Thread: Shaving Update

Hello,
I have taken a break from posting to practice and bond with my razors for a few weeks. My shaves are getting better and better, with the exception of 4 areas. Any suggestions?

1. On the left side of my neck below my ear, if I do more than one pass, I am left with a series of red dots that look like little zits. If I don't do more than one pass, it is not smooth at all. This only happens in one area and is a weird area for me to get smooth, even back with my DE. However, I did not get the dots with the DE.

2. Around my Adam's Apple. I know this is a common trouble area, but I can't seem to get the hang of it. My hair grows pretty much sideways and I just can't get the razor at that angle.

3. Just above my jawbone. I have no idea why this area is so troublesome, even with my DE. I pull my skin up, down sideways, etc... but it just won't get BBS against the grain. My sideburns will be super smooth and then I feel this stubble ATG that irritates me all day. Also, when my beard grows back, it is possible to see the difference in growth.

4. My chin. I can shave WTG, but when I try ATG, the razor gets caught up, and I cut myself.

So those are the 4 trouble spots.

Other concerns:

1. I am not getting the hang of the sharp tests. If I lay my razor on it's spine and run a strand of hair over it, sometimes the hair will catch and split with a little noise, other times it won't. Sometimes, the hair will split in two down the length, but will not break. If I try the moistened thumbnail test, no mark is left. Maybe I am not pressing hard enough? If I run the razor across the ball of my moistened thumb, it slides, but again, maybe I am not pressing hard enough? I was kind of expecting these razors to be so sharp that even a slight touch would lead to a cut or a hair gently placed on the edge would simply cut on two, but I guess that is not the case (I dunno). As far as a shave test, if I run the razor up my arm above the skin, the occasional hair will be pulled off. I feel and hear the hair coming off. If I moisten my arm and run the blade directly on skin, most of the hair will be cut off, but again, I feel it happening; certainly not like a knife through butter. Little bits of stubble are left that need pretty much blade buffing to get BBS, sometimes with focus on each and every piece of stubble. I am left with razor burn on some areas.

Now, I worry that all of this is due to poor technique or something, as I got the razor shave ready, but I have no way of being certain if it is me or the razor. I am able to use this razor on my face for WTG, but for ATG I have to switch to my Shavette with a fresh blade. If I use my real straight, it will just keep snagging ATG and cut me if I force it. Like I said, I don't know why this is, as I got it shave ready. I don't think it is due to my lack of stropping skills, as I shaved with it before I even stropped and had the same problems.

Anyway, that is where I stand. My last shave was on Sunday and I will shave tomorrow with a Dovo Tortoise 5/8 I just got from SRD, and see if there is any change.

The razor came with a piece of paper that said basically the razor was sharpened but needs to be stropped before use. Would it be ok if I skip this as I don't want poor technique to ruin the blade? I want to see how this razor compares to my other, without my interference.

Well.... most of the things you're saying sound like a deja-vu to me!!!!, and in most cases I've come to an idea of how to improve those same areas so, here I go:

Neck below the ear: I just do WTG and ATG on this zone an it's acceptable, so maybe I cannot tell you much about it
Adam's apple: my hair grows to the right in that part; the sequence is: WTG stretching the skin to the right and shave on the stretched skin sideways while is very stretched (the idea is to shave the skin while is NOT over the apple itself); ATG same thing but stretching the skin on the other side; on both cases (WTG and ATG) I stretch also the skin up with my left hand and shave with the right hand in both directions; to accomplish this I lower my head down a bit to allow my skin to be stretched up (I hope you get the idea). All this should be done carefully to avoid hitting the stretching hand. On this part I skip the XTG
Jawbone: I pull up my skin and do the ATG and XTG as if the skin were part of my cheek; the tricky part is that there should be extra care not to hit the hand that is pulling up the skin; an aid for this passes is to have the face wetted and well lathered along with short hits
Chin: again try to have the face wetted and well lathered, stretch the skin down from the neck and be very careful with the angle for the blade not to cut; in this case the angle (for the complete XTG pass) should be at about 5 to 10 degrees. Make very short hits as in all the difficult parts

Sharp tests: in my experience the hair test is not reliable due to several variables involved; the thumbnail test is only used while honing and should be avoided on a regular basis as it dulls the edge. The thumbpad test is the one I occasionally use to verify my blades (search the wiki on how to do it, but I've found that a sharp edge "bites" the pad while doing it).

