A desperate call for help

Hello chaps,
I've been shaving with a straight razor for three years, so I'm not a newbie. But something has gone terribly wrong somewhere down the line. I got magnificent shaves when I started out. Over recent months, I've devolved into having a five o clock shadow immediately post shave.

I've researched and tried altering:
Strop method
Face prep method
Lather method
Razor angle
Stroke length
Stroke directions
Honing method

I'm only asking to not look like a hobo at work and get back the smooth face my wife loves. What else needs fixing? Are there any experts for hire for a consultation?

Is it all with just one razor? How does the shave feel after? Is it age and thickening of beard? The thickening has been my issue over the last 2 years or so. Requires me to do 3 passes when 1.5 would suffice.

edit: your location in your profile would help too,, if anyone is close to give you a hand.

Well it sounds to me like your edges are off. I would suggest sending a blade or two out to someone else to have them honed and compare. The very foundation of very great edge is a perfect and even apex bevel form tip to heel. A loupe is your best friend.

No razor burn I presume if you are leaving whiskers behind? One, or a few razors in rotation as asked. And if you have more than one, a professional honing is advised for sure to eliminate that very large variable.

If you were getting good shaves and now you are not, your blade must be dull. That's not because of the strop since you have been stropping for 3 years.

It's got to be honing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RezDog

Well it sounds to me like your edges are off. I would suggest sending a blade or two out to someone else to have them honed and compare. The very foundation of very great edge is a perfect and even apex bevel form tip to heel. A loupe is your best friend.

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My thoughts exactly.
You have easy control over most of the other aspects you mentioned in your post and any change would be obvious.

Have your blade(s) given a new edge by someone who is known to be skilled in this field and take it from there.

If the wait should be too long, you could also buy another (new or pre-used) expertly honed razor and see how you get along with that one.
In the worst case, a pre-used one can usually be sold without loosing too much money.


Good luck.



B.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree with all of the above. I find that with one razor in my rotation I have the same trouble as you are describing here. I just haven't got round to doing anything about it yet. It still shaves and causes me no other ill effects. I am thinking of either sending it away or dropping it out of rotation until I can get round to taking it to a stone.

I think that it is most likely razor edge especially as it seems that you haven't changed anything else in your routine. Beard thickening could be an issue, but at my age I think mine is as thick as it's going to be. If it is happening with all of your razors (assuming you have more than one) unless you got them all at the same time it seems unlikely that the edges will have all dulled at the same time too. So it could be your honing. As others have said a professional honing of one as a comparison would be a good idea.

Also welcome to the forum.

Like others posted it sounds like the blades edge is dull now. Besides stropping do you or have you ever just performed a touch up on the hones to get a edge back to that buttery feel? I say about every 12 shaves if you are stropping correctly a slight touch up on a 10k or better hone to be a must to just put that edge back. Now you will get different opinions on this but given your stropping is fine and not a rolled edge and you have never touched up the edge or at least in a reasonable amount of shaves.....I say that may be the culprit.

And to add to my above post I had a PRC that was shaving excellent until recent all of a sudden. No rolled edge or otherwise. I tried a touch up on the Thury and Naniwa and no dice!!!! Still tugged a bit. I took it back to a 1K for a few stroked then 4k to 6K then to the Thury and voila......smooth again. I think sometimes a edge can get dull quickly for varying unknown reasons and you need to take it back even further a few stone grits to brink it back to par. Rare cases but happens sometimes.

Really appreciate all the responses so quickly. Here are some more details to help us, ahem, hone in on the answer.

I have only ever had the one blade. It's been professionally honed twice and personally honed four or five times.

Beard could be thickening. When does that happen? I'm 32.

I do get a little razor burn.

Sounds like honing most likely. Everything I've read says you don't need that very often,though and I just did it a week ago. If it's my method, then I don't know what to say. I followed Lynn Abrams' instructions exactly, using a three stone pyramid. Just confused. And a bit ticked if I spent money on those stones and ruined my blade.

Well honing a full progression does not need to happen unless there is damage to the edge like a nick or otherwise. Touch up honing only when routine stropping has no effect on the pull or tug of the hair during a shave. But what I have found in touch up honing is about every 12-15 shaves. And what I mean by a touch up is about 10-12 light strokes across the finishing stone(s). No more or less usually. But like I stated in the case of my PRC that which this did not remedy it......had to take it back to a 1k to a 4k then 6k then to the finishers. It worked. Can't explain why it needed it all that far back but it did.

