Thread: Straight razor shave not as close or smooth as shavette?

Is it your whole face you're having trouble with or just the awkward bits? If you can shave your sideburns/cheeks okay but having trouble with chin/jawline/neck/top lip then it could well be technique. If you can't even shave your sideburns then you may have damaged the edge. That's just my take on it, but I've only been doing this for 4 months.

Originally Posted by Kees

Before blaming the honer you need to ask yurself: "Didn't I destroy the edge myself?"
SRD sharpened blades come honed and stropped, ready for use. Did you strop it before using it the first time? If so you may accidentally damaged the cutting edge. This happens a to a lot of beginners. Did you dry the razor properly before putting it back?

certainly. I considered that aspect of it as well. i did strop it before use, but only because i was instructed to do so by SRD. after shaving, each time i dried then oiled the blade. while my stoping technique could be sub-par, i seriously doubt it was bad enough to destroy the edge. and the last couple of times i took extra care to keep the blade as even as possible and didn't notice any difference.

but even if it was my technique and certain areas are closer than others, what would explain the worse blade drag?

The "slice" thing: when you chop up bread from the loaf, you don't just try to push the knife straight down, you slice, and it works better. Same for shaving. You can either push with the razor at 90 degrees to the line of movement and slide the razor sideways as you do, or turn the edge at an angle to the direction of the cut, as on a guillotine. Or both.

The slicing is like sawing. Guillotine is a bit more esoteric: what it is actually doing is effectively reducing the 15 degree cutting angle of the blade to something even smaller. At a 45 degree angle you're down to a 7.5 degree effective cutting angle. Nifty.

You want to have pretty good control before you do this: no one here wants you to slit your throat while shaving.

Lynn could tell you. :<0) And I am sure he is honest enough that if it was his fault he would tell you. If not his fault well you have to pay to get it honed again anyway. The real test will be when you get it back. Shave with it THEN strop it. See what happens.

I was wondering if it possible to strop a shavette blade. I have no idea but if so it would tell you something too.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

I was wondering if it possible to strop a shavette blade. I have no idea but if so it would tell you something too.

Good idea 10pups. I can confirm you can ruin an edge with stropping, i did exactly that with my first shave ready razor. I watched alot of vids when i started, and bottom line is, everyone shaves differently, but it did help me to learn technique. Never used a shavette, but i am now getting less irritation from a straight than i did with DE razors, or the dreaded mk3.

Originally Posted by vilago

certainly. I considered that aspect of it as well. i did strop it before use, but only because i was instructed to do so by SRD. after shaving, each time i dried then oiled the blade. while my stoping technique could be sub-par, i seriously doubt it was bad enough to destroy the edge. and the last couple of times i took extra care to keep the blade as even as possible and didn't notice any difference.

but even if it was my technique and certain areas are closer than others, what would explain the worse blade drag?

Let me suggest that you have not done anything wrong. You are in the midst of a learning curve. More than likely the blade is properly honed, but if you are like I was, you are too inexperienced to know. People who hone for a living understand this.

It helped me to purchase a second inexpensive razor in the Classifieds section that was shave ready, to eliminate any possibility that honing was an issue. This also allowed me to sample another kind of razor, and see if I liked one better than another.

I think you eliminated stropping as a contributing cause of your difficulty. That is no small accomplishment.

Learning to straight shave is a process of eliminating variables and developing skill in the things that are left to learn.

You have accomplished an awful lot, and things will only get better and more enjoyable.

No need for slicing if your razor is sharp enough. I think slicing is asking for cuts.
Contact SRD and ask them to have a look at the razor, they are usually willing to do so.

Originally Posted by mdarnton

The "slice" thing: when you chop up bread from the loaf, you don't just try to push the knife straight down, you slice, and it works better. Same for shaving. You can either push with the razor at 90 degrees to the line of movement and slide the razor sideways as you do, or turn the edge at an angle to the direction of the cut, as on a guillotine. Or both.

The slicing is like sawing. Guillotine is a bit more esoteric: what it is actually doing is effectively reducing the 15 degree cutting angle of the blade to something even smaller. At a 45 degree angle you're down to a 7.5 degree effective cutting angle. Nifty.

You want to have pretty good control before you do this: no one here wants you to slit your throat while shaving.

OK that's what I'll do. i wanted to get some good feedback from this crowd first, which i have done, and with a little more information in hand i'll be better prepared to discuss options with SRD. thanks everyone for the help!

A couple of more observations... A DE blade (as used in the shavette) is only about half the length of a typical straight razor. Even allowing for the fact that you don't use the whole blade when using a conventional straight you are cutting more whiskers with each stroke which can, at least partially, account for the feeling that there is less drag with the shavette.

I don't use a shavette, but I do use a Feather AC on occasion and I can tell you that it is a very efficient tool for cutting whiskers. Arguably, a fresh Feather blade is sharper than most (but not all) of my razors and somewhat similar to a DE blade. My observation is that if I do one pass the Feather might do a better job of cutting than a regular straight, but if I do two passes the immediate results are indistinguishable if you consider only closeness. Fast forward ten hours or so and a Feather shave has noticeably more stubble. The bottom line is that I am not disappointed with either tool....they are simply different. They feel different in use and they yield slightly different results.

So, is your technique faulty? Maybe not, in a conventional sense. I think you should give it some more time and get to know your straight razor a little better. While it may not be as sharp as a DE blade I bet it's sharp enough to shave you properly and comfortably once you get accustomed to using it.

yeah i was thinking about giving it one or two more tries first, paying a little more attention to how i hold it, angles etc.