Thread: I can't get a straight razor to work

Originally Posted by jameshob

Nice video, really got me back to the basics of prepping for the shave. Unfortunately my razor failed the test. I've only shaved with it 3 times, its from SRDs so they honed it, and ive been really carefull with the stropping. I guess I could try to touch it up myself. I have all the stones but I wouldn't think that I would need to getting it from SRDs. I did, however, get the best shave of my life with my Feather DX Japanese style "no sharpen" straight razor. I love that razor! Thanks again for the shave prep refresher!

Simply put in that Vid and in the thread, until you can pass that test whether it be from Prep, Shaving Technique, Stropping or Honing,,,, perhaps a combination of all those, then nothing else really matters, you have to eliminate the variables one by one until you get the solution...

I have the same problem with straights. Very hard to cut my beard with one. The improvements I have made are in the area of prep. Prep that works for disposable blades is often not adequate for a straight shave. Yes, the Feather is sharper than the straight, but the straight is sharp enough for a good shave if your prep is good. Try not shaving for a couple of days to lengthen your beard because it is easier to measure the effectiveness of your prep on a longer beard. When you are doing your prep feel the beard as you progress. If you don't notice a softening/relaxing of the beard and an increase in the moistness of the hair, then you need to change what you are doing and find a way to achieve this. A clean but stiff beard is a tough challenge for any razor and especially a straight.

Two years of investment with no good outcome must be very frustrating for you. It could indeed be your stropping, but to prove that you'd need to send the razor back out to be honed again and then use it without stropping it. That would only work if the razor made it from the honer to you without much delay and in a dry environment (i.e. if it took a week in the post and it was humid weather, for instance, the edge may very well degrade over that time. Your profile doesn't tell us where you live. What I would do if I were you is try to find someone from the forum near you so you can visit and have a tutorial session. Considering how frustrated you may be at this point in time a road trip might in fact solve all your problems. There are so many variables, but we might gather your prep is not too bad as you can shave with a Feather razor; so your angle, pressure etc may also be quite good.

Why not add some data to your profile and you might find someone jumps in and says "Hey, you're just down the road from me; what say we get together and I show you some tricks of the trade?"

Originally Posted by matloffm

I have the same problem with straights. Very hard to cut my beard with one. The improvements I have made are in the area of prep. Prep that works for disposable blades is often not adequate for a straight shave. Yes, the Feather is sharper than the straight, but the straight is sharp enough for a good shave if your prep is good. Try not shaving for a couple of days to lengthen your beard because it is easier to measure the effectiveness of your prep on a longer beard. When you are doing your prep feel the beard as you progress. If you don't notice a softening/relaxing of the beard and an increase in the moistness of the hair, then you need to change what you are doing and find a way to achieve this. A clean but stiff beard is a tough challenge for any razor and especially a straight.

The feather may be sharper I know but a properly honed and stropped straight is MORE then sharp enough to shave your stubble to the skin. I've wrestled around with sharp, trying to see if I can hone one like a feather de blade, but the reality is you don't have to. And I prove this everyday with a bbs shave with no irritation, weepers etc. My neck stubble is like wire.(I'm 48 years old)And it grows sideways and flat but at the end of the shave, its all gone. And that's why I love a straight so much. I love the whole process, honing, stropping experimenting and learning. I'm only 9 months in and I don't know nothing compared to the experienced guys here, but I know enough to hone strop and get a bbs everyday.

Originally Posted by bill3152

The feather may be sharper I know but a properly honed and stropped straight is MORE then sharp enough to shave your stubble to the skin. I've wrestled around with sharp, trying to see if I can hone one like a feather de blade, but the reality is you don't have to. And I prove this everyday with a bbs shave with no irritation, weepers etc. My neck stubble is like wire.(I'm 48 years old)And it grows sideways and flat but at the end of the shave, its all gone. And that's why I love a straight so much. I love the whole process, honing, stropping experimenting and learning. I'm only 9 months in and I don't know nothing compared to the experienced guys here, but I know enough to hone strop and get a bbs everyday.

First, I accept that some shavers can get a BBS shave from a straight. My point is not to malign straights as a shaving tool but rather to not focus solely on the sharpness of the blade when a shaver has problems cutting their beard. The fact that an individual shaver gets a BBS from a straight does not prove that the blade is sufficiently sharp to cut every man's beard smoothly that close to the skin.