So, what does the edge look like with magnification?

Most likely, you have not ruined the blade. But it is not always as easy to hone a razor as a video of a pro would make it look, or we would all be playing like Tiger Woods.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fdawsoniv

Really appreciate all the responses so quickly. Here are some more details to help us, ahem, hone in on the answer.

I have only ever had the one blade. It's been professionally honed twice and personally honed four or five times.

Beard could be thickening. When does that happen? I'm 32.

I do get a little razor burn.

Sounds like honing most likely. Everything I've read says you don't need that very often,though and I just did it a week ago. If it's my method, then I don't know what to say. I followed Lynn Abrams' instructions exactly, using a three stone pyramid. Just confused. And a bit ticked if I spent money on those stones and ruined my blade.

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I think you have answered your own question and as others have already said it is likely your edge is off.

Even if you attempt to follow Lynn's instructions exactly it will take more than 4 or 5 attempts at honing to get consistently good edges. You cannot hone by numbers as each razor takes what it takes to set the bevel properly and at each step in the progression.

All you need is a 10X to 20X loupe and a strong light to assess your edge to see if there is anything wrong. The trick is you have to know what to look for. If all else fails reset the bevel properly and hone up the progression.

Alternately you can have the blade professionally honed and check,when you get it back, what the edge like for a reference in the future. Do not strop your freshly pro honed razor before your first shave to give you a benchmark of what a good edge feel and performs like. That also eliminates your stropping as being a factor in dulling the edge.

Bob

Thanks guys. Time to give my blade a fresh start.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fdawsoniv

Sounds like honing most likely. Everything I've read says you don't need that very often,though and I just did it a week ago. If it's my method, then I don't know what to say. I followed Lynn Abrams' instructions exactly, using a three stone pyramid. Just confused. And a bit ticked if I spent money on those stones and ruined my blade.

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Learning to hone properly takes time and patience. There seems to be a knack to it which I have not completely mastered. I thought I understood all the videos and archived articles I've read about honing but only recently came to realize some of the subtleties of the honing process that are easy to miss when reading those articles.

From what I have gleaned recently, there is a sweet spot of pressure on the hone -- not too much, certainly, but not too little.

Also there are some interesting threads I've seen on this and other forums about how to employ torque on the blade when you hone -- it is again a subtle thing but experienced honers do this intuitively I think.

You never listed which hones are used in your three hone pyramid. If you are using 1K, 4K and 8K Nortons, for example, it may be that the edge off the 8K is simply not sharp enough for your current beard. You may need to add a finishing stone or pasted strops to make your edge sharper.

If you can afford to do so, purchase another straight razor (either new or vintage) from a vendor who inspects hones the blade before shipment. If the new blade shaves better than the old one, send the old blade off for honing to whomever honed it previously.

There are many ways of inspecting razor edges as you hone. Some use the thumbnail test, some use the thumb pad or three fingertip test, some use the hanging hair test. Some use loupes or microscopes to inspect the edge. Some use a combination of tests. Every one of these tests is useful, but they are all subjective. The only test than means anything is how the edge shaves your individual beard. Thus, you have to have to test enough edges to correlate these subjective tests with your shaving experience. With experience, the subjective tests can reasonably predict how your edge will shave your face.

As men age, our beards tend to grow more coarse. I am now a senior citizen with a coarse, fast growing beard. I have to have a very sharp edge to get a close shave. The coarse beard also dulls the edge more quickly. As soon as the edge begins to tug, I touch up the edge with a CBN paste strop. When that no longer works, I touch up the edge on my finishing hone. It is normally not necessary to go back to the lower grit stones.

I may sound like a broken record, but where are you located? If we could find you some local help, then that would dramatically improve your chances of learning how to hone properly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fdawsoniv

Hello chaps,
I've been shaving with a straight razor for three years, so I'm not a newbie. But something has gone terribly wrong somewhere down the line. I got magnificent shaves when I started out. Over recent months, I've devolved into having a five o clock shadow immediately post shave.

I've researched and tried altering:
Strop method
Face prep method
Lather method
Razor angle
Stroke length
Stroke directions
Honing method

I'm only asking to not look like a hobo at work and get back the smooth face my wife loves. What else needs fixing? Are there any experts for hire for a consultation?

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Myself I find if shaving with a straight, I get heaver re-growth, not sure why, but seems like the style today, is the five o'clock shadow on the face, so your right in style.