Thread: How many shaves? or "My beard is too tough!"

Disclaimer: I'm new to this. I've shaved maybe 5 times with my straight. I think I can finally get (most of) my neck and cheek as close as with my Dovo as I can with one of those Mach 7's with the 5 blades and the rubber spatula bit.

Prologue: For some reason, when I got the razor, it was dull. My first shave was therefore a disaster. I took it to a well-regarded mom & pop shop in San Jose, and they sharpened it for me. Honed it, I guess. They didn't recommend a hone it myself. A few shaves later and I am realizing that even with stretching and lathering and everything, shaving my chin is downright painful when I do the "against the grain" pass. The blade really does drag. When I'm finished, my face is very sore.

Questions:
How many shaves should I be able to get between hones?
Should I get my own kit and start honing?
Is it possible that something other than a dull blade could be the cause of my problem?

Normally a razor should be ok for use 2-3 months after honing depending on good stropping and your beard type. This varies and some guys like to touch up a razor more frequently. It never hurts to learn to hone yourself, but there is a little learning process. A lot of times on a newly honed razor being used by a new straight razor shaver, you have poor technique to deal with as well. I always recommend at first, shaving from the side burn to the jaw on one side of the face until you get used to the razor. Once comfy, then move over to the cheek, then the down stroke on the neck and then switch hands and do the same thing on the opposide side. Next you can take on your chin making sure you don't flatten out the angle too much and last the cross grain and up stroke on the neck. Takes a couple weeks, but worth the effort.

Let us know how this goes. If the razor is still pulling or uncomfortable, shoot me a PM and I'll take a look at it for you on me.

Good luck,

Lynn

Generally you can go several months between
honing. It all depends how often you shave
and the toughness of your beard, but that seems
to be the benchmark.

If you're like most people here, you'll eventually
want to maintain your own blade through
honing and pasted strops. A Norton 4k/8k goes
for about $65-75 plus shipping, roughly what
it will cost you to get your blade honed from
someone else for the year. I wouldn't go out
and buy a stone and start honing right away.
Still have someone hone your blade until
you can get comfortable with an ebay special
or antique store junker. By the way, most
blades don't come shave ready from a manufacturer
unless you paid for the service, so that's probably
why yours wasn't ready for shaving when you got
it.

As for your problems shaving, it's probably your
technique. It takes time and practice. I'm
new at this too and some days are better than
others. Stick around here and ask lots of
questions. You'll get lots of good advice. You
should also consider buying Lynn's DVD on
straight razor shaving. It's money well spent.

John

I'll echo those remarks...DVD is a major plus.

I will give this a try Thursday and let everyone know how it goes (I'll need a second razor before I feel like I should be shaving daily; also, my face still stings from this morning.)

I'm ordering the DVD this very day!

Money well spent.

If your razor is pulling after only a few shaves the problem
is most likely with your stropping. Try 30 laps on canvas or
linen, followed by 30 on the leather. Make sure to use only
light pressure, but enough to ensure good contact across
the razor's edge. If 30 isn't improving the edge, increase
that to 50.

If all else fails, send the razor to Lynn.

Good luck!

- Scott

I'll second the stropping recommendation. Do a bunch of laps (hundred, maybe two) on the linen, and 30 or so on the leather and see if the edge is noticeably sharper tomorrow. Keep doing this each day until it's sharp enough for you, then back off to 25 laps on the linen and 30 on the leather. If the edge starts getting duller then add a few more laps on the linen each day until the edge just kind of ticks along at the same level of sharpness each day. Once you get this down you should be able to go a long time between honings - Lynn gets a couple or three months, and we have one guy here that goes about a year between honings.

If this doesn't work and the razor's sharpness doesn't improve then there's probably something amiss with either your strop, your stropping technique, or the bevel on your razor.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I'll second the stropping recommendation. Do a bunch of laps (hundred, maybe two) on the linen, and 30 or so on the leather and see if the edge is noticeably sharper tomorrow. Keep doing this each day until it's sharp enough for you, then back off to 25 laps on the linen and 30 on the leather. If the edge starts getting duller then add a few more laps on the linen each day until the edge just kind of ticks along at the same level of sharpness each day. Once you get this down you should be able to go a long time between honings - Lynn gets a couple or three months, and we have one guy here that goes about a year between honings.

If this doesn't work and the razor's sharpness doesn't improve then there's probably something amiss with either your strop, your stropping technique, or the bevel on your razor.

So you are saying that 200 laps on plain linen will sharpen the blade? As in another form of "honing" if you will? I'll have to try this, I have always wondered why we have the linen side anyway. Most guys say to go the opposite, 20-30 on linen and 50-100 on leather. The seems very curious to me... Since I just shaved, I go do my 200 laps on the linen side and see if there is a difference. And you are saying that if there ISNT a change, then I should reevaluate my bevel...right?