Everything feels to be coming together... finally!

After my shave 5 minutes ago (waiting for my hair to dry so I can go to bed) I feel as if everything is starting to finally come together, with respect to razors and myself. With the addition of my Naniwa 1k, I am finally setting good bevels, which lead to some very fine edges after the Norton 4/8k and my Chinese finisher. My actual shaving technique has always seemed to progress slower than my honing and restoration skills, but after my first cold water shave tonight I feel as though I am close to being more than just adequate. I don't feel as though I need to touch this shave up with a DE, so it must be pretty decent. The only major thing I feel I need to work on is my chin and mustache area. I think both will be a matter of getting the scything motion perfected, and the correct skin stretching direction. Thanks for bearing with my 1.5yr newbiness; I just had to share this feeling of accomplishment that has been the culmination of many hours of work. Thanks to everybody for all the great information.

great job all around. i'm sure its a great feeling. i hope to get into honing myself once i get the funds to afford everything. good job and keep at it!

Congrats, it is very nice when things start to come together. The difficult areas will get better also, just give it some more time.

mvcrash said it well,

It really is a great feeling when all things start coming together. Congrats on getting to this point. A little more and you'll probably have really stellar shaves!

Not sure how long it took you but I am ready to throw in the towel. Getting really sick of bad shaves for 2 months in a row with straights. I mean its better than my first couple of weeks and I don't nic myself anymore. Seems like I have hit a wall :banghead: It just isn't getting any better. I'm thinking now I am just your average American that will eventually use cartridge razors in the end. So everyone might want to gear up for a big shave den sell off ! Hope your day is better than mine. At least I had a good round of golf yesterday!

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Originally Posted by greenjosh

Not sure how long it took you but I am ready to throw in the towel. Getting really sick of bad shaves for 2 months in a row with straights. I mean its better than my first couple of weeks and I don't nic myself anymore. Seems like I have hit a wall :banghead: It just isn't getting any better. I'm thinking now I am just your average American that will eventually use cartridge razors in the end. So everyone might want to gear up for a big shave den sell off ! Hope your day is better than mine. At least I had a good round of golf yesterday!

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Where are you located? You might want to see if there's a meet already planned near you and if not, perhaps someone would be willing to help you out in person.

Located in Southern, NH. Didn't see much for gatherings in these parts!

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Originally Posted by greenjosh

Not sure how long it took you but I am ready to throw in the towel. Getting really sick of bad shaves for 2 months in a row with straights. I mean its better than my first couple of weeks and I don't nic myself anymore. Seems like I have hit a wall :banghead: It just isn't getting any better. I'm thinking now I am just your average American that will eventually use cartridge razors in the end. So everyone might want to gear up for a big shave den sell off ! Hope your day is better than mine. At least I had a good round of golf yesterday!

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It took me a year and a half. I bought a shave ready razor from the Classifieds here so that I knew it could only be my technique. I started out with just focusing on shaving my cheeks, at first. After the first time trying my upper lip, and the pain that came with it, I didn't shave that with a straight for 4-5 months. I progressed to shaving my neck and chin, and then finally started doing the lip area about 6 months ago. I highly suggest not giving up, but there is no shame in having a poor shave and touching up with another razor. That is the exact reason I keep a DE at hand. But looking at how far I have come since beginning, and knowing that I had considered giving up, I feel incredibly accomplished and am glad I stuck with it.

Usually I catch on to things that require dexterity and technique very quickly. But throw in the fact that making a mistake could mean blood, and anybody will be a little more cautious. My advice to you is to just forget about how bad your shaves are, and concentrate on what you can do to fix it. Another suggestion I have is that you start a shave-journal that you take notes in after each shave. Things to put in there: stropping, and how you feel your technique scored, soap brand and how your lather behaved, hot vs cold water, if you showered before shaving, what passes you did WTG/ATG, and what parts of your face you had problems with, etc and so forth. That way you can hopefully start to see patterns, or people on here might be able to see some.

You sound pretty down about the prospect of being a Mach-er, so stick with it!

Not a Mach-er! Anything but a Mach-er! I really appreciate the response! The biggest problem I am having that I can't seem to get around or change is that my beard grows almost sideways on my neck. So when I shave straight down for my first pass its kind of rough. Going from ear to nose and nose to ear is no problem for the cheek area. Coming up the neck is rough also. I have changed the spine angle to the point where its almost flat to the skin. As far as coming up the cheek its impossible. It won't cut and it tugs so I don't even bother. Iv'e tried stretching the skin different ways and my razors are VERY sharp. So this is what I do for my straight shave. Straight down WTG, Ear to nose and nose to ear. I then come up the neck twice. My cheeks come out great but I get lots of stubble if I rub my neck from right to left. Which is very annoying because sometimes my collar on my shirt or jacket rubs against my neck and gets sort of caught. If I rub my face straight down its fine and smooth. So thats what I have been dealing with for the last month or so. Sometimes I will do a final pass with a DE but then irritation sets in on the neck. So right now I just keep buying razors and trying them hoping for a miracle :) but I know its all about the technique. Same with golf! Its not the clubs its the user!

The hair on my throat grows pretty much sideways also. When I do an against the grain pass, I am really shaving from the side of my neck towards the throat. The irritation could be due to using too much pressure. That was another thing it was hard for me to dial down. It's really just using the razor to barely graze the skin. The other thing I had to force myself to do was to use a scything motion when making a pass. If you just go straight on, the cutting of the hair is a lot harder to accomplish, thus tugging. A scything motion (moving the razor horizontally slightly) will help, I think. A good way to think about the scything motion is to picture using the X-stroke used for stropping or honing on your face.

Just received my new ebay purchase a Double Duck Satin Wedge 5/8. I was uncertain how it would shave being it was a 5/8th the smallest I have tried to date. I have been going bigger from 6/8 to 7/8. I was just curious with it being a wedge and a DD. Well this thing is AMAZING! Posted my best shave to date! So excited! The movability of the razor made a huge difference. It was great around the chin and nose area. Fabulous weight & balance. I have learned that bigger is NOT better. I think a 6/8 wedge would be perfect! No Mach-er in my future! I posted some pics of this beauty.