Thread: Str8-Edge Shaving & Follicle Bump Woes

Originally Posted by Kees

Congratualtions on your Wapi shave!

Eucalyptoil is cooling and has an anti-infammatory effect: Eucalyptol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to this source it is not a desinfectant.

I haven't actually given myself a full shave, yet; just shaved a spot as ATG south-north swipes on the neck. Will do very soon.

Originally Posted by Pabster

It sounds like you are making some nice progress and taking the time to review the details.

Welcome to SRP!

Pabster

Hey, Pabster (if you're still reading this thread): I pulled my moving box full of shaving stuff out and checked out the other Nivea AS balm and it is the "Sensitive" line extra soothing balm without the alcohol. So I do have an alcohol free balm in case I get bad burn. (lost the ingredient list cut-out for that one during the move.) Considering how nice my face was after the faster, less thorough shave I'm thinking it may not be necessary with my "new skin" except for going really intense on the ATG stuff. The current experiment is to do everything with the current pre/post routine but with the newly honed (untamed) Wapienica. I like the term "dialled in" I'd read from way back ('07). Considering I did upwards motion on the neck with a light stropping (just to make sure) and had no irritation I'm probably in for a pretty good shave.

It's off to the shave!

Mmmmm. Lightly stropped and all prep work done. Exfoliant face wash (Neutrogena "Deep Cleanser") and stayed true to the first 10 days of consecutive shaving and used the Proraso as a lathered up soap. I can honestly say if I was going for a quick DE shave I'd slap that on with my fingers but it really shines as a brush-lathered soap. I had a warm, soaked, modest little Tweezerman badger just whip that thing up in less than ten seconds. Thick, luxurious foam. Fast and easy. Rewetting with that is fewer and easier because of no fooling with washing off the fingers. I'm not big on huge foamy lather on my face and can see the topography okay. I consider Proraso in the tube to be a product whose true powers are revealed as its hidden, secret identity: soap.

Wapienica glides through neck and WTG sideburns. No problem. Those are all WTG. WTG for most of cheek (sparse) to XTG on jaw/chinstrap. Smooth and fast and clean and clear! Wow. Mustache was startlingly fast and easy. Is the Wapienica smoother steel than the Dovo? Chin WTG/XTG as downward pass easy too. Right hand as ATG under corner of left side. Continue with left-to-right WTG/XTG along jaw and chin. Smooth and easy, this is the easiest of the jaw and chin movements. Nice. Left hand. WTG sideburns, neck. Finish mustache. Now for the final stretch (pun intended): the ATG/XTG right-to-left along right jaw, chin and left jaw. The final test. Smooth and fast and easy and just a few tiny spots of blood that seal quickly and without very little perceivable pain. Smooth going over that troublesome chin again! Wow. Chin and its corners are very smooth. Mustache easier and faster than usual. Total shave time about 28 minutes (including prep).

Alum run reveals more pain than previous faster, less aggressive shave. New, untamed edge also a factor. C.O. Bigelow skin tonic renews pain, delightful sensations. Staying true to experiment with Nivea "Cooling Balm" with the alcohol to hopefully aggravate and simulate the mundane aftershaves I would like to use, with the added healing factors of the healing agents (supposedly). Must go outside into frigid Minnesota and ensure all variables remain unchanged.

Fast and smooth! Wow. Skin's condition at this point makes for a very nice shave. I have sensitive skin but now it is much, much better. This Wapienica is truly shave-ready, no faults in the edge. Officially part of rotation to be assembled. Must use consecutively like the Dovo to properly gauge its quality but.. man oh man that is one smooth steel. Lovin' it!

Originally Posted by AxelH

Mmmmm.
.......
tonic renews pain, delightful sensations. Staying true to experiment with Nivea "Cooling Balm" with the alcohol to hopefully aggravate and simulate the mundane aftershaves I would like to use, with the added healing factors of the healing agents (supposedly). Must go outside into frigid Minnesota and ensure all variables remain unchanged.
.....

Aha Minnesota -- one aftershave you have not listed is
a splash of -20F fresh dry snow. In my experience a little
quickly closes up the skin pours and leaves no residue.

A good wake ya up if you have it handy.

I dont know if you have given this a try yet but it might help to add a little lubrication. Lucky Tiger Brushless Shaving Cream 16 oz

Have you tried using aloe as an aftershave treatment from what I understand it does have some healing properties.

