Razors Aren't Shaving Well!

Hello everyone,

I have been having issues with the two straights I use to shave with. They are just not sharp enough/shaving as they should. When I compare them to my DE blades and how they perform, it is pretty clear that they are not to the level they should be. Both my razors were honed by Lynn who is obviously one of the most competent and experienced honers. Therefore, I'm thinking it has to be something I'm doing!

I'm kinda frustrated with the whole thing, but I'm going to figure this whole shavin' thing out even if its the last thing I do! ;)

While the razors do cut hair (they can easily shave my arm hair), when it comes to the thick whiskers and heavy growth areas such as my chin they just pull and tug horribly! :(

I am assuming it is my stropping technique, and that I must be dulling the edges. I've watched stropping videos on YouTube and feel like there could be two potential culprits.

First: I might be applying too much pressure. Even though I hold my strop very taught and I am not pushing so hard as to deform the strop or bend under the weight of the razor.

Second: Up until now I haven't been using the X-stroke on my strop which is a 2". Early on when learning to strop I realized that when I attempted the X-stoke I would continuously lift up the toe, as I would let the weight of the scales cause the heel and scales to drop therefore lifting up the toe. Which resulted in the toe having less contact with the strop. So to ameliorate the problem I used my own stropping technique. Which is: I start with the heel of the razor on my strop with the toe hanging off. So about 2/3s of the razor is making contact with the strop from the heel up almost to the toe, with the last 1/3 (actually a little less) hanging off. Then I go up and back down; thats one pass. Then I slide the razor to the other side, so the toe is now on the strop and the heel is hanging off. Then I go up and come back; thats the second pass.

This helped me keep the blade perfectly level on the surface of the strop and eliminated my lifting of the toe. I dont see why this would dull the edge in and of it self, but nonetheless, I have switched to the X-stroke.

If anyone could give me their thoughts/advice on what might be causing this and what steps I can take to rectify the issue I would be very grateful.

Thanks,
Chance

When you got the razors did you initially shave or did you strop first? If you shaved without stropping that would have given you a clue if your stropping was the problem. At this point it could be your stropping or your shave technique-angle, pressure or the razor may not be sharp enough. Those are the possibilities.

Stropping is one of those things that seems to be deceptively easy but in fact requires numerous manipulations and they all have to be done right and for most you can look at a million videos but in the end you have to learn by doing.

At this point I would probably send the razors back for honing and when you get them back, initially shave without stropping and see what happens.

How many strokes on the strop are you doing ?
Read all the time lately about people "rolling" the edge by stropping. You have to be seriously bad at stropping to Roll the edge.
Much more likely you just have not stropped enough/well enough to prepare the edge.
Try doing around 120 careful X-strokes and see if that improves the situation. If it works you can slowly reduce the strokes until you feel its still working without spending un-nesessary time stropping.
Something I do which seems to help (I may be wrong) is warm the blade by holding it under running hot water before stropping.
Best of luck to you.

Before speculating on stropping or shaving technique etc, my first question is (approximately) how many shaves have these razors seen?

I've found out that there are alot of variables that will make a razor not shave how it should, but most of the time there are two that will throw off a razors performance for me 1: not enough skin stretching 2: beard prep. If a razor isn't shaving how it should I make sure I am stretching my skin tight and giving the whiskers some good prep before I decide on bringing a razor to the stones. As stated above if the razor has just seen alot of shaves it might just need to be touched up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

When you got the razors did you initially shave or did you strop first? If you shaved without stropping that would have given you a clue if your stropping was the problem. At this point it could be your stropping or your shave technique-angle, pressure or the razor may not be sharp enough. Those are the possibilities.

Stropping is one of those things that seems to be deceptively easy but in fact requires numerous manipulations and they all have to be done right and for most you can look at a million videos but in the end you have to learn by doing.

At this point I would probably send the razors back for honing and when you get them back, initially shave without stropping and see what happens.

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I have shaved with one of the razors before stropping then when I had the second (a Clauss USMC) honed Lynn told me to always strop before shaving as that might be the issue. (I had explained the issue to him because I actually sent my first razor (a Dovo) to get touched up along with my Clauss. I did notice that they shaved a tiny bit better when they came back from honing, but not substantially. I am waiting on a W&B to come back from honing and I am going to shave without stropping first so as to (like you said) give myself a point of reference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by England

How many strokes on the strop are you doing ?
Read all the time lately about people "rolling" the edge by stropping. You have to be seriously bad at stropping to Roll the edge.
Much more likely you just have not stropped enough/well enough to prepare the edge.
Try doing around 120 careful X-strokes and see if that improves the situation. If it works you can slowly reduce the strokes until you feel its still working without spending un-nesessary time stropping.
Something I do which seems to help (I may be wrong) is warm the blade by holding it under running hot water before stropping.
Best of luck to you.