Razor burn: I also have some of those occasionally when I overdo certain part or put too much pressure while doing it: try not to do that and be very constant on the angles: my suggestion is:

About 30 deg on the WTG
About 15 deb on the ATG
About 10 (or less) on the XTG

One thing that I found of the utmost importance is to have a very sharp edge to do the XTG, otherwise the burn is a sign of the lack of it

As an amateur I can tell you that the stropping is necessary after honing a blade, so try not to skip it. I also did that skipping once and I can tell you that the difference was like heaven and hell. If you're not sure about the stropping, get a cheap razor to practice and after that you'll feel comfortable with the technique (at least it worked for me). Study on the wiki or watch Lynn's advices on the topic

Good luck!!!!

Initially,you may want concentrate on one area at a time such as the side of your face. The red dots may be from too much pressure on the straight razor while shaving. Light touch and multiple passes always win out. The straight razor shoud feel smooth during the shave.

If you try to "Muscle" a first pass, it just leads to more cuts and irratation.

I have the Dovo Tortoise and the edge didn't hold its edge that long (2 shaves), so this one needed a little more attention then my other straight razors. I stropped after the shave and a little before the shave. Then I bought a pasted paddle strop to help me keep this straight razor going strong. To its credit, the blade is forgiving and easily takes an edge.

Start WTG on the sides, and XTG and/or ATG on the sizes in that order. Get this part done before moving on to other sections. This will help you get familiar with handling the blade successful along the the "feel".

Ultimately, the shave test determines if the blade is sharp enough. In my opinion, the best sharp test is the arm shave test. If the blade feels like its grabbing the hairs and poping a few off, its ready. If it feels very smooth, but not grabbing, it needs to be stropped more. Nothing wrong with giving your straight razor 30 passes during the shave to sharpen it up.

A good prep, shaving soap, and brush go a long way to helping a straight razor do its job. Again, this razor need to be stropped. No worries if you use your DE to clean up the rest of the shave. Its all part of learning.

Start with this first and you will have a strong foundation to move to the other parts of your face. If you do this, then when you take the next step, it will be easier and you will get on top of it faster.

Good Luck,

Pabster

The shave with the tortoise didn't go so well either. Every quarter inch, it just got stuck and then I would have to go over the previous area and muscle another quarter inch. I couldn't do the neck at all. Must admit, I'm a little frustrated right now. I did better with the Shavette.

As far as stropping, I'm a little confused. Some say that it is ok to strop during the shave and after. Others say that the blade should rest 24-48 hours between shaving and stropping. I'm guessing the manufacturers recommend this as well, as they offer 7 day sets. ???

From what I understand, a 24 hour rest so the fin dries out nicely and straightens itself again. I think the 7 days set was more for people who wanted to shave and spend a week end day stropping them as they were experiencing the "morning rush" m-F/S.

I picked up the the pasted paddle strop shortly after having the Dovo Tortoise for about 5 shaves. I also felt I just couldn't get this DT to perform as well for me either just by stropping with the canvass and leather. Once I got the pasted paddle strop and gave the DT. some passes on it, it performed so much better for me.

Every two shaves, I had to give it some passes on the pasted strop to get it back to where I wanted it for the next shave.

I may have felt this way because I was using disposable straights and love the sharp fine edge. All of my other staights can go several shaves before they need some passes on the pasted strop.

Your experience with the Dovo T seems to be similiar to mine. Consider a pasted paddle strop. I bought mine from Tony Miller. 3.0/1.0/.50 CroOx

Pabster

BG,

Have you been shaving with your razor after you did the thumbnail test? If so, your razor is likely too dull to shave well. Dragging the edge along your nail is used in the early part of the honing process to determine if the entire length of the bevel comes to a sharp edge. If there is no roughness percieved, then the honer can go to the finer stones to refine the edge and at this point dragging the edge alone a nail will only dull it, thus the thumb pad test where your skin (much gentler and softer than a fingernail) is used to help determine the sharpness of the edge. If you hone yourself, you probably need to rehone this razor. If you had it honed by others, contact them to see if they will do some warranty work.

