Hey Guys!

I am David Work, Mid Hudson Valley, New York

Around 25 years ago, I bought an old straight razor, a Handmade German King Cutter by John Prince, at a second hand store. With my meager 22 year old knowledge of sharpening, I honed it up to probably 400 grit, and stropped the crap out of it on a vintage strop I bought at the same store. Unbelievably, I shaved with that thing for several years without cutting my face off (Always a bit rough) and eventually put it away in a box and forgot about it....

Around a month ago, pissed off about the absurd cost of Gillette Fusion cartridges, I pulled it out again. It was a little rusty, and looking at it under the 10x loupe, the edge was a mess, showing the horrid edge I had been working with in years past.

When I start a new project, I can get a little bit obsessive compulsive about it. I decided to acquire several (4-5) vintage blades to work with, a decent beginner strop, and although as an edge-fetished chef I have a Norton oil tri-stone and Norton 1000/4000 combi waterstone, I decided to get some finer stones to work with: a King Ice Bear 6000, an 8000 grit Japanese nagura slurry stone, and a 12000 grit Guangxi Chinese natural river stone. I also found a dremel setup at a yard sale for 5$ to help recover non-edge surfaces.

Without going into every detail, reviewing some of the honing and stropping advice on this website, I totally rebuilt the edge on the john Prince, and I made minor superficial surface repairs and full re-honing to the remaining razors: a nice wedge - Celebrated by Frederick's, Sheffield, a 3-quarters wedge Henckels 435, and a Henckels Emperor 81 full hollow.

Okay, so my assumption was that since I had a better edge, as well as many many years working with razor sharp knives in the kitchen (I test them by shaving hair from my arm), my re-learning curve should be pretty easy....Wrong!

My first shave a few days ago was less than stellar, with the Frederick's wedge, and there were good reasons for that. My face prep was minimal, I was in a hurry and I had had several glasses of wine beforehand. I shaved a number of bumps off my face, which bled quite a bit. I also went the full monty and shaved the whole face in one shot..... okay, I'm imperfect...bad me.

Anyway, tonight, I decided to try the Henckels Emperor, which has a rounded point and hollow edge, which I figured was a more suitable beginner blade. This time, NO DRINKING, I took a shower first, full hot brush lather. I shaved with the grain, with minimal pressure...By the time I was done, I was bleeding from a dozen minor nicks. Can a razor be too sharp? It was far from comfortable, and took 8-10 minutes of dabbing with a cool washcloth to stop bleeding.
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Now, to be sure, the texture of my face is pretty darn smooth, but I feel like I may be doing something wrong, or that perhaps I have rebuilt my bevels incorrectly. How Straight does the edge have to be? is a slight roundness okay? Hmmm

I am dedicated to making this work and want to do it right!

Any advice will be welcome

Thanks

David