Thread: First straight shave, OMG!

Yes! I so did! And it was awesome!

I did my first straight razor shave today, and I didn't wind up in the ER! Oh, happy day. But, nor did everything go perfectly. Here's what I did, and then a couple questions.

My set-up:
Razor: Wapi 9/16 with steel scales (huge thank-you to LilithParker!)
Soap: Mama Bear's Chocolate Mousse (again, thanks to the fantabulous Lilith)
Brush: No-name which I assume, for the price, is synthetic. A cheapie brush, basically.
Strop: A clean, smooth 2-inch wide leather belt.

The first pic below is my set-up.

What I did:

First, I stropped the razor. I think my technique here is ok - I've watched lots of videos and practiced prior to the razor arriving. Most of the time, I heard the right sort of sound, except one or two strokes where I think the spine may have lifted off the strop a bit. I did 20 to 30 strokes. Kinda lost count.

Then, I got some hot-ish water in the cup I used for lathering (which I think was too small - I'll use a bigger one next time). I dipped my brush in it, and shook out a few drops on top of the shaving soap. I placed the brush back in the water, loosly put the lid on the soap, and took a quick shower.

I gently exfoliated my calves (which is all I decided to attempt today) in addition to all my regular shower stuff.

Got out, toweled myself off, and set to work. Dumped the water out of the cup, gave the brush a good shake and started workin' up some lather on the soap, which I then transfered to the cup. Forgot to take a pic of the cup, but the second pic below is my lathered leg (Oo la la! Contain yourselves, boys). Tell me how I did.

I love love LOVE the lathering part. I am never using shaving cream or regular soap again, regardless of how my journey with straights goes. It just feels so nice and relaxing. It's great.

At first, I lathered my whole right calf, but I soon discovered it was drying too quickly. I added a few more drops of water to the cup, and lathered in smaller sections after that.

I also put some warm water in a bowel to get suds off my razor with, since I didn't have as easy of access to the sink as you would in front of the mirror, shaving your face. I also discovered dipping the blade lightly into the water made it glide better. But I think part of that was my lather being a little dry.

The moment I started the first stroke, my jaw just sort of... dropped. It was such a different feeling then using my stupid disposables. I kept the pressure really light, and went slow.

I just went ATG. Leg hair ain't that thick, and after however many years of using crappy razors on my gams, it can take it.

I wound up twirling myself into some pretty odd positions to get at the backs of my calves, and I found the scales on the Wapi a bit heavy, which meant I had to hold the razor a little tighter than I would have liked to, for manoeuvrability's sake.

But, I have no nicks! Not one! Nothing! Nowhere!

Splash with cold water, and ta-da! My skin feels divine. A little warm, from running a razor over it, but not to the point of actual razor burn. And I just love the hell out of the soap and brush.

Unfortunately... I didn't have as much shaving happening as I would have liked.

My legs still feel stubbly. It seemed to catch more of the hairs at the back, which are finer hairs, but on my shins, on both legs, I didn't get a whole lot of shaving done.

Don't know what the heck is goin' on. Don't know if maybe my stropping is way, way worse than I think it is?

But experimentally, I got up close, and ran the blade over one of the darker hairs on my legs that I could see clearly. It wouldn't cut. I mess with my angles and tried it a couple times, but just... nope.

Maybe it needs to be honed. I really hope I didn't wreck it with my stropping or some other silly thing. I'm not sure. Input?

But over-all, despite the not-quite-shaved thing, a very awesome experience! I like this. I like it a lot.

And thank you again to LilithParker who helped me get started in such a huge way!

Love,
Cassie

Congrats on a successful first shave! I'm glad it went well!

You can strop on a belt as you are at the moment, although a strop is never a bad thing! If you want to further refine the edge you can strop on some newspaper. Just fold a page up into a strip about 3" wide and lay it flat on a table and set to work! It really can put killer edges on a razor!

In terms of the number of strokes, I tend to do 25 on webbed fabric and 50 - 60 leather before each shave, plus 10 fabric and 15 - 20 leather after. I'm quite an aggressive stropper! But this does seem to keep edges quite well, and I've found that stropping afterwards cleans off any micro-gunk on the edge and helps keep the edge.

Your lather looks good! Great job! You have the right idea about adding a few drops more water to the mix if it keeps drying out. Its just a case of a little experimentation to find that mix that works for you!

Ahh... The great debate over shave readiness! :P

What I've found is that shave ready for one person isnt always shave ready for the next person. A case in point is my Boker Edelweisse, which I got from SRD and was honed by Lynn. I can pass the HHT sometimes, my dad can all the time and a mate can never get it on that razor. Its horses for courses really!