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35 on the mesh side and 70 on the leather. I will try your suggestions, thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryan82

Before speculating on stropping or shaving technique etc, my first question is (approximately) how many shaves have these razors seen?

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Dovo: less than 10 since touch up.

Clauss: about the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JSmith1983

I've found out that there are alot of variables that will make a razor not shave how it should, but most of the time there are two that will throw off a razors performance for me 1: not enough skin stretching 2: beard prep. If a razor isn't shaving how it should I make sure I am stretching my skin tight and giving the whiskers some good prep before I decide on bringing a razor to the stones. As stated above if the razor has just seen alot of shaves it might just need to be touched up.

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I appreciate your input! Although beard prep and skin stretching are two areas I feel pretty confident in, as they are aspects of my shave that I take care to do right. Alteast the majority of the time.



@Anyone:
I purchase a balsa bench hone yesterday with .50 CroOx paste. Would a touch up on that be a good idea when I recieve it?

Since you are confident in your stretching and prep that takes care of a couple of possibilities. The balsa strop wouldn't hurt. Try 10-20 laps and see if it helps. Some razors just need to be touched up more often than others. You might be stropping to lightly. My strop always has slight flex whenever stropping, but I don't hold it so tight where my knuckles turn white. I also probably touch up more than most even though most of my razors probably don't need it, but I will give my razors 5-10 laps on CroOx or my C12k after every 5-10 shaves except for one razor that I am trying to see how long it will take to need a touch up. That razor just wants to stay sharp.

So you strop one half of the razor, up and back, and then the other half? Interesting. If the edge is flat on the strop, that should work, I think, maybe. I don't use an X stroke, I just use 1/2 an X stroke. I won't bore you with the details now.

Like Ryan said, we need to know how long you've had them for and shaved with them. For all we know you've been shaving with them for ten years :-)

I touch my razors up on a Shapton 16k about every two months or so; I've started a honing journal so I don't have to guess in the future. I rotate about six razors on and off. Ten laps on the Shapton is enough.

I wouldn't 'hold my strop very taught'. Very taught can leave too little give or flex, in my experience. Also, no pressure needed at all, you need to keep the edge touching the strop, but there's no downwards pressure when I strop. Make sure you don't twist forwards on the tang. Try and concentrate laying the blade flat, rather than any twisting forward. Make sure the strop's at the right height for you. I think a strop where it's fixed to the wall is slightly lower than the height at which you hold it works well too.

That's just all the stuff I myself think about when stropping, it's not necessarily 'right'.

EDIT: (sorry, took too long to write my post, I see you've said how many shaves! :-)

I'm honing ('scuse the pun) on this comment:

"...I did notice that they shaved a tiny bit better when they came back from honing, but not substantially..."

So, we can probably discount a problem with the razor's edge. If you only got a slightly better shave after the honing then surely it's something else. Sure, you suggest the edge was better when fresh, but not substantially. And you shaved with one BEFORE stropping.

So, now we know (maybe, I think) that it's prep or technique. My opinion only :-)

{EDIT} or maybe your beard? I've seen a few posts where some guys just have a really thick heavy beard., what works for me may not work for you..

some blades are thin enough where ANY pressure other than the blade weight itself on the strop will downgrade the edge...others have a bit thicker or heavier grind steel where a little bit more pressure is fine

You should not expect to get great shaves from the first tries, it takes some time to learn the proper angle stretching etc. It takes may be even longer to learn proper stropping, until you do you may have unsatisfactory shaves. You should not compare DE to a SR they are different edges, and the DE has built in angle of attack while the SR does not, you have to learn it.
I'd say you have the typical "it is not the Indian it is the arrow" problem, just practice and you will get to a point where you will start getting good at first and then great shaves.

Also make sure you are not using too much pressure when shaving. I try to think of it as gliding the razor across my face and letting the razor do the work. Too much pressure can make it feel harsh IME. The chin area is probably the easiest area to use too much pressure. Atleast that I what found when shaving.