Failing HHT, Awesome Shave
- Thread starter skiajl6297
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Since this is back up... has the razor arrived yet?
I just got my first str8 razor, a Dovo 5/8 brand new and honed by Lynn Abrams. I wanted my first experience to be with what I know to be a shave ready product. It failed the HHT in my hands but then again so did a nice once used Gillette 7OC black and other DE blades - with my hair and technique. I assume the razor is fine and I am to blame.
My first attempt to use it resulted in chattering over my cheek which I think is too dry lather (Tabac that shaves great with a DE) and my shaky hands and technique. I panicked a bit thinking I might not have a shave ready razor (had not seen this thread yet) and did my best to strop it up. I hope I didn't ruin the edge with my beginner technique. I will try again later this morning. How hard/easy is it to mess up an edge so it needs to be resharpened?
Thanks for all the helpful advice here.
My first attempt to use it resulted in chattering over my cheek which I think is too dry lather (Tabac that shaves great with a DE) and my shaky hands and technique. I panicked a bit thinking I might not have a shave ready razor (had not seen this thread yet) and did my best to strop it up. I hope I didn't ruin the edge with my beginner technique. I will try again later this morning. How hard/easy is it to mess up an edge so it needs to be resharpened?
Thanks for all the helpful advice here.
You can be pretty sure it comes down to technique. Lay the razor flat on your face and just barely lift the spine off your face. No pressure towards your skin. None at all. Zero. The "light" pressure that the weight of a de razor gives you is too much. The chattering is most likely nervousness and too steep a blade angle. Keep trying. It gets better quickly.
There is a small chance that it wasn't honed well. Failing your hht doesn't mean much as it is also a skill that must be learned and there are many reasons an hht can fail that have nothing to do with how sharp the edge is
There is a small chance that it wasn't honed well. Failing your hht doesn't mean much as it is also a skill that must be learned and there are many reasons an hht can fail that have nothing to do with how sharp the edge is
All of the above and maybe a little wetter lather.
Thanks guys
Back from my morning shave. Wetter lather absolutely is a must as I just found out. That helped the chatter a lot. I must be using a too steep angle and too mush pressure as I finished a full pass and did not wind up cutting much of my beard. Some places were better than others but overall unsuccessful beard reduction for a first pass WTG. I will strop up the razor and try again on Monday. The razor just doesn't seem to be ultra dangerous sharp but of course I am likely wrong as Lynn is known to be as good as they get to hone a razor. The Merkur slant finished up easily a close to BBS shave.
From what I'm reading it makes it seem like more than breathing on a str8 edge will ruin it.
Back from my morning shave. Wetter lather absolutely is a must as I just found out. That helped the chatter a lot. I must be using a too steep angle and too mush pressure as I finished a full pass and did not wind up cutting much of my beard. Some places were better than others but overall unsuccessful beard reduction for a first pass WTG. I will strop up the razor and try again on Monday. The razor just doesn't seem to be ultra dangerous sharp but of course I am likely wrong as Lynn is known to be as good as they get to hone a razor. The Merkur slant finished up easily a close to BBS shave.
From what I'm reading it makes it seem like more than breathing on a str8 edge will ruin it.
I would expect, that if the razor was sharp, too steep of an angle with too much pressure would cut plenty of hair, as well as give you very bad razor burn.
Did you strop before these two shaves? It is often recommended to newbies to use a paddle or bench strop, or to lie your strop on the edge of a counter or table, to lesson the chances of rolling the edge.
Edit; I just re read your post and saw that you did strop before the shaves. In answer to your question, yes, it is very easy to roll an edge with poor stropping technique. On the other hand, good stropping technique is not difficult to learn.
Did you strop before these two shaves? It is often recommended to newbies to use a paddle or bench strop, or to lie your strop on the edge of a counter or table, to lesson the chances of rolling the edge.
Edit; I just re read your post and saw that you did strop before the shaves. In answer to your question, yes, it is very easy to roll an edge with poor stropping technique. On the other hand, good stropping technique is not difficult to learn.