I know African Americans generally have a lot of problems with bumps due to the curliness of their hair. I attend barber college in Detroit and many of my peers have problems shaving because of this, for a few it is so bad that they can only use clippers on their facial hair. Its one of those unfortunate things but some people just cant shave.

Nope, never tried lucky tiger. I have enough shaving soaps and creams to last a long while. I gave my arsenal in the first few posts in this thread. Aloe is in a number of post-shave products (also listed). In my family there was an aloe cactus, hung out on an indoor window sill.. ya know.. jus' chillin'. Well, sometimes my cruel mother would viciously rip an arm off and squeeze out some aloe gel and gleefully spread it around a dry patch of skin. What a monster. That house plant never hurt anyone.

The redness from the first Wapienica shave only lasted about 5-10 minutes. I slapped on some of the balm and went out. Checked in the fluorescent lights of a public restroom. Everything looked good. Had three nicks that slowly bled at some point, funny, didn't have any blood on the towel after shaving and didn't even feel them. They were so small when I did some moistened swipes with a fingertip no further bleeding.

So now I have a question. Obviously my facial skin's conditioned and clear and feeling much better after the str8 razor shaves. I noticed yesterday that when I tightened the skin over my jawbone, just by jutting the jaw out slightly and pulling with my mouth muscles to one side that I can reveal a smooth, reflective skin surface. I thought it may have been the different aftershave, which yesterday was Brut. But I noticed it today after using the Nivea "Cooling" balm. So my skin is smoother and tougher than it's ever been and now it can gleam. It's like the special effect "ting!" with the sparkle on the teeth of the perfect smile, ya know? It may be useful if I'm stuck on a deserted island (with a razor and shave soap) and I have to get the airplane's attention.

Has anyone else noticed this? Are there any other.. physical "alterations" that may occur to my body as a result of loyal str8-razor shaving?

-=A NEW HOPE=-

So I have this Spyderco ultra-fine hone that is of questionable lapping standards, which is a shame because gemstones are fantastically fast, aggressive cutters that shouldn't require lapping (with appropriate use) and should usher in a new-age of sharpening/honing. I did a search and though it isn't really discussed in the SRP review database (that I could tell) the Big Guy himself (Abrams) gave a very appropriate evaluation with pictures which is completely congruent with my own stone.

I had successfully honed up and finished, apparently, the fixed-tip Wapienica (my second shave-worthy razor) with this sapphire finishing hone.. basically a new-age barber's hone (I guess, never used the "real" thing). Using the stropping/spine-first method to avoid micro-trench chipping of the edge, as in the case of my poor Dovo 13/16th. I shouldn't complain too much, it just hurts to think that a perfected edge blade would have 4-5 microchips in it, however small. It did give me permission to relax into my own newbie-ish honing for refreshing, which I suppose helps me to actually hone it up well. Yes, I still have honing anxieties when taken to the finishing stage, but that Dovo has functioned flawlessly and I am forever grateful for the economic price and shave-readiness for my entrance into the world of straight-razor shaving.

I have a Clauss "Fremont" (city?) 5/8th square-tip that has a hairline crack an inch from the heel and a well-tarnished Dixie Manufacturing Company (Union City, GA) with some decent chips in it's upswell at the tip. These are eBetray razors. I microchipped the Dovo I believe because I couldn't detect the imperfections of the ultra-fine spyderco because I was practicing honing on the smaller (2") width spydercos with the stupid "Master" and "Krystal" chinese and pakistani stainless trash (wedge and full hollow, respectively) razors. I bought them to practice honing on, starting with the Nortons. I believe those stainless steel imposters are so soft that the ultra-fine imperfections simply got eaten up in the softness at the edge when doing trial runs for practice and learning the subtlety inherent to the hand/eye coordination required for this near-magical avocation.

So I have found a major use in the flat Clauss and the one-sided smile of the Dixie str8s in evaluating the condition of this problem ceramic honing "whetstone" (some people with honing ability I respect feel it is really a dry hone, which is how I've used it). The Dixie is also good for using the x-pattern and keeping my smile honing technique sharp. I get back into the feel of honing with one of those, ensuring my muscle-memory is fresh before actually honing.

