Thread: Some problems when shaving. Please help.

Originally Posted by gsingh13

25. up and down is 1 stroke counted.

I assume that's 25 on leather alone? Try 60 leather. If you have a material strop (linen, canvas, webbing etc) do 20-30 laps prior to leather. I think you'll notice a difference.

Yea, I would up the stropping count also. Personally I do 20 on hard felt, don't have canvas or nylon webbing, followed by 60 on leather before each shave. Watch your blade angle and possibly your lather may be too thick with not enough water in it too. Hard to find the sweet spot between too much or too little water when making lather.

Bob

Number of strokes on the strop is pretty much meaningless without some gauge of stropping effectiveness. Your edge could be perfectly "shave ready" but if your shaving technique is lacking you may suffer poor results. Or visa versa you technique may be fine, your edge not so much. Or it could be both. Therefore, it's rather difficult to tell which is the case just by test shaving. And adding additional stropping strokes? How will that really help considering the above variables?

I suppose it's a start. But you're shooting in the dark.

If you are just stropping, learn the correct thumb pad test to test the edge after stropping. Then, regardless of number of stropping passes, you'll be able to gauge your stropping. See Sidney Thorpe Standard Baber Text for details on stropping and honing.

Also covers correct shaving technique. Just adapt to shaving yourself.

Originally Posted by honedright

Adding additional stropping strokes? How will that really help considering the above variables?

I suppose it's a start.

That's the idea.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

That's the idea.

Good. And now I think he is started in the right direction.

Hope the OP keeps us updated on his progress!

I never use my linen strop unless I encounter big issues with my shave. Right after honing i go right to leather based on advice by Maksim who sold me my jnat. The linen actually makes the edge worse imho. The linen is fairly aggressive in terms of stropping material BUT does a good job of resetting the blade as mentioned. You're getting some good advice here. There are plenty of threads about stropping technique that you should get familiar with and plenty of videos on youtube. Stick with it and figure out what works best for you on your strop and let us know.

At the end of the day, regardless of who honed your razor and who said it's shave ready, it might not be up to YOUR standard based on sensitivity of your skin or thickness/density of your particular beard. You might consider touching up your blade on the hones if you have no luck with stropping.

Start at a finishing level stone, shave and reflect. If the shave still isn't up to snuff, go one stone below your finisher, then finisher, shave, reflect, repeat as necessary to the point of resetting your bevel. This allows for improvement in edge without sacrificing much steel.

Keep us posted.

Hi guys thanks so much for all your posts. Well I'm just waiting now for my next shave. My hair hasn't grown enough for me to do my next shave but as soon I do I'll give you an up date. First thing I suppose is to try and increase the number of strops and see how that goes. I'm only using leather by the way and since you have said 25 is not enough I will increase it. I'm very finely doing the stropping so I don't think I am dulling the blade although that could be a possibility. As somebody has said it is difficult to pin down where the problem lies. If technique/angle is the problem then, I think, that can be easily be fixed however if the problem is with the edge or the stropping then it's going to be much more difficult to fix. If I use a process of elimination and assume for the time being the problem lies with the angle/technique how else, other than actually shaving my face, can I test the effectiveness of the strop or the sharpness of the blade?

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, the thumb pad test described in Thorpe's book (or the "alternate" method in the SRP sharpness test wiki. Why it's the alternate I don't know) will allow you to judge whether or not your edge is keen enough for shaving. That will at least help you to eliminate the razor edge as a culprit. Once you've verified that your edge is shave ready, and not the problem, you can then focus more on your shaving technique.