Thread: About to try it for first time, but confused . . .

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Well I'd have to say....30 degrees...LOL....yea. We need to hunt down the idiot that wrote that 90 degree stuff....I like to use 30 for the first pass and maybe 40 for the second. 90 will have a good shot at breaking your edge. And just for the record EdlinLA, its a perfectly valid question. Many just use two spine widths as a guide to attain 30 degrees. Try and feel a smoothest cutting point, its noisy too, don't let that throw you.

Maybe the author was just doing the math...30 degrees X three passes = 90 degrees!

RT

Originally Posted by EdinLA44

I didn't say anything about the validity of his question.

LOL....Yes you did...anyway thats the way I read it this morning at 4 am....sorry I was referring to the original post....

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

LOL....Yes you did...anyway thats the way I read it this morning at 4 am....sorry I was referring to the original post....

It's cool. I just hope you weren't trying to shave at that hour.

Unfortunately yes! I have to shave at 4:30 am every morning. Makes shaving with a straight almost dangerous! Oh wait....

Jeff touched on it, but I'll echo that a sharp razor is critical to a close shave. And, yes, 30 degrees (about 2 spine widths) is usually the best angle for shaving most of your face. But, I've also found that in tough places like your chin and neck laying the razor flatter, almost but not quite against the spine (10-20 degrees) is helpful. Otherwise the razor sometimes wants to dig in and pull in these regions, especially with tough beards. But again, sharp is imperitive. It should at least pass the hanging hair test.

Tom

No bagging please, but my razor, brush, soap, and stand all came in the mail yesterday -- but not my strop -- and I thought I'd give it a try right out of the box despite the reams of good advice in this forum and others about how it's hit or miss and maybe you'll get a shave-ready razor and maybe you won't. So, long story sharp, my brand spanking new Pierre Thiers Limited Editions (No. 162) is not quite sharp enough for a close shave. Of course, it was my first time ever, and my soaping up/lathering technique probably leaves something to be desired, but I'm fairly confident the razor's not quite keen enough, as my skin's a little sore (though not rashed-out). Being completely irresponsible, of course, I went ahead and disregarded everyone's advice and did my entire face rather than just the sides of my cheeks, and it took me about 40 minutes, and it was a tad nerve-racking, especially up under my nose and around my lower lip. I took a shower, put a warm washrag on my face for a minute or so, lathered up with my new badger bristle, did two passes, and was trying really hard not to exert any force at all but merely to slide the razor over my skin, but the skin's still a bit tight looking and sore. For comparison purposes, I would say I got about the same quality shave as one would with a plastic disposable single blade razor from Walgreens. But on the bright side I didn't cut myself at all , and the technique didn't feel too awkward even though I used my right hand for everything. (I tried the left and it felt too odd to try, at least for now). I'm waiting for a Norton 4000/8000 and a paddle strop from Tony Miller with a .50 micron grit on it, and will lightly hone with a 3/3, 1/3, 1/3 on the Norton and then do 5-10 passes on the pasted side of the strop, followed b¥*10-15 passes on the smooth leather side, and then try again.

And to keep this post thread-relevant, thank you all for your advice on the angle, as I kept the blade at 30º for most of the shave, and a little closer under the bottom lip (15º or so), rather than the 90º I was flirting with before (I would call that flirting with disaster now if I were trying to be facetious).

Remember Caravaggio, Rome wasn't built in a week!!!

Crawl before you walk!

-Rob

Sounds like you are in pretty good shape and ready for some of the best shaves of your life. Just one thought: Honing very lightly might be too heavy. Yeah, I mean it. Go ULTRA light on those passes and you'll probably improve your edge and not dull it. Especially at the end of honing or when the razor really is almost there, I feel that there is no such thing as too light under those circumstances.

X

You shaved without stropping? If thats the case I would only strop the razor when it arrives and test shave again. I would also use a less aggressive honing plan first, then restrop, then test shave one more time. So once the strop arrives, strop and test shave, then hone. Then I would try a few passes on the 8k followed by the .5 paste. Then restrop and test shave. It sounds to me like this razor is very close to shave ready, I mean really, really close. If you can run it over the pasted strop without using the hone you'll much more likely keep this thing running. So:

Congrats on your first shave, no more shaving without stropping, and be very careful how aggressive you attack the blade at this point. Stropping alone will probably cut it.