Thread: Razors and my beard

Hi again I think I need some advice here I have been shaving with shavettes and straight razors for over a year now. At first I had no problems with angles etc with my feather/Parker Shavete razors I thought I had the angle right cause I was getting a good shave with them. Well I decided to go a step up and go for the proper Straight razor I Looked on all the sites and in the went to "Invisible Edge" I got a Nice Dovo Razor Gave me a great shave I stropped it after shaving and the next time I used it Still a great shave so I knew I was doing the Stropping Ok So now I thought shaving angle good Stropping Good. so I thought lets start collecting a few razors so i brought 2 on e bay one was a " Taylors 1000 & a " Hamburg Ring" Extra Hollow Ground.Once I got them I sent them of to "Invisible Edge to be honed & sharpened and the blade cleaned when I got them back I was very happy with the work so I stropped both of them on the leather to get ready to shave checked the blade with my finger and to me they where very sharp. So I lathered up on my 4 day old beard used one of the razors starting from my side burns going down my cheekbone to say I was disappointing is a understatement it never hardly took any of my faced hair off I had to go over the part 3 times with the grain atg etc it had got rid of the hair but did not feel baby smooth it was also the same with the other razor as well. I tried shaving with warm water cold water I tried both razors on my arm/chest hair cut that no problem So what am i doing wrong I know when using my dovo razor i can feel the sharpness of the blade against my face but with the other two I do not. Is it the blade the shape of the blade or is it the angle I am shaving with these two razors or what I can seem to a good shave with my Dovo Special Fine so why not the other two Please Help get this sorted I must be doing something wrong but what????

well it might have to do with the grind. i do believe hamburg ring razors are sometimes really hollow and might lack rigidness to shave coarse beards. now there are razors that are half hollows that sometimes are marked for coarse beards and the have less give for those siffer facial hairs. a wedge might be the way to go for a heavy beard.

So do different grinds give different shaves then so what are extra hollow (which the Hamburg is) Half hollows full hollows and all the other hollows mean to having a shave with the razor arnt they ment to shave no matter the blade is I am still wet behind the ears on this razor lark and what about the Taylor 1000 and does not give a good shave either? Thanks for the help you have given me so far. Eric

Usually full hollows are easier to sharpen, could and do usually get sharper but the edges trend to have some give which is not good for heavier thicker beard. If you are shaving thicker beard with a full hollow you need to adjust you angle a bit and shorten your stroke. Other aspects that affect rigidity is the geometry features like a heeless razor, French points and spike points can affect your shaving experience.

Half hollows usually have less material being removed, that gives them a sturdier edge and more weight. They get as sharp as full hollows but have a sturdier edge, but I feel that a full hollow can give a closer shave.

Wedge razor are the hardest to hone and sharpen and can be a bit tricky. They tend to glide over coarse hair silently. While full hollows give a scraping noise (feed back), wedges just plow hair indiscriminately.

All three can give great shaves with good practice, but generally I would choose this pecking order: wedges for heavy beard of over 7 days give a comfortable shave; half hollows for beard of 2-3 days; and if you shave every day out every other day a full hollow will give you the closest shave

The grind of the razor will have very little impact on the final outcome. You can play with the angles a bit, slightly increased with each stroke to see if it "bites", that will tell you if it's an angle issue. Since you have 1+ year experience you probably already know this and I'm going to rule out technique issues, so I'm thinking it's a sharpness issue. Sounds like they aren't shave ready. Keep in mind that a razor that cuts arm/body hair effortlessly doesn't necessarily translate to a shave ready blade.

i kind of disagree with that statement ryan. yes you can get the same results from any quality razor, but you have to adjust a bit. i have always thought that variety is there for a reason other than looks. you could be right about the razors not being shave ready. ecd did you strop before using? did the invisible edge suggested not to strop? some places will strop and tell the user not to strop i would suggest following their advice.

ECD what are the sizes of your razors ie: 4/8, 5/8, 6/8

The Taylors 1000 is 6/8 and so is the Handburg Ring. yes i did strop before using But I faintly remember Steve @ Invisible edge telling me I had no need to strop before use but i think i did strop anyway so does this mean I have to send the razor to be Honed & sharpened again then because I forgot what Invisible edge had said to me about not stropping before use