Getting a straight "DE" sharp.

Hi everyone.
Great forum and I've been loving it since the day I joined.

I'm nearing a crossroads with my razors. I've been shaving with a straight now for a year and forced myself to throw out my Mach 3 with my left hand, as soon as my Dovo was bought with my right hand and I haven't regretted it.

Since then, I've become a little obsessed with razors and I now have 5.

I'm living in Vietnam (Born Australia) at the moment and bought this Gillette DE razor I saw. It had funny asian descriptions on how to use it on the back. I've used DE's before, and this plastic DE wasn't exceptional but as you've all probably noticed, the blades in these razors are impossibly sharp.

I know the HHT isn't a perfect determiner of a comfortable shave, but these DE blades just EXPLODE the hair in the test. Watch out for hair shrapnel! The shaves I get from DE and normal cartridge razors (1 and 2 blade) feels much smoother than the Straight razor, especially when I have a longer beard.

Neither of these points even tempt me to go back to cartridge razors, and my question emerges... :hmmm:

How do I get my razors this sharp and how do I replicate this smooth feeling I get with the cartridge razors?

I can get baby bum smooth, but I want the smoothness of the cartridge razors. I warm my face with hot water on a flannel before hand, use pre and after care proraso and I use warm lather, every time. It's deluxe :D
I got my razors from various locations, classic shaving and a local shaving shop here. My razors are honed by my local traditional barber who's been doing it for 40+ years so I'm assuming he's doing it well. My razors can pass the HHT, and I can get what I would call a nice shave from my razors, but does it sound like they're not well honed to begin with?

I'm confident in my stropping ability as I can maintain my blade basically as sharp as it was after honing for at least 6 months and I can bring my razor back from feeling frumpy to feeling fresh with my strops.

Any advice would be helpful as I'm going to order a couple of Norton hones and try myself in a few weeks when I get to Hanoi. Help me in my search for the perfect shave! Thanks in advance!

Sammy

Well, just a couple of things here. First most here would tell you they don't get good shaves or any smooth feelings with cartridge razors. Most would say their straights are way smoother and give better shaves. That's why we use straights and not cartridges. The other thing is most cartridge razors and DE's have blades that have coatings on them be it platinum or some type of teflon or whatever and these affect the feeling you get.

I would just say that if you are not getting the smoothness out of your straights that you want they probably need better honing. personally I find when my straights need to be touched up the first quality that deteriorates is the comfort level of the razor. This happens before the shave closeness starts to go downhill.

You might try getting a pasted strop with some CrO or .5 diamond and try doing a touch up and see what happens.

Spendur gave ya great advice, the only question I have is more just for my knowledge than anything else but when the razors are honed do you know what stones are being used and what grit they are????

You'll have to coat your straight with PTFE anti-friction polymer if you want that same feeling of "glide" that you get with a DE blade.

Thanks for the replies,
This is great news and was the news I was hoping to get.
I want to say that the feeling, post-shave is much better than a cartridge/DE and I cut myself much less with my straight than a DE/Cartridge believe it or not.

I was also wondering about the stones that were used. I can't get in touch with him to ask atm because he's in Australia and I usually just drop into his barber shop.

Anyway, not in anyway to put the doubts on my barber as he's a champion and I can't fault him, but I'm going to get a hone as soon as I can and try my hand at getting them as smooth as a cartridge.

Thanks for the little embarrassing, but great news. I've got a slightly red pasted Prima Renindler (sp) with me which rejuvenates the edge a bit but not enough. I may apply a tiny bit more paste (it was VERY lightly pasted to begin with, about 6 months ago) and spend a bit of time on the pasted strop to see what I can do.

I'll wait till tonight to do it though, to get some opinions on trying that.

I'll be able to order the hones in about 3 weeks.
Thanks Again :)
Sammy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jigme

How do I get my razors this sharp and how do I replicate this smooth feeling I get with the cartridge razors?

---

To duplicate a DE blade you have to sharpen your straight to the same parameters...and even then it won't be an exact duplicate feel because of the different ways the two razors work.

I've found I can get close if I use the double bevel technique. I get the razor shave ready then put on 3 layers of tape and do 5 laps on a Swaty, 10 laps on a Shapton 16K, and finish with 20 laps on a chrome pasted paddle strop. It's important to use no pressure other than the weight of the razor when doing this as it's pretty easy to mess up the edge if you get heavy handed. I then finish up by removing the tape and doing a stropping regime of 50 linen, 50 latigo, and 50 horsehide.

If you search the honing forum you will find lots of data on the double bevel debate.

Hi AusTexShaver,

Thanks, I'll definitely give the double bevel technique a go when I get my honing kit. I've read quite a bit about it and the reports hat it makes the shave smoother has sparked my interest.

I'm going to give one of my razors I have with me a go with my pasted strop, linen and plain strop tonight to see what I can do.

Gracias,
Sam