First Straight Razor Shave (sortta)

OK, I started watching some of the You-Tube videos and it all came together. I watched Lynn and a few others and discovered what I had been doing wrong. Let me qualify this post by stating that I'm using a Dovo shavette. The three main constituents of straight-shaving (in order of importance) seem to me to be: 1. shaving angle. 2. short strokes as opposed to dragging the razor all the way down the face in one pass, and. lather. I have since been able to shave twice with my shavette and my face is still recognizable. I have four, what I consider to be decent vintage straight razors, that once I learn a little about bevel setting and honing, I'll correct the edges, set the bevels, then hone 'em to "shave ready". Then I'll report on my results.

Just remember it takes time!!
Do not expect perfect shaves right away (or prefect edges right away when you start to hone)
I suggest you get one of your straights honed by a professional or get another straight that is trull shave ready, that you will have a good idea of what kind of shave you should be gettig out of the ones you hone yourself.
FYI just passing a HHT doenst mean you will get a good shave ;)

Good luck!

The angle of the blade needs to be lower for a straight than it does for a shavette.

Since you are new to this, you really would benefit from having at least one of your razors honed by someone else. That will give you an exemplar for your own honing. If you are interested, I would gladly hone one of your razors for you just for the price of return postage.

Do you have a strop yet? Unlike for a shavette, you definitely need a strop for straight razors.

What hone or hones do you have?

Good info given to you right there.
DO get one honed up right by someone for the reasons stated.
And it will be a while before you really get that good shave. You might get lucky a time or two while learning, but you will find that rough shaves will happen often until you get that muscle memory that only comes with practice.

Good luck and enjoy the trip of learning to get a good shave from a straight.

As said, get at LEAST 1 razor boned professionally. You’re going to scre your edge up, so you’ll need the second one. Trust me in that.

The best advise I can give along with what you’ve already received, just shave the lather. O pressure is needed in Straight Razor shaving

We’re here to help, so ask away

Trying to master all three areas: shaving itself, stropping, and honing, at the same time is a tall order, as mistakes in any one of them can ruin an otherwise perfect shave.

As others said before, getting them professionally honed would set a benchmark that you could refer to.
As you are lucky enough to have four, you might even want to consider setting one aside and using it only rarely as a “reference razor” to be able to tell when the three more frequently used razors are starting to (literally) loose their edge.


B.