Thread: Did I ruin my edge with my first stropping

Hey everyone,
So I picked up my first straight razor last week from classic edge. Spent 500 on my initial set up.

I have shaved twice now, and both have been good experiences. No ingrown, no reddness, and no nicks. I had been growing a beard for the two years and haven't shaved my face in that time.

I stropped the blade for the first time this morning, and shaved my forearn to test. About 15 m later I developed some redness and burning on my skin.

Do you think I messed up the edge?

How does it shave your face? But yes you could have , stropping is generally one of the big mistakes made by new guys. And it's one of the most important maintenance steps in keeping the blade right , as for the rash on your arm , did you use lather , or why are you shaving your arm? The face will tell or take it back to where you bought it and have them look at it or find a mentor in your area. Tc

I didn't use any lather on my arm, just shaved to see if this would happen before shaving my face and having this rash on my face. I will lather up and try another small spot.

As tcrideshd mentions, good stropping technique take a lot of practice, watch a few video's, it easy to roll the edge on your blade if you make a mistake. Spine should never leave the strop, and speed kills. A good idea is to practice with an everyday kitchen/meal knife, slowly and practice flipping the knife with the spine never leaving the strop.

As far as testing the blade on some arm hair...usually no more than an inch patch of hair will do, and do it dry, it's to test the blades edge more during the honing process, your razor is shave ready by Phil so you shouldn't need to do this.

It's very possible that you've rolled the edge, but in my experience, I don't believe shaving your arm is a reliable gauge of how sharp your razor is. If it worked good on your face with lather & prep, it should be fine.

Yea, I'd not shave any arm hair unless I was checking to see if I had the bevel properly set before honing higher up the progression. It is possible you rolled an edge stropping for the first time. Only real test is to lather up and do a stroke or two shaving. You should know from that if the blade feels wrong.

Bob

Thinking I knew what I was doing I ruined several razors on their first stroppings.

Heavy handedness is my enemy.

Shaving your face is the only way to tell. Stay consistent with your pre-shave prep to set your baseline. Go for that trouble some area for the final test.

Shave the lather not your skin.

Welcome to SRP!
+1 On all the above.
The only thing I'll add is that a too steep an angle will pull the hairs not slice them making you look like a plucked chicken. Repeated shaving over the same spot will also do this.
Swat up in the SRP library, it contains everything you need to know about everything shave related.

I think shaving any area without some cream for protection would cause such irritation. So may be as simple as that!

Ya I applied some cream and did a test and no rash. Thanks for the help everyone!