Thread: Horrible shave.

4th shave down! I paid close attention to the angle and the shave quality seemed to improve a bunch. It's not even close to the smoothness of my DE shaves, but it'll get there with time and practice. Thanks for the tips for a newb like me. I'm sure that saying the same thing to newbies gets rather old, so I appreciate the help!

Brian, find a local mentor, to cut your learning curve dramatically, and have the razor re-honed, you no longer have a shave ready razor…

A mentor will teach you to strop the razor to improve the edge, just one errant stroke can ruin an edge, and hopefully it just needs a light touch up and proper stropping.

Stropping is a catch 22, you have to strop to shave, but first you have to learn to strop.

Unfortunately what you are experiencing… is normal.

We all needs the dialogue to get where we are. No prob

Originally Posted by briancorneal

4th shave down! I paid close attention to the angle and the shave quality seemed to improve a bunch. It's not even close to the smoothness of my DE shaves, but it'll get there with time and practice. Thanks for the tips for a newb like me. I'm sure that saying the same thing to newbies gets rather old, so I appreciate the help!

Glad to hear this shave went better!
I would like to add another thing to think about: did you just do a single pass with the grain shave? If you are just starting out this is the easiest cut. I tried to go with and against the grain too soon and the result was very unpleasant...

Originally Posted by Ernie1980

Just another thought: did you just do a single pass with the grain shave? If you are just starting out this is the easiest cut. I tried to go with and against the grain too soon and the result was very unpleasant.

Definitely with the grain! I'd chop my head off if I went against the grain.

Or almost slit your own throat like I did! My wife almost banned me from straight razor shaving after that!!

I respectfully disagree with what's been said here about:

1. TPT damaging the edge (You mean to tell me that skin feeling the edge of a blade, not cutting it, will damage the edge? That's some fragile ass edge lol. Never happened to me, so I don't buy it for a second)

2. Oiled razor and HHT (Yes, but I must question, how much oil was on there? You must assume that oil was off the very edge, either due to wiping, stropping, plain physics, whatever. It's not like the blade was dipped in oil and then: "Here you go, now do the HHT my man!"),

3. ONE (or two, or three) bad strokes on the strop ruining the edge - Seriously, this myth has plagued this place since I know of it - many bad strokes, maybe, but a few misses should not impact it so greatly, that a user should feel they need to open a new thread to talk about their horrible shave and

4. Pretty much everything else that's implying a user error, glorifying the obviously bad honing job. The OP said the razor does not pull arm hair.. or let's say, maybe it doesn't pull it well. That's a less than perfect honing job right there. I don't get why it's a problem to say, or assume this...? A razor off of an 8k hone, stropped, might pull arm hair (badly) and it might shave, uncomfortably. But is that a shave ready razor, service paid for at that? I believe it isn't. Especially at the honing rates you guys pay in the US/UK/the "western world" in general. Off topic, I once inquired about a honing rate for a razor with a slightly imprefect heel and was offered the service at the rate of 30 GBP. Well for 30 GBP I then went, bought 2 hones and did it myself.

Back on topic, I guess since I've not held the razor in my hands, this opinion is as good as any other here. Apologies if this sounds like a rant, it is not meant to be. It's just a perspective.

Originally Posted by Srdjan

I respectfully disagree with what's been said here about:

1. TPT damaging the edge (You mean to tell me that skin feeling the edge of a blade, not cutting it, will damage the edge? That's some fragile ass edge lol. Never happened to me, so I don't buy it for a second)

2. Oiled razor and HHT (Yes, but I must question, how much oil was on there? You must assume that oil was off the very edge, either due to wiping, stropping, plain physics, whatever. It's not like the blade was dipped in oil and then: "Here you go, now do the HHT my man!"),

3. ONE (or two, or three) bad strokes on the strop ruining the edge - Seriously, this myth has plagued this place since I know of it - many bad strokes, maybe, but a few misses should not impact it so greatly, that a user should feel they need to open a new thread to talk about their horrible shave and

4. Pretty much everything else that's implying a user error, glorifying the obviously bad honing job. The OP said the razor does not pull arm hair.. or let's say, maybe it doesn't pull it well. That's a less than perfect honing job right there. I don't get why it's a problem to say, or assume this...? A razor off of an 8k hone, stropped, might pull arm hair (badly) and it might shave, uncomfortably. But is that a shave ready razor, service paid for at that? I believe it isn't. Especially at the honing rates you guys pay in the US/UK/the "western world" in general. Off topic, I once inquired about a honing rate for a razor with a slightly imprefect heel and was offered the service at the rate of 30 GBP. Well for 30 GBP I then went, bought 2 hones and did it myself.

Back on topic, I guess since I've not held the razor in my hands, this opinion is as good as any other here. Apologies if this sounds like a rant, it is not meant to be. It's just a perspective.

1,2,3 are ment to assist you in judging if your ready to go forward

briancorneal, I've just read through your thread. I want to stress strongly that your add to your bio where you are at to hopefully jostle local senior members or mentors to contact you for a couple of face-to-face sessions. All the reading and video watching can do just so much. A couple of one-on-one sessions adds the level of show, try, correct instantly to your learning curve. I've mentored via emails and I've mentored face-to-face. Any chance I get to help someone in person is worth the time and, possibly, the distance, to get together to achieve a series of positive results.

A good mentor, or senior member, will help to the best of their ability and know who to contact to solve those areas they can't handle. If you are in Oregon then by all means shoot me a PM and lets see if we can connect. If not, knowing where you are will help us point you towards someone in your area that can assist.

No apology here and I'm not going to mince words. You are flat out wrong on number 3. It is not a myth--ONE bad stroke on the strop will roll an edge.