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I'll check the edge under a dissecting microscope at work on Monday. I see this is a bigger learning curve than de shaving. I have a free honing with the purchase so I can give this a couple of months and send it out to sharpen. I've nicked the strop a bit too but not that badly. I'll keep practicing.
thanks for the help and advice
thanks for the help and advice
IMightBeWrong
Loves a smelly brush
Just my personal input. I just finally got my razor so sharp that it treetops the hair on my arm. It does so extremely well, too, I might add. Sharp enough that if I do the test, I'll have about 20 pieces of arm hair on the blade from passing over about 5 inches of my arm without touching skin. It's as sharp as I've ever gotten it... And the shave SUCKS!!! Back when I finished on 8k and then hit the CrOx I could never tree top hairs. Not even one. Couldn't pass HHT without sawing at the hair, either. But I would get an overall good shave, and I wouldn't get cut or nicked. I've had a few shaves with the new hair popping edge and I feel like I'm attacking my face with a cheese grater.
That said, I would guess it all comes down to how you sharpened the razor. I'd really like to try some other methods before going back to my 8k + CrOx, particularly a 12k Stone to follow the 8k but I'll need the cash first.
That said, I would guess it all comes down to how you sharpened the razor. I'd really like to try some other methods before going back to my 8k + CrOx, particularly a 12k Stone to follow the 8k but I'll need the cash first.
So, how did you sharpen it?
- Thread starter
- #71
All - sorry for the delay. Long story short, my mailroom screwed up the outbound package to Doc, and this razor may very well be lost forever in USPS limbo. We are going to give it until a week from today (which USPS requested to see if it might possibly show up) but if not, the mailroom company who botched this for me at work will be ponying up cash to replace 50% of my razor den, which is currently floating somewhere in the lower 48, or more likely being used by some postal employee in the greater DC area who is wondering why the shave is so good if it can't pass the stupid HHT. 
Fingers crossed that this just shows up and we can learn something! But if not, sorry for the tease. So frustrating!!
Fingers crossed that this just shows up and we can learn something! But if not, sorry for the tease. So frustrating!!
I recently had a shipment take 90 days through USPS... I've learned to send the higher value shipments via tracked package now!
That really sucks 
I hope they find it! It happened to me once with a Whipped Dog package from Larry.
I hope they find it! It happened to me once with a Whipped Dog package from Larry.- Thread starter
- #74
I had it in a small priority mail flat rate box, with our postage request slip which requested that the box be sent to the correct address via priority mail, with added tracking. The mailroom guy ignored it, might not have put the recipient's address on the physical package, posted it for regular mail vs. priority, and did not include tracking. In short, the mailroom failed entirely. I usually handle myself, but we have a department that handles this for my company. And they just flat out dropped the ball at my expense.
It might still show up, plus if it is in some dead mail facility, someone will open it eventually and see my return address neatly listed inside. Fingers crossed!
It might still show up, plus if it is in some dead mail facility, someone will open it eventually and see my return address neatly listed inside. Fingers crossed!
Doc226, you are not only very helpful, but you are extremely generous as well. Its people like you that make this such a great forum. Thanks for being here.
bruseth
Kenny
I've recently had USPS missend items, forget to scan tracking, and just plain screw everything up...very frustrating.....but the package always made it to me eventually...I hope this is the case for you!!
I read something about soaking hair in water before performing HHT. Good idea or wasted time? My own testing is usually nothing more than taking a few arm hairs off. I can tell by feel if it will give me a good shave or not.
Wasted time in my oppinion. If I can't get a good result with dry hair, root in...things are suspect.
Soaking wasn't to make the test pass more easily as I recall. People worried about the test being affected by how wet the hair was and giving inconsistent results. The option some people recommended to combat this was to always use wet hair.
My solution was to always use dry hair. I think my solution is better, since it doesn't introduce water to my razors edge for no good reason. I'm kind of obsessive about things like that.
My solution was to always use dry hair. I think my solution is better, since it doesn't introduce water to my razors edge for no good reason. I'm kind of obsessive about things like that.
Thank you.
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