Thread: First shave... not Good

well I went down to the post office yesterday and picked up my package from Tony Miller (it was around 4 p.m.) went home opened it up and there it was.
my new 4 sided pre-pasted, 3 in red latigo strop and Tony's last dovo special
straight which he pre-sharpend for me.Beautiful like everyone says!! well I got in a steaming shower for about 20 min, splashed some more hot water on my face, used some pre -shave oil over my stubble and proceded to lather my new spice from St charles. as soon as I finshed putting the lather ,I began to strop on the linen side 20X and the the smooth leather side 20x. I put the blade to my face while stretching my skin over my head and the blade just got stuck and pulled on my beard for about an inch, it was not comfortable it was like shaving with my mack3 without wetting my beard, I was also a bit worried I was going to get sliced, I was just not comfortable doing this,I tried several other spots and expierenced the same uneasyness. I was going real slow ,the lather was disapearing, so I re-stroped re-lathered and tried again. after about 20min I stoped. I guess I have to do a little bit each day, what am I doing wrong?
have others gone thru this? could I have messed up the blade stroping? I went slow and layed the blade flat. really confused right now.

One possibility is you may have lifted the spine of
the razor while stropping and rolled the edge.

Do a hanging hair test on the edge or test against
the hairs on the side of you arm.

Other than this I'm not sure where the problem may
lie. I am sure that with the help of the more experienced
members that the problem will be resolved.

Best of Luck,

Terry

could be,,so what do i do to fix it?
Thanks ,Caesar

Caesar,

If thta's what it is, one of the members can re hone the razor
for you. Do let some of the more experienced guys respond
first though. I've only been at this a month myself and I
could be dead wrong.


Terry

Caesar,

Terry might very well be right. However here is another posibility what angle did you have the blade at relative to your face? It should be about 30 degees, about twice the width of the spine. If it was too upright it would also pull the hair.

Caesar,
Sorry that shave did not go well. I do sharpen all the razors before sending but I do not shave with them as a test. I do a thumb test and hanging hair test but without a test shave I cannot assure you it is as sharp as it should be.
I would work on that pasted strop a bit and am sure that will quickly get you where you need to be. Start again on the 3.0 side, go 20-30 passes slowly, keeping the blade completely flat to the strop. Move to the 1.0 for 30, the 0.5 for another 30 and again on the 0.25 and try it again.

Tony

You have a pasted strop, if it's just a little off, I'd suggest a few strokes on the paste in order to bring the edge back perfect. Strop as normal, just making sure to clean the razor thoroughly between sides of the strop to ensure you don't cross-contaminate your grits.

Who knows if the razor got knocked around in shipping or whatever. If it was a bad stropping error, though, and you took the edge off, you might need to re-hone the razor. Try the pasted strop first, though, that usually gets things all fixed up.

Yes, and watch that stropping. If you're using a hanginf strop to finish make sure that sucker's pulled taught and use a very gentle motion with the razor. It could be your angle too. A slight cutting angle can help you, even 5º. You can read about it here under Shave With Extreme Predjudice. And remember, safety first!

X

I had the same problem with one of Tony's new Dovo's in a package deal. The blade just wasnt sharp enough for me. After butchering my face for about a month, I finally sent it off to Lynn to make sure it was as sharp as a new blade should be. Still waiting for the DOVO to return from Lynn.... in the meantime, I bought a used package of razors, pasted and hanging strop, from one of the members here. I found that the pasted strop probably was the key to getting the keenest edge on an "almost" shave ready razor. Hang in there. With a lot of patience and practice, it gets better.
Jason

I would say stropping with green paste until it passes the hair test. Seems to me that the razor just is not sharp enough. My DOVO (Astrale 5/8 half hollow) from the store was in fact sharp enough, but I often read that DOVOS sometimes leave the factory not really sharp - perhaps they have not enough time to sharpen properly ...

I am sorry that your first shave was not as convincing as you probably expected it, but with a real sharp razor you will instantly see and feel the difference!

Good luck!