Thread: Desperate Need of Help

Strop the bejesus out of it again and play with the angle a little bit, the angle of the blade to the face is different with the feather than a straight. Be sure to watch Shams video again and practice what he preaches.

Originally Posted by IamtheLaw382

Additionally, I don't see any scratches on the spine of the razor from honing. Should I see them if it's been honed before?

Thanks again for all your help. I imagine I will send it off for rehoning sometime in the near future.

It all depends if the razor was taped when honed. As the others have said give it a good stropping and see if that helps. Or maybe send it out for a proffessional honing and then don't strop first and see if you notice the difference.

With the Feather blade, you can shave with a wider angle usually because the blade is machined and a smaller width.

With the straight razor, your hand has a tendency to bend backwards opening up the shaving angle to 45-90 degrees. The straight razor needs to be at a 30 degree or less angle which is pretty vertical. Give this a try after stropping and see if your straight razor doesn't cut any better for you. Use short little strokes and longer strokes for clean up.

Have fun,

Lynn

Some very good points were brought up already. I too, would never compare a feather or shavette to a real straight razor, but there may be some merit in what you say. I'm not sure where you are in the world, but it might be a good idea to have an experienced member check out your blade, test shave it, and possibly touch it up for you. If you want, I'll do it for you, free of charge, you pay the shipping...or, let us know where you are, and there might be someone close by, willing to help...

In all honesty, don't be surprised if they tell you the blade is fine. Good points by Lynn...
Rich

I'm in South Carolina.

I'm pretty sure that I'm keeping the angle of the razor low. I won't deny the possibility that I'm completely inept at this but I've had the blade nearly flat on my face. I'm going to watch the videos recommended most recently either tomorrow or the next day, strop the snot out of the razor, and give it another go. If nothing else, I do feel like the videos have helped my stropping.

Did some videos that were posted get removed from this thread? I could have sworn there was one on this page.

"The straight razor needs to be at a 30 degree or less angle which is pretty vertical."

I think I know what is trying to get said here, but is 30 degrees close to vertical, and vertical compared to which horizontal plane?

The thirty degrees describes the angle between the spine/razor and face: zero degrees would be the spine in contact with the face. What is comfortable for me is about a spine's thickness of space between razor spine and my face for the first pass and a bit less for my second pass. I have no idea what those degrees are, but experimentation got me to those relationships.

good shaving

[QUOTE=Ryan82;728439]I'll try to answer your points one-by-one:

-Straight shaving is full of highs and lows; one day you're one fire, the next you're wondering what went wrong. This is entirely normal.

Hi Ryan,
I like this one",.....full of highs and lows.........."Very true indeed.

(moonbeam

I just joined the forum and your post caught my eye because that is exactly my problem. I had a perfectly honed Puma razor and I managed to make it too dull to shave in one shave session. I had a Wade & Butcher honed and I was unable to shave with it period. It just moved over the stubble without cutting it.
I have one silver lining: I bought a Boker King Cutter from a straight razor afficionado and it arrived in the mail ready to shave. It seemed sharper than any other straight razor I had tried before. It also proved to be indistructible and still works after several shave - stropping sessions. It is the only true straight razor that works for me at the moment.
I also use a Dovo Shavette with exchangeable blades so that I can separate the learning curve of shaving and that of keeping the edge sharp. I'll have to keep in mind what I just learned here, that the shave of a true straight razor is just different.
I just bought a barber hone off ebay so I hope to learn to get my other straights as sharp as the Boker. I am sure it will be a journey. The tips from this forum are awesome!
Good luck to you and me!