I have this Dubl Duck "Dwarf" I got for a really good price very early on, I think it was my first un-shave-ready razor from the Bay. Anyway, I had easily (sigh) honed it up to the 8k on the Nortons before they had lost their flatness, removing the chips (I did really good on that extremely early in my razor honing, thanks to the easy nature of the Nortons, G-d I miss using those..) and even shaved with it off the 8k. Last night, after all this posting and shaving with the Dovo and then the Wapienica I couldn't take it anymore and brought the Dubl Duck Dwarf to the ultra-fine with the conservative x-pattern, spine-first as usual. I didn't take out all of the micro-chips, actually. This Duck's edge was only partially restored, as it was very early in my honing days and I always felt it was best to not go all the way to the perfect edge with those fast-cutting coarse Nortons. Gave myself a few micro-chip's leeway to allow myself room to hone my honing ability when bringing to shaveworthiness. It also helped greatly with performance anxiety, this is a very delicate art.

So with spine-first strokes to further evaluate the finishing hone I brought the Duck to dazzling reflective brilliance. Ahhhhh... the satisfaction of bringing an old razor from another era to mirrored, keratin cleaving goodness. Life is good. I was hoping it would be great but I think I see where little white spots remain, it takes a long time to really perfect the edge on the estimated 12k (norton system grit rating I think) but it may be little spots created by the imperfections of the hone. Sigh. If I knew someone in the area who wanted their blade refreshed on the cheap I could do it, but I'd have to explain what it may actually do to the edge. I did manage to bring the slight curve at the heel and the curve at the tip with rolling strokes and careful work on the tip. It's looking good, but certainly not perfect. Now, while my skin is still clear and up to the challenge of other razors finished on the spyderco 12k I'm going to use my third razor and first eBetray find. Back in the first half year or so of 2008 I had the little 4/8th Krank, the shave-ready Dovo and this Dubl Duck. It's going to be a great feeling to think I could somehow bring them all up to satisfactory shaving sharpness with this sad finishing hone.

The good news is I haven't had the practice real str8s getting caught on the imperfections that the poor Dovo ran into that caused the micro-trenches over the past week. Maybe the imperfections have been shaved off by the true str8's hard steels? I don't know, but I sure don't want to risk it. I haven't developed a burr/wire-edge on the Dovo or the Wapienica, as far as I can tell. That Krank burned me twice with the second shave after finishing off the 8k, but it was more corroded so maybe it was compromised steel at the very edge.

I'm gonna use the "new" Dubl Duck tonight after the shower. Making food (mashed potatos) and going to use the double boiler method to melt some Chelsea's Garden shave soap into a little 5 ounce cocoa butter plastic container with sealing screw-top lid. Ohhhh.. new/old razors, cooking and shave soaps... what a beautiful holiday.

Wish me luck!

So I've gotten very frustrated with my honing equipment. The Norton flattening stone was warped and the Mexican made 4k side of the 4k/8k combination stone has large enough holes in it to catch a chunk of swarf which sits there waiting for the razor to run over it and then the lodged chunk of steel just mangled the fine edge of the blade.

Well, the 6"x2" "extra-fine" (estimated 1,200 grit) DMT diamond tablet is also kind of shoddy with little machined imperfections on it, only good for quickly churning out cutlery too sharp to cut the skin of a tomato. But I figure it's truly flat and pick it up and start working on the dipped Norton stones. It is slow going, a 6"x2" tablet run over the ends of a 8"x3" stone. I can easily see the concavity of the stone, however. I run it lengthwise, using it on the close end, then the far end, just wearing away either end to eventually make it flat, lengthwise.

Then I pull out the flattening stone, which is convex on one side and concave on the other. It seems flat by its width (seems..) so I use the convex side to smooth out both sides of the 220/1000 combination stone. I'm hoping to re-establish the bevel of this beautiful little "Kansas City Grinding Co." (Kansas City, MD.) "Kansas City Special" wedge (11/16ths) square-tip. It's in very good condition, almost no tarnish, pin's a little loose, edge in good condition (no chips, just moderately ragged after being honed by someone with a relatively coarse hone (purposefully rebeveled?). But I can't seem to touch it up too good. So now I have to make it work, because of my recent success in bringing the Wapi up to 12k and the Dubl Duck Dwarf looks nice (finally) at 12k.

