Hey all,

I’m new to the forum although I’ve been lurking for a while. I been shaving with a straight razor for about 2 months now. I have a 5/8 inch carbon steel Dovo Special, a 20 inch Dovo leather and line strop, a 4000/8000 norton waterstone and a large sypderco ultrafine finishing hone (3”x8”). When I finally got all my gear, I did about 100 laps on the 4000 side, then another 100 laps on the 8000, and finished with 50 or so laps on the syperdo UF. Then took it to the strop to shave. given that i'm so new to all this, i'm not sure if what i did was enough to get it "shave ready."

don't get me wrong...the shaves have been good so far. although I stll cut myself a little bit. Well, not so much cut, but rather just kept going over my face so much that I got really raw and got a whole bunch of bleeders. Still, the result was a nice smooth shave, practically BBS.

However, the first WTG pass leaves a lot of stubble everywhere. On the shaving vids I’ve seen, it seems that the WTG pass gets you guys pretty close to BBS. The only way for me to get that way is to go back over it first XTG and then ATG, which causes all that irritation and then the little bleeders. Is the razor not sharp enough? Should a shave ready razor be able to get your face nearly BBS on the first WTG pass???

One other Q about the sypderco hone. I really like the sypderco UF. But when I use it (dry as per the directions) I don’t notice ANY little metal shavings coming off. I did about 50 laps, but you’d hardly know I even used the thing after I was finished. Is this normal for a syperdco? With the Norton, you get grit and residue right off the bat. I know the sypderco is ceramic and what-not, but still shouldn’t there be SOME wear on it? it’s so smooth (literally as smooth as glass), so maybe that’s why there aren’t any steel shavings on it???