An aside here: are you using a Dovo Special with the tortise scales? I have one and it is among my favorites. If it doesn't shave well, it's because of factors other than the quality of the blade.

good luck, good shaving

It is a Dovo Special Tortoise 5/8. It came presharpened from SRD, I just had to strop it. When I started the razor on my sideburn, it took a few hairs off, then got stuck. It felt like I kept having to hack at my face. I focused on a light touch, but all this did was change the angle of the blade. The only way to cut hair was to stretch my skin really tight and push fairly hard through the beard. Against the grain, chin, and neck were not even possible. The areas I was able to do WTG were nowhere as smooth as with my Shavette, and irritated me more.

As you have had some problems with razors honed by a couple of sources, concentrating on your shaving technique vs. sharp tests would be recommended. Sometimes trying too hard can be a problem in itself. If you dull the razor, send it back for a re-honing, but until you get comfortable with angles and pressure, etc, you will not enjoy the sport near as much........

Best of Luck,

Lynn

Originally Posted by BGAndrea

It is a Dovo Special Tortoise 5/8. It came presharpened from SRD, I just had to strop it. When I started the razor on my sideburn, it took a few hairs off, then got stuck. It felt like I kept having to hack at my face. I focused on a light touch, but all this did was change the angle of the blade. The only way to cut hair was to stretch my skin really tight and push fairly hard through the beard. Against the grain, chin, and neck were not even possible. The areas I was able to do WTG were nowhere as smooth as with my Shavette, and irritated me more.

At this point I am kinda at a loss of what to add here,,,

I would assume that your prep and technique have to be at least close because you were using a Shavette other than maybe some angle adjustments you should be there...

Your first razor I am going to have to assume was the one I gave you, which I know I tested, in fact after I sharpened it I really didn't want to give it to you as it was a very nice little shaver...

The only things that stood out as possibilities to me, when I read this were..
One the testing of the first edge, other then just shaving, that is a sure fire path to a dull edge, but you didn't do that with the Dovo, right????

Stropping would be number two, but I don't think you stropped either one before you at least tried shaving the edge, right???

Actually that is the real question, did you do anything but try to shave the patch from sideburn to jaw line at first ?????

Now I can see one razor from Lynn or myself maybe slipping by, even though both of us test shave every single razor, and I actually remember that razor as being way above the curve... But for two razors, one from Lynn, and one from me, to both be dull, is pretty long on the odds list...

There has got to be a step in there that we are missing..

Now if you dulled that razor I have no problem doing a re-hone for you either, but the shipping is on you since it was a freebie...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

At this point I am kinda at a loss of what to add here,,,

I would assume that your prep and technique have to be at least close because you were using a Shavette other than maybe some angle adjustments you should be there...

Your first razor I am going to have to assume was the one I gave you, which I know I tested, in fact after I sharpened it I really didn't want to give it to you as it was a very nice little shaver...

The only things that stood out as possibilities to me, when I read this were..
One the testing of the first edge, other then just shaving, that is a sure fire path to a dull edge, but you didn't do that with the Dovo, right????

Stropping would be number two, but I don't think you stropped either one before you at least tried shaving the edge, right???

Actually that is the real question, did you do anything but try to shave the patch from sideburn to jaw line at first ?????

Now I can see one razor from Lynn or myself maybe slipping by, even though both of us test shave every single razor, and I actually remember that razor as being way above the curve... But for two razors, one from Lynn, and one from me, to both be dull, is pretty long on the odds list...

There has got to be a step in there that we are missing..

Now if you dulled that razor I have no problem doing a re-hone for you either, but the shipping is on you since it was a freebie...

Like you said, I highly doubt either are dull. I must be missing something in technique. Should the blade not be held so close to the skin on the first pass? If I keep it a little away, it seems smoother, but on some areas such as the chin, this is hard to do.

Maybe once or twice I have closed the blade you gave me and it hit one side of the scales. Do you think this is a problem? I feel bad sending it back to you for free re-honing. If I sent it back to you, I'd want to pay for the honing. You have already gone above and beyond by sending me a free razor, and a nice one at that. Without any tests, I was able to do WTG with ease with the razor you sent me. I had about 2 days growth and I normally shave every 3 or 4 days. I was eager to use it. When I went to do ATG, I just got stuck in the growth, it wouldn't budge. I felt like if I forced it, I would cut myelf. I must be doing something wrong.