Getting a bit better

Like the title says. I have been trying really hard to apply a lot of the various tips you gents have offered me and it seems to be helping. I have not been able to do a clean up pass prior to my last two shaves. As a matter of fact two passes was it. If the blade touched my face again it was instant fire. Now however I can't actually do a clean up pass which makes me very happy. Not getting all the hairs just yet, but then again I'm not worried about it either. I have been experimenting with different stretching and finding what works and what doesn't. I'm feeling much more confident with the blade in my hands. I still do and always will respect the fact that I have an extremely sharp blade in my hands. My left hand is finally starting to cooperate with me more, it doesn't feel as strange to shave with my left now. Now these are baby step improvements. My excitement is just for the fact that there are actual improvements going on. Again my shave have not really been all that bad. Heck cartridge razors gave me way more irritation than my worst shave with a straight so far. I am really in this for the long haul. I just purchased my second straight razor. Thought two would be good incase I dull one (well thats the excuse I'm using). I bought a Boker Edelweiss from The Superior Shave. They were not my first choice of places to order from. SRD was obviously my first choice, West Coast Shaving second, and TSS last. Anyways sorry for the long tangent. Thank you all for your words of advice. I will share my thoughts on the edelweiss once I have received it.

That's all you can expect , little wins at a time , you,ll get ther , after a few months you won't even know what was the problem , just remember it takes a lot of shaves to retrain your hands and build a technique that works for your face , your just starting so just remain patient and take the time like your doing it now to learn every day, and two razors are a good idea, because you need one to shave with when your other razor is out being honed , Good luck. Tc

Thanks brother. I have just thought of a question. When should I get some Cromium Oxide paste? Or should I get a finishing stone. I am not considering honing yet. But I would like to eventually. The reason I asked that question is I would like to prolong my edge for as long as I can between needing to be honed.

You can get it as soon as you want , that is a maintenance item some use ,I haven't used it yet myself , stropping has kept my edges in good shape and when I needed a refresh I just sent them out , but my guy has begun teaching me to maintain with a finish hone , I still don't hone but now I do refresh my razors every 10-12 shave so the edge never gets to the pulling stage, but I understand CRoX will do this too , a few laps every now and then ,, now Shane sent me a paper strop with CBN on it that I have used in between refresh and it seems to really keep the edge keen. Tc

Thanks for the input brother. I really do want to get a stone eventually for refreshing but I think I will start with CRoX or maybe look into CBN.

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Originally Posted by RonPage

Thanks brother. I have just thought of a question. When should I get some Cromium Oxide paste? Or should I get a finishing stone. I am not considering honing yet. But I would like to eventually. The reason I asked that question is I would like to prolong my edge for as long as I can between needing to be honed.

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I use the CrOX every 40 or so shaves. As for honing, I'd rather just mail them off for now. Better to focus on learning to shave/strop and let the honing be done by those with more skill. I don't want to trouble shoot too many things at once.

Oh exactly. I don't plan to learn to hone for a long time. I more or less just want to keep my blade going a bit longer. No issues now with the blade just FYI. Actually refreshing will be a necessity for me by next summer. I will be moving out of country to be with my wife and son in Korea. I was prior military and met her when I was there.

Pastes are considerably cheaper than stones, and they don't require lapping etc. I have just got a bunch of different pastes/ powders from another member today. I have never used any before so it will be interesting to see how they perform.

I finally can make one pass around the face without a major bloodbath..no time to do the second or third. That said, I rather like thesuperiorshave. Bought a barbers hone (paid too much I suspect) but geese that brightens the blade.. very nice hone, very pleased (I used to sharpen knives, some adjustments needed but concept similar.)

I have some Chromium as well as the Thiers Issard strop paste, that I put on my Poor-guy leather strop. The CrOX is on balsa.

So far, I have used the TI strop once (just for my new TI razor that needed a bit of work out of the box), and the CrOX just once on the TI as a finisher, and once on my other Whipped Dog cheapo starter razor to refresh.

Both have worked extremely well for me, but I definitely took my time and watched a LOT of videos prior to using either. I think in retrospect I probably got lucky that I didn't ruin anything or need to send one out after I was done...lol.

Had I focused on my stropping first, I am fairly certain I would not have needed to use the CrOX on the cheapo blade....but I have that well enough dialed in at this point.

My only advise aside from a long-winded tangent into refreshing is that if you want to get all of the hairs, I really needed to focus on skin stretching and lathering smaller areas at a time so I keep the soap frothy and wet enough. Those two factors were huge for me. If you use a pre-shave oil, I might also suggest you try without it and see how it suits you. For me, it seems to make my skin "sticky" to the blade. Without it my shaves have improved markedly.

Lastly...just when you think you have dialed back the pressure enough...cut it in half again (as if the blade was just floating down your face)...it will yield great results!

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Originally Posted by Pringr

I finally can make one pass around the face without a major bloodbath..no time to do the second or third. That said, I rather like thesuperiorshave. Bought a barbers hone (paid too much I suspect) but geese that brightens the blade.. very nice hone, very pleased (I used to sharpen knives, some adjustments needed but concept similar.)

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Hello to another Denverite!

Thanks Denver, any cool places locally to get gear? Seems like everything is on the net..

Denver Shaver Center on South Broadway is out there. I would say if you needed a strop, or some CrOX, or some other piece of hardware for maintenance...it would be a good place to go in an emergency. I have no faith as of yet in their honing ability and personally won't subject any of my blades at the moment as a test subject...they just don't seem reputable to me personally. I went in at one point and wasn't impressed. Perhaps I am wrong though to be fair.

Anyways they do have the essentials though and if you have an itch to scratch I would say check it out and let me know what you think!