Thread: something ain't right - help please.

I started str8 shaving with a Feather Artist Club and moved to a regular str8 from Lynn (actually several, thanks, Lynn). I can relate to some of what you are saying. Some things I found.

- It is easy to dull your razor by poor stropping. Make sure that you are lifting the blade away from the strop at the end of the stroke, and not digging it in as you see illustrated in old cartoon images of a barber stropping.

- There is more feedback from a true str8 in terms of sound and feel. This is not really pulling so much, just a different sensation.

- If your beard is tough (like mine) you have to have some momentum to the blade in your technique. Start the cutting motion just above the beard as you bring it down. If the blade has no momentum, it can "stall" and grab a heavy beard.

- Use short strokes for that heavy beard. Experiment with what works best.

- Using a magnifying mirror (carefully) can show you what is happening.

- Try not to go directly against the grain - again the blade can stall.

- Over time, you will get better and learn what works best on your face. You might try a heavier razor if your beard is tough.

- At first, I thought that the str8 was inferior to the Feather. After awhile, I have learned that it is just as good, but requires a bit different technique. If you don't like that technique, or the feedback of a str8, consider the Feather Artist Club. Ray will tell you that it is his favorite razor, and it is awesome. But different.

Bob

Bob: YTou are right, the feather is different. I love the feel of a regular straight much more, in fact, there is nothing like it. i tend to get better shaves on my neck and near my ears with the feather straight as it has a shorter length of blade, allowing more manuerverability. but your suggestion of short strokes, i will try. i get the best shaves on my cheeks with straights, but they do not get as close as i would like on my neck. i have to touch up with the merkur DE razor.

sam

Sam -
I would spend some time with your neck and a magnifying mirror. I just can't see how you could be doing so poorly there that a DE would be used for cleanup. I like my Merkur DE, but there is no way it could be as close as a str8 in my experience. Something sounds wrong there. What I like the DE for is speed if I am in a hurry. But I never seem to be in that much of a hurry.
Bob

I just (really and finally) started shaving with a str8 week ago or so, and found out that the first few shaves were horrible, although I used pre-honed razors from Lynn and str8_razr (Andrew). Indeed, my face was red all over. I didn't get any bad nicks, though. The razor didn't seem to slide well enough on my heavy beard and I imagine shaving against the grain is still impossible at places. It also gave me kind of a dissatisfying feeling when the razor passed over the whiskers on the sides of my chin. I could say it hurted a bit.

My stropping couldn't have been so bad since the razors still pass the hanging hair test after a week of use. I can clearly feel them becoming sharper after stropping.

Now, after the first few days, the shaves have started gradually get better. It's quite amazing how things have changed and how my skin has adapted itself on the razor. In fact, last night I had a superb shave with almost no irritation whatsoever and only a small nick on my chin, healed with cold water.

I have still much to learn on this: shaving my chin, shaving against the grain, etc., but there's no turning back now, as the sensation of shaving with a str8 is just so great.

BTW, I've used 5/8 and 6/8 full hollows. I ordered a 6/8 wedge from Andrew few days ago and gonna try how it does the job.

Since I use a Feather and an assortment of str8s, i can tell you that the str8s are not as smooth as the Feather. They pull just a little, so they require some pressure. It may be the same with the Shavette.

Guys here will tell you to use a 30 degree angle on the razor, but there's no reason for that. At 30 degrees, half the force applied to the blade goes into the face. If anyone doubts this, think about laying the razor flat against the face and stretching the skin from behind. You will be unable to cut the skin. THen think about what would happen if you placed the razor against the skin and perpendicular to it. You know that if you use a large blade angle like 45 degrees you'll scrape and irritate your skin. The irritation will decrease as you decrease the angle, and it will continue to decrease below 30 degrees, plus it'll take less applied force to cut the whiskers. You just need to figure out how flat you can go. I can keep the angle just above a spine width aboove the skin.

With a heavy beard you should also take more passes before you try to get down to skin. If you don't try to go down to skin until you have a fine stubble you'll find that there's less pull.

Originally Posted by deep

Had my first shave with a real straight razor yesterday. I have used a Shavette for the better part of the past few years.

Had the new razor (A dovo special 5/8) sent to Lynn to ensure that it was honed properly. Stropped it as per the instructions I've read, using one of Tony Miller's 4 sided strops. 10 passes on a rough leather side, 10 passes on a smooth leather side.

In comparison to the shavette, it really felt like my beard was being pulled at rather than cleanly shaved off. I don't doubt Lynn's hand when it comes to honing, so am trying to figure out why it was not nearly as "effortless" a shave than a Shavette with Feather platinum blades in it.

I kept the blade flat when stropping, using enough pressure to keep it in contact - could I have dulled the edge nonetheless?

I'm not intending to use any hand pressure when shaving. At least not any more than I do when using a Shavette. Am I using too light a touch? Everything I've read suggested the blade edge / angle / weight should be doing the cutting, not my hand pressure.

Could it be possible that a 5/8 is just insufficient for my beard thickness?

Any other ideas?