Thread: Poor shave

Your straight razor probably needs a proper sharpening, that's why your Shavette works, it's always sharp.

Originally Posted by puketui41

If you're skillful enough to shave with a shavette and not slice yourself up then my guess is its the razor, not you. As has been suggested, find a mentor with hones. Good luck.

Yes, I'd think so too.

If I am having trouble with the chin area I take it as a sign that the edge is just going or has just gone off being shave ready. It may shave the other parts of my face OK but when it hits the chin area which has the toughest whiskers on the face it has met it's match. A simple refresh on a finish hone may bring it back and if not then further honing might be needed.

Bob

First, a shavette doesn't need stropping. I'd say there are many more, not less, of us who have taken perfect shave-ready straights and quickly stropped them into barely-razors. Less than good stropping will mess up an edge in a heartbeat.

If you started with a shave-ready razor and it wouldn't shave ANYWHERE comfortably that suggests to me either. 1) it wasn't really shave-ready to begin with; or 2) you stropped it before use and killed the edge.

I've only shaved with two Dovos so I'm no expert. Here's all I know about Dovos: one was a few years old and shaved like silk; the other was a neighbor's and new out of the box, called "shave-ready" by a major razor retailer and it wouldn't shave a cooked banana. After setting a new bevel, honing and stropping it too was smooth as silk.

My chin and under the lower lip are like steel wires but, like Utopian said, developing a good technique helps a lot and I'll add to that nothing else works like an arm-hair popping, hanging hair slicing, shave tested blade from a qualified honer. This has been a problem for you since Fevbruaary; you might ought to find a SRP mentor up your way. Good luck getting smooth.

Certainly to eliminate doubt, it would be best to start with a newly honed razor. You did not mention how you got this razor. Do you know if it was honed properly before you received it?

If you do get the straight razor sorted out, then you might want to set the shavette aside for a while. The angles used are different, with the straight needing a lower angle. If you skip the shavette for a while you may find that your straight shaves will imorove over the course of a few weeks. Of course this will require a properly honed and stropped razor.

My guess is your razor is not quite shave ready. It is good for the rest of the face, but on the chin it can't cut well.

OP

I think the general agreement here is that your razor may not be 100% shave ready now.

It could have come to that condition by not being shave ready from the start or got dull with normal use and/or from poor stopping.

Hopefully somebody from Alberta can give you some mentoring or at least hone it for you.

Bob

Yep, sounds like you have a honing issue.

Again, thanks for all the advice. I bought the razor from a good store and had it looked at by Raol from this forum. He honed it for me and the shave wasn't that bad but now I hate even looking at the thing. My stropping technique must be awful to destroy the edge so quickly, I feel another 600km round trip to see my guy.

Hello Stuart,
I responded to your PM with regard to your concern then found this thread.
I did shave test the razor before returning it to you unlike the first time that you had the same problem.
As I mentioned in the PM it can be a number of things or a combination of factors leading to a disappointing straight razor shave.
My guess is that the main culprit is your stopping technique which only takes one or two bad passes to dull the blade.
We just need to touch up the blade and try again.
Ralph

Originally Posted by Raol

Hello Stuart,
I responded to your PM with regard to your concern then found this thread.
I did shave test the razor before returning it to you unlike the first time that you had the same problem.
As I mentioned in the PM it can be a number of things or a combination of factors leading to a disappointing straight razor shave.
My guess is that the main culprit is your stopping technique which only takes one or two bad passes to dull the blade.
We just need to touch up the blade and try again.
Ralph

Good man, Ralph. No good deed goes unpunished, eh?