Thread: Disappointed First Timer

I have shaved a total of 7 times now with a str8 Lynn loaned me. I have 4 nice nicks to prove it, one each, every other shave, including the 1 inch nick (by far the worse of them all) I got this weekend on my latest shave. Am I going to quit? Hell no, quitting is for losers.

I am by no means experienced with the str8, but I can hold my own with a DE and the one thing that I learned with the DE that I have applied to the str8 is "angle is everything." I've found that with a better and more consistent keeping of the angle, my shaves have gotten much better with every shave and I am looking forward to the next time I can use the str8.

Keep it up and you will be impressed with yourself and the results.

My entire first year sucked. The second year was good. Now that I know how to hone, and strop, and shave, the quality is amazing. Far better than a DE or Mach 3. Learning how not to screw up a honed razor is important also. Its amazingly simple, the whole process, once you know what your doing. Having a truely sharp blade is the key, I mean really really THE KEY! If you continue having only so, so shaves send it back to Lynn or someone else for more work. Get .5 paste and work on it yourself and learn how to strop.

Really, shaving with a straight is not some magical complexity that is dramatically different then other wet shaving practices. This morning I shaved with some Dove soap and a straight (I was traveling). Great shave. Under 5 minutes. Whats the trick? ...sharp blade.

I'm a newbie who had marginal shaves for the first few times. I actually got so cut up it looked like I shaved with a broken bottle. I agree with Tony in that some days are better than others as far as the quality of shave but they're ALWAYS better than the "Mock" 3 ripoff razor. Keep plugging along and imagine that str8 shaving is the only way to shave - it'll force you to learn, even if it takes a while. Necessity is the mother of invention; in your case, skill.

-Rob

Well, I am happy to say that I succussfully navigated my face for the second time. And by successfully I mean that I'm still here to talk about it. I followed everyone's advice as best I could, but three problems really stuck out on this shave. One: i'm having trouble keeping a good angle throughout the shave, but I guess that'll just come with lots of practice. Two: I have a lot of trouble navigating the curves in my neck. Three: the razor seems to "skip" when I shave across the grain on my neck. Is that due to a poorly stropped razor, poor technique or a combination of both? I realize there's still a ton I have to learn and there's many not so great shaves in my future, but i plan to stick with it. I want to thank everyone for their help and advice.

A good blade is a combination of well honed and well stropped. From there its practice. Practicing with a dull razor doesn't help much, almost creates a negative training environment. For your neck though I would suggest using the blades tip and heal to best attack the contours of the neck. First go easy at the adams apple, second use the base around the inner concave rounded sections around the windpipe, then finally, use the tip for the outside of the neck. Learning to hold the blade correctly for these moves takes time as well. I hold the blade like a baton for these moves with the razor and scales extended in a line. Do some research on the subject. I suspect the skipping is still a not so sharp blade. How much "draw" do you get when you strop? I suspect your not getting much at all. I would guess your blade catches few hairs when run over the tops of your arm hair. . . how close am I in my analysis? I'd like to ensure your blade is sharp first and then focus on technique. I believe smart money follows on this course. How much experience do you have shaving and with what?

when you talk about testing arm hairs i'm assuming that against the grain? not with the lie of the hair and should it cut all the hairs it comes in contact with ?
thanks

I have lots of arm hair protruding straight out of my arm...lol. It cuts and catches a few hairs when its close to shaving ready and catches ALL the hair when truely shaving ready. So the razor moves perpendicular to my arm. If your hair lies flat consider the HHT. I would think that you could lift the hair with your hand, and or, someone elses hand and then move the razor over the top of your arm. It should run perpendicular. I can run the blade over the hair with the grain and it catches hair too but the sensation is different because I don't push the blade into the hair, it just "catches"

I think new guys that hone razors up are missing a few stages. I see it as 1) eliminating nicks and dings 2) creating a perfect bevel 3) then polishing the bevel. In my opinion each of those stages uses varied techniques and pressure. I go from twice the weight of the blade to the weight of the blade (Stage 1) to very light pressure. For stage 2, I usually weigh the weight of the scales and the shank to determine a good weight to baseline from. I just hold it in my hand and feel the weight. I consider this weight the weight that works against me. The weight of the scales and the shank are the weight that will work against you when you are trying to keep the blade part FLAT on the hone. I use this weight when honing a blade at stage 2. If you try and pussy foot around all through the process you'll never remove nicks in stage 1, you'll never get a perfect bevel in stage 2, and you'll never even get to stage 3 to discover the power of ultra light touch. At Stage 3 the physics change because the weight of the scales and shank are offset by the cohesion of a sharp blade on the hone. The blade starts to "suck" the hone. A little lather on the hone helps this process along. Then light pressure works better and better.

A razor in Stage 3 (and these are all my own personal opinions) draws on a strop. You can shave almost anytime in this region if and only if you have done the proper pre work in the first two stages or atleast gotten close to it. Using a light touch from here gives great results and you start to see the genius in all these posts and just how fast you'll move a razor from sharp to super sharp to overhoned....then you gotta know how to strop...oh and backhone...lol.

There is another pre step that I don't want to leave out because someone will call me on it later...you need to assess the blade. Is it sharp already? Close? Is it a singing razor (they can bend easier)? Is it a 6/8? They have a longer distance from spine to edge. Makes a big difference in honing. Is it half hollow?, is it stainless? All these make for differences in honing technique which is why lots of guys send these things to Lynn...lol. You'll get it though, or atleast close enough to get great shaves.

In the case of this particular disappointment I'd say the blade from Lynn has been somewhere in Stage 3 for a while but needs proper stropping or now just a touch up on the hone. One bad stropping and the edge is toast for shaving. You can even break the edge stropping if your really determined or lift the spine even slightly.

If your not getting a good shave with a blade from Lynn its probably just not supersharp at this point but has all the first two stages PERFECT. So consider learning to strop better, using .5 paste, and maybe even a few light laps on a high grit hone to return it. Even a relative newbie should get a good pass on his cheeks with a sharp blade. One thing we rarely mention is that you can even break an edge by shaving at the wrong angle. 9 times out of 10 though its just bad stropping...

Hold the strop taught, I mean really taught. Lay the blade flat and slowly strop back and forth, rolling the egde on the spine at each end. Does the razor draw on the strop? If not use light pressure until you start to feel a draw, if you've got it down you can use more pressure to realign the entire edge but go slow and DO NOT LIFT THE SPINE. If you use some pressure and still do not feel a draw, the razor, in my opinion should be rehoned. Not from scratch but a light (Stage 3) honing.

I havent seen anyone ask if your pulling the skin tight, and I didnt think much of this either untill you mentioned the blade skipping.

You have to learn some new funny faces and awkward positions to keep the skin under the blade nice and taught. This will make a huge difference in the result of your shave if you haven't been doing that already.

Another key to straight razor shaving is making the skin you are about to shave taut. That's done by pulling the skin. You'll be surprised, no, amazed at how close you can get by pulling the skin tight. You'll also be amazed how comfortable it will be also.

There's an old saying..."If at first you don't succeed...."

Jeff

Originally Posted by str8rzrshvr

Another key to straight razor shaving is making the skin you are about to shave taut. That's done by pulling the skin. You'll be surprised, no, amazed at how close you can get by pulling the skin tight. You'll also be amazed how comfortable it will be also.

There's an old saying..."If at first you don't succeed...."

Hit it with a hammer and kill it?