I like my edges scary sharp and I'm always tweaking them and experimenting with different pastes to see if I can get just that little bit more sharpness out of them.

If the razor came shave ready from Lillith, and the razor wont cut hair at all now, then it may be a problem with the stropping and you may have rolled your edge slightly, dulling the razor. Unfortunately that will mean a trip to the hones to get the edge back again.

The four elements of a shave are the razors edge, stropping, prep and technique. Your prep looks good and you've played around with the angles to get the technique so I'm leaning towards one of the other two likely being the problem.

If you lifted the spine when stropping its quite easy to roll the edge very quickly..! Its no biggie, we've all done it, myself included! All it'll need is a quick honing to re-establish the edge and you're good to go!

You'll find that this is all very addictive! The more you get into it the more you want to do, and the more money you end up spending on the kit!

I started out wanted one razor, one strop, one brush and some soap. Now I have four razors, three strops, four soaps and a brush. Plus a suite of Shapton hones! Its easy to get those AD's...!

I'm glad you enjoyed your first shave and heres to many more!

Yes, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it's my stropping.

When I first got the Wapi, I did do a few tests. I did the HHT, which it didn't pass, but as you say, I may or may not be doing it right. But I ran it over my arm gently, and it took off a few hairs. Not to the skin, since I wasn't really putting it down on my skin, but it took 'em off, sure as rain.

It seemed to me that it could benefit from a good stropping, but it had an edge.

I just tried it again. And it won't take off a single hair.

I'm pretty sure I messed it up.

I'm going to do some more stropping, because at this point I can't really make it much worse, and just see if maybe, *maybe,* I can get a bit of an edge back on it. Hmmm...

Congratz on the first run many more to come

That sounds like a good next step. Give it a good stropping (100 laps or something) and see if that brings the edge back!

Dont worry too much about the tests for sharpness like HHT, TPT and TNT. The only real test is the shave test. If it shaves good then it is good, as we like to say...! Hehe!

As I said with my Boker, one edge honed by a pro and three different results for the HHT. Its totally subjective so dont worry about it too much!

My preferred test is that the razor will shave arm hair floating 1-2mm above the skin. If I can hear all the hairs pinging off then I know I have a good edge and I'll get a good shave. But that test might not work for everyone, nor will it definately result in a good shave for everyone.

But it sounds like you could pass this test from your description, so I am guessing that the edge probably was shave ready. Sounds like a probable rolled edge, especially if the spine was lifted during stropping.

As I say, try 100 laps on the strop and see what that does to the egde! Hopefully it'll bring it back..!

Good luck!

Well, it stropped the hell out of it. It didn't help, but I did learn some stuff.

1. I think I was stropping too hard. Pressing to much, in an attempt to keep both the spine and the blade on the strop (which didn't work anyway - I had better success with that when I lightened up).

2. I thought I heard the right sound the first time - I didn't. I could immediately tell the difference when I really heard the right sound. What I thought was right before sounded scratchy in comparison.

3. I need a whole hell of a lot more practice at this.

So, after I was done stropping, I tried it on my arm again. Not much better.

I also remembered a test for a rolled edge I saw, which is to take a pin and very gently run it off the blade to see if it catches. Well, mine caught. Not a lot, but if it's a razor's edge we're going for, I definitely didn't have it. I tried it in different places on both sides of the blade. It caught probably 80% of the time.

Sooo... time to pursue finding a honemeister. I note that Onimaru55 is in Australia, which I reckon is about as close as I'll get to NZ. So, maybe I'll send him a PM...

Congrats on your first
An optimally honed razor should "fall" thru hair on skin contact with minimal to no resistance. It is very easy to damage such an edge with poor angle or excessive pressure when stropping. My advice is to merely "suggest" the edge & spine to the strop, maybe 0.5 kg pressure. Of course that would be variable depending on how the razor was honed.
Wapis are not super hard steel. You may be able to correct any probs with numerous light laps on the belt unless your original pressure or rolling was excessive but the next shave will tell.

Well, speak of the devil! *points to above post from about 30 seconds ago*

I think I killed it. You may have to perform some sort of magical spell on it.

Originally Posted by MistressNomad

Well, speak of the devil! *points to above post from about 30 seconds ago*

I think I killed it. You may have to perform some sort of magical spell on it.

Only as a last resort... I would hope my honing would suffice

Nice leg...errr I mean that's great for your first try. From your descriptions and the comments that follow above, I would say it couldnt' hurt to try stropping further..