I don't bother trying for BBS with any razor. My face is not smooth enough to remove every hair to skin level without removing skin also. Sharpness is not the only factor in determining the quality of shave one can get with a straight or any shaving tool for that matter. The goal is to get the best shave you can given your face, beard and tool used.

I realize that shaving forums do proselytize and that's great. This forum does so for straight razor shaving. But there are many posts from people having problems using straights (and on other forums other shave tools) where the advice centers on digging deeper into the various skill sets required to use the tool. I believe we should be more sophisticated then that. We should promote getting the most comfortable and acceptable shave from or chosen tool and be willing to acknowledge that for some shavers the straight (or DE, SE, …) may not be the way to go.

Jameshob can get the shave he is looking for using a Feather AC razor but not a straight. This tells us he can shave with an exposed edge shaving tool (he can find the cutting angle and maneuver the blade) and that blade sharpness is the difference in the two experiences. I suggested he work on his prep. Why prep as opposed to honing and stropping skills. I know he will get the usual advice about improving blade sharpness. But actually improving blade sharpness to the level needed for his beard may not be realistic for him given the time he can devote to it and/or his skill level. Not everyone can maintain and use tools at a high level of competence. I am making no claim that I can. Most of us are in the middle somewhere. Under these average circumstances, a greater improvement in the shave might be obtained by spending more effort finding a way to improve beard preparation. If the beard is easier to cut, then the shave will improve given the shaver's current blade maintenance skills and they can still work on improving those.

Is it helpful to the new straight shaver to be promised a consistent BBS shave with just a splash of water and a good lather when we cannot know what the shaver's challenges really are? I enjoy using my straights much more since I changed my goal from BBS to the most comfortable/enjoyable, acceptably close shave I can get. This is now my goal no matter what shave tool I am using.

Well said, as soon as i stopped trying for the perfect shave, they just got progressively better.

I've been using straights for over two and a half years, honing them myself the entire time. It is still true, however, that I can get a closer shave with a Feather SS folder than I can with any of my straights. I just use that as a model for a perfect shave. The shaves I get with my straights are extremely smooth and totally acceptable, but the sharpness of the Feather blades is not something I expect to replicate with hand honing a straight razor. The difference is getting smaller the more I hone and shave. As to the OP's comment about trying straights "off and on", I know that it took me six months of dedicated effort every day to get to the point where my shaves were really close. If he can get a good shave with a Feather razor, then his technique is certainly adequate. Any resulting differences between those shaves and what he might get from a straight razor are a result of differences in sharpness. I think that just has to be accepted. The Feather blade sets a high standard among replaceable blades, and in a Feather SS it is reasonable to expect that it can give a shave unmatched by a regular straight razor.

I understand what you are saying. Everybody is different I know. Different beards ,skin ,skills etc. I can only share what my experience is. Nobody can judge your shave but you. And whatever works ,works.

Originally Posted by matloffm

...I realize that shaving forums do proselytize and that's great. This forum does so for straight razor shaving. But there are many posts from people having problems using straights (and on other forums other shave tools) where the advice centers on digging deeper into the various skill sets required to use the tool. I believe we should be more sophisticated then that. We should promote getting the most comfortable and acceptable shave from or chosen tool and be willing to acknowledge that for some shavers the straight (or DE, SE, …) may not be the way to go...

You're very right, however, I'd like to make a couple of points:

1. It IS the STRAIGHT razor place, so after all, if at times people assume shaving with a straight is the goal, then I guess they could be forgiven for that .
2. Your point is probably a great point as it strongly suggests when we try to help others we should gather some facts, such as what their goal is, what they know or don't know, and what they've done. As well as what they have access to (tools, people, knowledge).

Not that I know anything, really, but sometimes I see guys digging themselves deeper and deeper into a problem before anyone says "What sort of razor is it?" or "What are you trying to achieve?". As you suggest, some people are just after a decent shave; sometimes the first in their lives, and a straight may not be the right tool. Others have had many a 'nice' shave but want to shave with a straight; they want to shave with a straight and nothing else. The first question could be 'What do YOU want?". I

say this only because if I REALLY wanted to shave with a lovely vintage straight I'd be mightily saddened if someone directed me to a Feather.

I'd like to add that I'm agreeing with you, but just adding a bit of my own opinion...I just think your point is a very good one...

Carl

I have had very good results with my de and with my feather ac straight. I don't think it is even possible to get a better shave. I simply want to be able to sharpen strop and shave with a traditional fixed blade straight razor.