Thread: Third Straight shave, first cut, and a question

Hi,
I performed the third straight shaving tonight and got the first cut.
It is not that bad, only half inch long and some white stuff exposed (body
tissue I guess, and no blood shed).

I just got greedy and started to practice my techniques with
multiple passes. For a moment, I lost the track of the blade, and
bingo- a cut. I will be more careful next time.
Anyway, I ended up with a "presentable" face (far from BBS though).
I could be proud of myself because I did not cheat using my DE.

One question:
I was using the DOVO best quality from SRD for the first time.
Although the blade is sharp (has to be), I can feel the resistance of
the skin (or hair) quite strong to prevent the blade from moving smoothly.
BTW, I applied minimum pressure and treated the DOVO as a light saber.

Is this because my angle of blade too narrow or the lather I made too thick (sticky?)? Or the problem may
be my motion is wrong. I will watch more shaving on youtube before I start the fourth one.

Thank you.

What razor did you use the first two times? If it was less hollow or otherwise stiffer than the Dovo, then some of that might just be greater flex.

Also, did you strop the razor at all before shaving? You should at least strop on leather before each shave.

If your "cut" didn't bleed then either it couldn't have been bad or your razor is sharper than a scalpel (and probably wouldn't have any drag at all if that were the case). Keep at it and stay focused, once you get past the learning curve you'll be glad you did.

I got distracted a couple times in my first months of straight-shaving and ended up looking like I'd just won a knife-fight a couple times, but in every case I knew exactly what I'd screwed up or gotten lazy about before the blood started, but I switched directly from cartridges to open blades; if you've been doing DE for a while then some of the techniques and things to watch out for (never moving the blade along its edge, for example) should carry over.

There are many options for your situation. First and foremost is that almost everyone gets a cut or nick every once in awhile! Don't sweat it! Besides it doesn't sound like you cut deep enough to draw blood, probably only cut between the layers of skin!

Play with the angle of your razor as you shave! I found that at first without knowing it, I'd be using close to a 60-70deg angle and cut myself! I needed to pay more attention while I was shaving!

As far as BBS goes, don't worry about it! Take your time, adjust the angles as you learn and just try to get a smooth comfortable shave! No one is going to notice if you have a few chin whiskers that are a 64th of an inch at the end of the day!

To this day, I simply shave, re-lather and then re shave, usually following the same routine that I did the first time! It just cleans up what was missed! To Hell with BBS!

Smooth Shaving!

The first two were the vintage ones: King cutter and Carlson co.(?) off Ebay.
I had the similar problem with those two. The blade seemed trying to stick to my skin (not the blade pulling the whiskers, well it did after I "strop" them).
I guess that part of the reason is because I used close to ZERO degree to avoid cutting, so the blade was stuck in the lather (lather was too thick prabably).

I wonder if a better badger brush (I am using the cheapest Omega brush, boar bristle?) could help with this.

you should be able to get plenty of water and good lather with a boar brush, especially if it's broken in. I started with a VDH boar brush ($5 at the drugstore), and got fine lather with that one using a fairly dry soap, and lately actually have a hard time getting enough water out of my "best badger" brush to avoid excessively runny lather.

If you're laying a hollow blade too flat against your face, then the drag may actaully be the spine rather than the edge. I'd say if you get a little bid steeper (20-30 degrees to start, similar to the blade angle on a DE).

Have you had the vintage blades honed? I'm up to 8 vintage buys off e-bay, and even the two I got which were sold as "shave ready" took a little more work to really get there, and the others (sold "as-is") have often needed a fair bit of work including one which had a completely rounded edge. That King Cutter should be a great piece when it's properly honed up, all of my best shavers (at least so far) have turned out to be Bokers.

Hell, a bar of soap and get your face wet and get nice lather on there will do in a pinch. Here's one thing. The face needs to stay wet for a while before you start. Don't just lather and start shaving. Lather, read some on this forum, go back and relather and then try shaving. Let the soap and water work.

I used a cheap razor and dulled it down to practice when I was not shaving with a real "cut off the whiskers" razor. It has worked for me WONDERFUL. I pull it out and practice holding it in my hands, imagining the angles as I softly draw it across my face pretending to shave. I don't go zip zip and such even though it's completely dulled, I am careful AS IF it were extra sharp and by adjusting my hand for grips, trying grips, trying angles, facial feel with the blade... it all came together very fast, at least for me.

Off the face on the back of the razor (spine) with about the width of 3 nickels will get you close to right. Flat against the face will merely glide down and possibly swipe some upper layer of skin.

Following Lynn's recommendations, my first few straight razor shaves consisted of very little actual shaving of my face. My advice would be to try and master a small new piece of your face every time you shave, and then finish up what you haven't shaved with your original method before you used a straight. I'm a few months into things now and have found that as I approach a stroke I KNOW with confidence, the blade tugs less, the whiskers come off easier, and I end up with a smoother shave with less irritation.

However, there are still some areas and angle that are tricky. When I first try those, my hand isn't steady, the blade almost "jumps" from whisker to whisker. Confidence is key for a smooth shave, since it seems to straighten out so many other things.

As far as your lather goes, I certainly wish I had the problem of lather being "too thick". On a micro-scale, thicker lather worked into your beard provides more coverage of exposed skin and softens and conditions the hair for easy cutting. I could be wrong on this though, can lather, assuming it is not gunky, be too thick?

Happy shaving!