Thread: Missed (a perfect shave) by that much!

A return to the DD Dwarf without uber-prep madness. Some Proraso preshave and Williams soap on wetted skin.

Better stretching, sharper edge and busting big-city guillotine moves down the neck and throat - talk about a leap of faith... not perfect but closer than ever. Almost perfect. You get good results; the excitement makes your hands shake; and then the results aren't so good anymore.

I would say getting those neck patches figured out is more dangerous than making great espresso, but easier.

Last night I spent about 90-minutes trying to take a letter-opener quality razor I bought up to shave-ready. Three stones, some stropping and a lot of patience was finally rewarded with a blade that slipped through hanging hair like a jedi light sabre. Perhaps familiarity (with razors) breeds contempt; perhaps my current lineup needs some touching up after a certain amount of newguy strop-abuse?

All I know is, this newly beveled and honed razor guillotines through neck patches like it's runnning on rails. Formerly unimproved patches of pavement are gradually beginning to smooth out.



Wester Bros recovered

Have you tried the Horned Owl pass? Eyes wide and rotate the head 180 degrees. Bring the off hand over the axis that would run through center of top of head and windpipe. Stretch, and at the same time go Hoooooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooo.
Use a series of short chopping motions with the blade at a 10 degree angle.
YMMV

Originally Posted by WW243

Have you tried the Horned Owl pass? Eyes wide and rotate the head 180 degrees.... Hoooooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooo.
Use a series of short chopping motions with the blade at a 10 degree angle.
YMMV

And until now I thought my fear of owls and shaving was irrational.

A month ago I thought a perfect shave was going to be one thing away but the perfect shave is a confluence of many elements. A better stropping routine, a lighter touch, better face mapping, touch up hone done properly, wetter more slippery lather, slip-sliding guillotine strokes riding the coat tails of well executed scything... Can't say if shaving is an art, a craft or just a chore that's done worse or better. Yes, my mileage varies.

I don't believe I'll ever return willingly to electric- or multiblade shaving. Not until I get the Horned Owl pass down, anyyhow.

Well, what the hell...

The same way life is too short to shave with Barbasol and a meat grinder, life is also too short to worry about perfect shaves except, maybe, once every week or two (like, on a rainy Sunday afternoon). I think this thread is retired. I'm sure more months and years of practice will ease me closer to the regular perfect shave but, right now, I'm happy to get the job well done in less than 10- or 15 minutes, bloodless. It's working!

Odd. Maybe it's the new Fitjar soap or working in lather with fingers or the Dubl Duck 4/8 Special #1 or better stropping technique or more cold water and no hot towel or studying the face map or a willingness to shave where I cannot see with my eyes... or a lighter touch or a better stroke or a refined guillotine swipe.

4 1/2 months down the road and with no special effort I got my entire neck, throat and jawline to BBS in two directions and nearly so ATG. Cheeks and chin are yesterdays news. It feels like being able to lead with the heel and draw a guillotine stroke across jaw- and throat contours makes the difference. I don't know - I can't explain it. For no reason other than practice my technique just elevated a level or two in the past month. It's nice when that happens.

I think re-reading that old 1900-something "How to shave" book got my mind doing overtime while I slept.

Excellent. Glad to hear it's going well, perhaps you should, in the name of science wind back the variables until you find out why. Or maybe not

In the name of Science, I wonder if there has been something of a blind taste test done with razors/hones, combinations? I would think the answer would be yes even though there are obstacles to shaving blind with a straight razor. But the possibilities of demythologizing are vast...but actually now that I am thinking of it, I like the myths.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Excellent. Glad to hear it's going well, perhaps you should, in the name of science wind back the variables until you find out why. Or maybe not

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Excellent. Glad to hear it's going well, perhaps you should, in the name of science wind back the variables until you find out why. Or maybe not

All I do at work is test and retest in a world of imperfect and insufficient data. At home I am tickled to use intuition or just fly by the seat of my pants.

Jimbo nailed down my nemesis in this discussion. Whisker grain on my neck is east & west, growing outward from the windpipe. Up or down strokes are easy and do equally well but ATG on my neck is out of the question. It appears the best results on this curved, hard to reach landscape is (for me) all about:

1. a series of simultaneous heel-leading, inward, downward, diagonal guillotining strokes finishing with a touch of scythe near the collar; and
2. inward, upward, diagonal guillotining strokes finishing with a touch of scythe along the jawline and under the chin; while
3. minding the point doesn't bite me somewhere out there.

It's a lighthanded balancing act. Developing this coordinated movement was a gradual result of simpler skills building and everything else not working; I didn't decide, "OK. Gotta work on this move." Steering a razor, especially one with a point, in three dimensions (or four, if you include watching the time) has taken months of practice. I don't think someone could have shown or explained this to me a month ago with any benefit.

Anyhow, my shave skills suddenly took a jump-step much to my surprise. It is, indeed, the journey, not the destination. What a pleasant thing a shave can be.

I have found a razor.with a slight smile is useful for shaving my neck area, the curve seems.to get into the depressions etc in my neck. My hair grows across too. From what I have seen loads of folk have this grain pattern. I sort of guillotine vaguely diagonally and that gets the worst of it. I have become fairly relaxed with regards to what I consider acceptable, but I am also improving so the two seem to compensate for each other.