Thread: Shaving with a new razor

Im confused. I have very little hair on my cheeks so that can't be the criteria for me. With my other blades a third pass around my upper lip and chin gets the job done The one in question just doesn't

Strop the razor and give it a second try. If you get a second poor shave you likely will want to either send it back or send it to someone else.

Thanks. I stropped this morning and noticed a marked improvement

Back in the day when everyone used a straight and even later when safety razors had made their appearance though most owned a hone of sorts most did not hone their own razors. There were loads of folks who did it commercially from the local barber shop to itinerant folks on a street corner and from talking to my dad about it and what he saw from his dad most who attempted it themselves shaved with a less than "shave ready" razor.

The take away is many common folk shaved with a dull razor and had neither the skill nor inclination to be honing any razor. That's the main reason DEs became the main way of shaving. The new generation embraced them for convenience just leaving the old fogies and troglodytes like us.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Back in the day when everyone used a straight and even later when safety razors had made their appearance though most owned a hone of sorts most did not hone their own razors. There were loads of folks who did it commercially from the local barber shop to itinerant folks on a street corner and from talking to my dad about it and what he saw from his dad most who attempted it themselves shaved with a less than "shave ready" razor.

The take away is many common folk shaved with a dull razor and had neither the skill nor inclination to be honing any razor. That's the main reason DEs became the main way of shaving. The new generation embraced them for convenience just leaving the old fogies and troglodytes like us.

I would say that it wasn't because they didn't have the skill (of course if you don't do something you don't have that skill) but rather the lack of good hones. What they commonly had was mid-range "barber hones". We have better stuff today and there is almost no one today who couldn't easily get the "skills" to maintain a razor indefinitely with a finishing hone.

With the desire, there is almost no one who couldn't do the same from scratch.

With all those barber hones around from the past, that would also indicate that many did maintain their own razors.

It's not my understand that "barber hones" were only used by barbers.

Originally Posted by alschepis

Im confused. I have very little hair on my cheeks so that can't be the criteria for me. With my other blades a third pass around my upper lip and chin gets the job done The one in question just doesn't

With 5 straight razors, it's probably time to get a finishing hone at a minimum so that you can maintain your razors after the initial honing. It's a tough place to be in (for anyone) when you aren't sure of your shaving technique yet and when you aren't sure of your honing abilities yet.

Unfortunately, it's really just not much of a sharpness test to have to wait until the 3 pass on the toughest part of anyone's face to shave.

So sure, all you can do at the moment I suppose is to strop it, try again, and if that doesn't work, get it honed again.