Using the defective flattening stone sure works better than the diamond tablet, but I have to keep flipping the Norton around to make sure it is truly made as flat as possible. Finish with the DMT tablet to inspect and try to ensure flatness further. What a chore. I don't think I can even use the 4,000 side. I don't know. It's scarier than the Spyderco ultra-fine finishing hone. Maybe I can get away with the 4k as an intermediate from the 1k to the 8k.. if I use it like the cursed Spyderco ultra-unfine hone.. stropping style?! (spine first) Jesus Christ!! I don't mean to use His name in vain, or as profanity. Nope. I'm gonna need this messianic Jew to save me! (For this experiment.) Okay, maybe I'm just asking for a miracle.. for my razor(s). I need all the help I can get. This is getting ridiculous. It's like.. wow. I find out I have the innate talent, easily build the skills (in part because of reading on here for months before even considering getting a set of hones) and develop the techniques correctly and exhibit the proper mindset to get it done right.. to end up being thwarted, nay, outright betrayed by my own equipment.

So now I've got the first combination stone done as far as I can tell, as good as it can get [fingers crossed]. And now I have the 8k side done. And, despite my growing feelings of distrust and anger and frustration towards Norton's Mexican quality hones.. I really, really like the Norton system. I love that sucking action on the wonderfully smooth 8,000. Love, not like. It's just so wonderful! Heaven is a bunch of thickly bearded men with coarse hair who love to remain shaven, each with a straight-edge and a lack of hones, all waiting for me to refresh them.. starting with the Norton 8,000 waterstone! That's heaven. So all this theology B.S. is a bunch of hoo-hah. I've already seen the vision of Paradise in the afterlife. I know where I'm going when I die. I'm just trying to find a way to get a taste of it early before I pass.

I have to do something tomorrow and it's gotten so late from working on these hones I don't think I have the time to actually give that re-finished Dubl Duck Dwarf a test drive. It's okay, it'll wait. Back to the old GoldTech DE after tonight's shower. I'm very excited. Nervous. I hope this works. I was inspecting the Kansas City Wedge after attempting to hone it on the Spyderco medium and fine hones. It seems like pretty hard steel. Don't know for sure because medium in Spyderco's system is too fine to start on this guy.

I never heard of problems with Shapton hones. Naniwas seem the new kids on the block.

Different set up could be: barber hone, followed by coticule, then Cr2O3 on leather.

Barber hones are cheap and cheerful, reasonably fast cutting. E.g. Swaty or carborundum hone were very popular. If you buy the coticule from a reputable vendor there should not be a problem. If a coticule is not flat enough it is easily flattened.

Okay, that's the concise response that makes sense and I'll have to put it in my "memory" file for later. But I have a tight money situation right now, and certainly for the foreseeable future. I'm making do with the Nortons and Spydercos. Just going to take out the "lapped" Nortons and see what I can do. I'm thinking if I can at least set a bevel with the first Norton (220/1000) then maybe it (the razor) can make the leap up to Spyderco's "medium" level, though it's an estimation at best I think it may function as a replacement for the Mexicano 4k side, which probably only works right when it (or me) is drenched in tequila! From there I could go to the Spyderco fine or the beloved 8k Norton. That Norton needs to start gettin' in touch with some "talent" agents in the porn biz, its got.. awesome potential...

Oh yeah, Kees... yer thinkin' 15,000 cr ox, right? I don't know exactly what the huge deal is with slow vs. fast cutting. I guess faster is better, especially for guys who hone other people's razors and other professionals. Screwing around with the Spydercos it looks like the "Kansas City Special" is kind of hard. I really don't know what I'm in for. I'm still a newbie at this. I must say, purchased two Bokers, both within 5/8ths range and square-tipped. Very nice condition, no major chips, nice scales and one's pivot pin is appropriately tight. Saw it, decided I'd put an unreasonable feeler of a bid out and figured I didn't have anything to lose as it was casual eBay browsing.. lo and behold, I'm now a potential member of the Boker Brotherhood for an unreasonable price. This was well over a year ago and it was not a buying frenzy so please don't accuse me of being one of your "kind". I'm better than that!

I have some quality time ahead of me. Slow, painful, angst-ridden quality time with plenty of blood (from wearing my hand skin off and tearing chunks out running over the 4k) sweat (because it takes forever) and tears (from betrayal).

IIRC the particle size of Cr2O3 is apporx. 0.5 micron. I am not sure how that translates into grit size. Cr2O3 mellows the edge. It gives me a more comfy shave, I am not sure it actually sharpens the edge.

The finer the hone the slower it cuts.

If you need a real cheap set up: get yourself lapping paper of the desired grit size, tape it onto a glass plate and you're in business.