Your experience appreciated: passes HHT but tugs and pulls and hurts

Dear members,

I am new to SRP and SRs altogether. Have gotten two SRs so far (Bergischer Lowe and Wacker Best Tradition) and a Dovo strop and some paste, etc. Now I am broke! :s lol

I can't bear the thought that I have to part with one of my SRs yet again for a couple of weeks to get honed and also can't afford honing it right now. In London, the least inexpensive place so far is about £20.

Here's the thing. My Bergischer is fine, kind of. But my Wacker although it passes the HHT it tugs and pulls on my beard like crazy, always giving me burns and bursted blood vessels and a nightmare to get a clean shave with.

I keep stopping mid-shave and stropping it some more on my rougher leather pasted strop. It gets a little bit sharper, but still..

Could I be stropping wrong or too little? The more I strop the sharper it gets granted, so I've been stropping it as much as I can.. will that work eventually? Or if it reaches that state needs honing?

Thing is, today I gave up and got my DE. Wow..!! It just cut right through and gave me finally a clean shave I hadn't had with straight razors for some time :(

It's very simple. Your razor is dull and needs honing. You could try CrO on a strop and see if that does the trick but if it has gone too far honing is the answer.

Thing is razor is new, not sure why it would have gone too far. I read Mr. Wacker hones them himself.

Hows your technique? Stretching etc?

It 'sounds' good and even. I try to remind myself to stretch (by that you mean the strop right?) can't say my stroke is short. My strops aren't very long.

I have a rubbish strop with rougher leather seems to sharpen it better than my smoother Dovo which is weird. If I only had the Dovo don't think I would have gotten anywhere.

Stropped it much more today. Started taking more hair out of my arm easier.

The HHT means nothing if you can't get a good shave with. It probably needs to be professionally honed.

And, by the way, stretching means pulling your skin with your non-razor hand, in a direction that makes the whiskers stand up.

When you are starting out straight razor shaving it takes an amazingly short time to dull a blade to the point that it needs to be honed. Poor stropping and shaving techniques help make that happen. As you improve over time the period between needing honings increases. Happened to me at the start and I am sure I am not the only one that has happened to.

Bob

There could be sooo many factors at play here...skin stretching has already been mentioned, another would be what angle you're holding the blade at, or your skin prep (soap, softening the beard, etc.) Could you give us some more info on your technique?
Another factor could be your stropping, you can dull an edge awfully quick with improper technique. Or the most simple of all...the razor wasn't properly honed to begin with.

Well here's the thing I should've asked earlier.. When you all buy a brand new razor, do you send it to get honed as soon as you receive it? I'm trying to remain in denial that I have to send them get honed after they've just arrived.

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Originally Posted by ffarouki

Well here's the thing I should've asked earlier.. When you all buy a brand new razor, do you send it to get honed as soon as you receive it? I'm trying to remain in denial that I have to send them get honed after they've just arrived.

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If it's the factory honed edge, it's not truly shave ready and needs to be honed. I hone any new razor I get unless I know it came from someone who knew what they were doing.