First shave and question about noise

[Samovar]

I'm really happy I got my first shave with a straight. I bought a Henckels and got it honed by Floppyshoes.
I was waiting for my strop before using it, but I found a paddle strop today at a wood carving store.

I stropped it, lathered up and proceeded to shave. I was pretty nervous and managed to do two passes and finished with my DE. End up with the tiniest nick on my chin.

I have a strange question, is shaving with a straight much more noisier than shaving with a DE or a Dovo Shavette?
It sounded like I could hear every hair on my face getting shaved. Is my hearing gone banana or it's the sound of a normal straight?

Thanks for all the good information I got on this site.

 

[professorchaos]

No, you are not hearing things. You hear more with a straight especially if your straight is a full hollow grind.

 

[60CycleHum]

That is one thing that fascinates many non-straight razor shavers that I talk to. (That is, after their initial shock of me shaving with a straight, and the obligatory "you'll cut your throat" comments.)

I tell them that I can hear every hair being cut (slight exaggeration). Actually, I have heard individual hairs being cut, and I am only using a 1/2 hollow.

I've found that when I no longer hear the hairs being cut, I'm very close to a BBS shave.

Bob

 

[Samovar]

Thanks for the comments.
It's my first straight and I have no way to compare it to anything else .

Now, I only want to buy another straight to see the difference. I might become addicted...

It's such a great shave experience.

 

[Thomas]

Yep - I have wedges that make a dull clicking sound to full hollow popping sounds. I still flinch a bit at the Wapi and its almost hollow sound. It's a good blade and I love shaving with it (them, actually), but the blade sounds so brittle. Might this be a function of the metal scales?

 

[trioxin245]

I hear the whiskers getting whacked with my DE. But couldn't you also be hearing it more with the straight just due to the sheer size difference in the blade? You have several inches of blade taking off hair instead of an inch with the DE.

 

[daveesq]

I hear the whiskers getting whacked with my DE. But couldn't you also be hearing it more with the straight just due to the sheer size difference in the blade? You have several inches of blade taking off hair instead of an inch with the DE.

The size of the blade makes for a better sounding board, yes, but it's probably largely due to the fact that while a DE blade by iself is perfectly capable of vibrating (i.e. making noise), a DE razor (and the blade in it) is much less likely to because of the way that it's made; however a straight blade is just out there and isn't dampened like a DE blade is. It's pretty much a matter of thin vs. thick pieces of metal, though the physics are more involved than just that.

 

[billyjeff2]

I see dead people when I shave.
Is that the same thing?

 

[Bruce]

billyj,

Perhaps you are just more attuned to the discorporal plane. The others are merely hearing the ghosts. You see them. If you listen closely can you hear them too?

I shave with my tin foil helmet on and thus am not visited by visages or voices whilst shaving. I've also found that it helps greatly to have a good grounding conductor well attached to my left ankle.

 

[Samovar]

I was too busy trying not to disfigure myself to notice the ghost