieds on this site.
Once your edge is established, then you will know if it was the razor or your technique. I had similar issues when I first started. Razor not honed and bad technique. Once I had the razor honed up (I ended up learning to do that for myself, but had my technique checked by a local member just to be sure I was doing it right) I was able to start getting acceptable shaves with only the odd mishap on my part.
The rule of thumb for figuring out the correct angle is to use the thickness of the spine as your guide and gauge about 1.5 to 2 spine thickness' from your face. From there you just need to make small adjustments to find what is right for you.
Have you got a strop? You hopefully have, because you should be stropping before every shave, and preferably doing a few laps after the shave once you have dried the razor, so as to completely dry the edge.


Mick

Welcome to SRP!
Mickr is corect aos sells factory honed edges and while they are very sharp rarely are they shave ready. TI seems to do a better job getting them almost there than the other current makers, boker and dovo.
many of our vendors who have honing services also can set you upwit ha strop if you do not have one.
since you are in ohio, you might want to look at straight razor designs as a source (Lynn there is the founder of SRP)

enjoy,
jim

Thanks for the welcome, I don't have a strop. Suggestions on one would be great. I would like one that works great, don't care right now how it looks. Didn't realize stroping was that necessary. How long before it really needs honed again, medium beard coarseness. Will try to be very careful and keep blade flat when stroping.

If you try to hone yourself please accept the potential for failure without getting frustrated by it. You'll need 4k and 8k for the average "factory-shave ready" blade.

Unless you purchase a blade from a company with a Master honemeister such as SRD, then even an edge sharpened will often need further honing. Honing a straight is a big challenge.

But read up on the forum and give it a shot. I suggest using tape on the spine. Lots of guys have success.

Have to start somewhere. Can't shave with it now. Was thinking of getting a feather straight just to see what a sharp razor shaves like.

I hear where you're coming from mate. I was at the same spot you are right now soon after I started out. Maybe my head space was worse though,as I was willing to destroy the razor in the process of honing it (No SRP forum in those days. I was alone in the world! ). Apart from buying a hone that was incorrectly marked, and that made out like the 3k side wa the 8k side and vice versa, I didn't do too bad. I did better once it was pointed out to me that the hone was incorrectly marked. Now I'm no expert, but here goes:

Just follow the basics; use no pressure except what you need to keep the razor flat on the hone, spine and edge in contact equally. I don't use tape, but that's my own preference. Make sure your hones are perfectly lapped first before you use them. A 4/8 combo (I have a 3/8 combo, it makes very little difference), and a 12k or similar for finishing. Finishing on 8k is fine, but a smoother shave is had from the higher grades obviously, followed by a good stropping on linen then leather.
Remember, the marker pen is your friend. Put a bit of permanant marker onling the flat of the razor along the edge (be gentle doing it), do a few passs on the hone and see where your at with pen marks. You'll see where the blade is contacting and where it isn't and this will give you something to work with on deciding which stroke will work best for that side of the razor. Usually a combination of strokes are better.

Honing isn't hard to do, what's hard about honing is doing it well. Then you find you've acquired another razor, that has different idiosycrosies to the edge, and you start the honing learning curve all over again.


Mick