Thread: Help! Pulling with Lynn-Honed Razor

I had a terrible first straight razor shave, severe pulling with the razor. I kindly ask for advice on what I did wrong.

What happened:

I experienced severe pulling while shaving my chin and the portion of my neck just below the chin. I really could not get the razor through my beard WTG or ATG because it kept coming to a full stop every centimeter or so. Eventually, I was able to remove most of the beard with several passes, mostly XTG. Pulling was also bad above upper lip and on the jaw line, but not as bad as chin. Cleaned these areas with several ATG passes also. Cheeks seemed to cut okay WTG and ATG. I tried a final pass ATG, but there was so much pulling that I gave up. Overall, shave was not very close, and I had to clean my face up in all areas with my electric razor. I did not get any nicks or cuts.

Beard:

Hot shower. Two hot towels afterwards. Applied thick lather of Proraso with Vulvix badger brush. About four days growth, which for me is hard, patchy stubble about 1/8" long.

Razor:

Brand-new, never used TI Super Gnome, 6/8, one half-hollow ground, razor from Classic Shaving. Razor was sharpened by CS's service (Lynn Abrams) before it was shipped to me. I stropped the razor, about 20 passes, on the Latigo side of a new Tony Miller paddle strop. I may have put a bit too much pressure during the first five or so passes, as this was my first stropping experience. However, I always kept on the spine of the razor flat on the strop to avoid curling the edge.

Technique:

Followed the advice on Lynn Abrams video, "World of Straight Razor Shaving," purchased from CS. Blade angle was between twenty and thirty degrees. Just enough pressure to keep the blade on my skin. I periodically rinse the blade under hot water, and I dried the blade by wiping it on a hand towel.

My thoughts:

After reading various threads on this problem, I am thinking that I may have dulled my razor during stropping. However, logic suggests to me that one cannot curl an edge on a solid paddle strop, as one can with a flexible hanging strop, even though I may have used slightly too much pressure on my first five passes.

I am also thinking that I may have dulled my edge when I wipe the razor on the hand towel. I noticed in Lynn's video that he does not allow the towel to touch the cutting edge of the razor when he wipes the blade dry periodically during his shave. My cutting edge did touch the towel. However, I was gentle, and my wiping motion was parallel to the blade, rather than perpendicular to the blade, as in stropping.

Help!

First of all congratulations on your first real shave!!

When you say 20 passes on the strop, do you mean 20 times up and down the strop, or 10 up and 10 down? In either case its not enough, and if its the latter that really is not enough. 30 passes minimum is what the experts here suggest.

Bare in mind this was your first shave. Noone gets BBS with their first shave - noone on this site will admit to getting it 100% right first time. You will discover the right angles over time.

It seems, due to the fact that you didnt mention them, that the cheeks went well? Thats a success in my books for a first shave. You do not mention any major blood loss, and the pulling you mention is restricted to the chin area - a tough area for everyone...

I would chalk this up as your first shave, and in a couple of months you will look back at it and laugh. You have done all the right things - Lynn razor, DVD, the prep was good and the products you are using are popular choices - so things will get better.

Keep practising - thats half the fun of it for me so far

Si

Congrats on the first shave. It takes practice to get it right. I strop at least 25 to 40 myself. The first time is was the hardest for me and it gets easier over time.

It's worth keeping in mind paddle strops aren't foolproof as you can still roll the edge, just not for the same reason a less-than-taught hanging strop. You can still have the heel or toe come up and ride the corner of the paddle too much, or bend the edge a bit with too much pressure(it just can't curl around as much as id you had the leather bend around it as well).

Originally Posted by schifano

fter reading various threads on this problem, I am thinking that I may have dulled my razor during stropping. However, logic suggests to me that one cannot curl an edge on a solid paddle strop, as one can with a flexible hanging strop, even though I may have used slightly too much pressure on my first five passes.

I've dulled two edges on my 4-sided paddle strop...... it's definitely possible. Both were easily recoverable on the pasted side but it isn't difficult to screw up an edge enough to make for a miserable shave as it would seem.

Ant

It will take more passes to properly strop an edge on a paddle strop than it would to do so on a hanging strop because the former has significantly less leather surface area than the latter. In general, when people say to do at least 20 passes on the leather, they are talking about using a hanging strop not a paddle. I would guess that you would need to do at least 40 passes with good technique to properly strop the edge on a paddle; however, I have never used one for this purpose.