Do I need to send my razor in?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
clarman
I read post after post from novice shavers who are starting to shave with str8s...for the most part it seems their initial experience is less than gratifying...The shave is not close and in many cases unpleasant and bloody...so what do they do? after reading the forum posts, they buy a norton stone or buy paste to apply to a strop which should be applied to a paddle and work the razor to death...In my opinion this is not the road to sucess! A new shaver needs to learn and master the basics of stroping and shaving with the str8...He needs to purchase a shave ready str8 from a proven honer such as lynn...he needs to start out with a blade he can handle such as a 5/8 blade...by doing this, the new shaver will learn what a sharp blade is...the newbie should refrain from honing or sharpening with paste as improper technique will destroy whatever edge the honemeister has put on the razor and then its back to square one...I know everyone on this forum wants to see newbies...learn and enjoy the pleasures of str8 shaving...hopefully my thoughts will save the new shaver a lot of... pain and frustration
I put this post in the newbie section yesterday. Does anyone have any advice for the below:
Hi,
I'm Brett. I have been getting my haircuts with straight razors around the ears for years by my barbers. I'm in the military and need to keep short haircuts and have found this most cost effective.
Recently I switched barbers do to driving time. My new barber pressured me to try a face shave after a long weekend. After the first one, I was hooked. The next two haircuts I had the barber shave my face as well.
Of course, this led me down the path of.......how can I do this myself. My new barber (a Russian immigrant) (who seem to be the only barbers in Phoenix who use straight razors) offered to sell me one. They use the ones that take disposable blades. I bought one from him and went to Walgreens and bought the blades. I cut myself pretty bad the first few uses and progressively got better.
This led me down the path of internet research and I found a 5 piece set at nashville knife that featured a Dovo 5/8 razor, strop, a cake of soap, badger brush and stand. I bought it and selected the pre-honed by Lynn Abrams version.
While I waited for delivery, I bought Lynn's world of straight shaving dvd and realized it was a lot more complicated than I thought. I youtubed videos and tried to prepare for my first true straight razor shave.
I received my set and set to shaving the next day. I tried stropping as I had seen on the internet and Lynn's video. I of course screwed up once and flipped the wrong way and cut into my strop. I didn't get a good shave and figure this must be why.
I tried again the following night and managed not to cut myself but still didn't achieve the close shave like my barber and I had to go over it with my old gillete sensor.
I did more research and think I might have screwed up the blade. It does not pass the hair pop test from my wifes hair brush. I am going to try to strop on the canvas side tonight and then leather and see if it helps but I'm afraid I'm going ot have to send it in for re-honing after just 4 uses.
Last time it dragged across my face. I addes some water to the lather thinking that might be the problem but it just made the razor glide OVER the beard. I found that increasing my angle helped but still didn't get as close as a disposable blade and I know that isn't how it should work.
Any advice? Do I just need to strop more or should I send it back to Lynn?