Going Straight

[Great White Shavealo]

Not a journal as much as a confession... Hi, my name is Jim and I am a straight razor shaver. I think I am about to take the plung and ignore my DE safety razors for sometime. I had what is probably my tenth shave with my straight razor this morning and while it wasn't the most comfortable shave I have ever had, I did come out of it fairly good. I acquired only one new cut and a nick, with minimal razor burn around my mouth and on my chin. I am still having difficulty getting the hairs on both sides of my neck around my adam's apple fully removed. I am baby smooth everywhere else on my face.This morning's shave I didn't walk away from the bathroom looking like I had a fight with black berry bushes. I have two razors right now. I have a Dovo "Best Quality" and a "UnionRazor—Cutlery CC. Union City, GA". The Union blade is a 5/8 full hollow with a square tip. I am preferring the Union right now over the Dovo because it is smaller and holds a really nice edge.At the same time I am learning shaving, I am doing the unconventional step of teaching myself how to sharpen these blades. Since I have two blades, and the Union is shave ready, I am working honing on the Dovo. When the Dovo is shave ready, it will be used and I will work the Union... I will rotate through my blades (always having one shave ready in case I ruin the edge of the one I am practicing on) and hopefully will find that keen edge which works with my face... as well as learn a great skill!My honing tools are modest for now. A 1K King water stone, a Norton 4K/8K water stone, and a Spyderco Ultra-fine. I bought a hanging strop off of EBay, it is a "Star" shaving strop with a felt belt attached. I am happy I purchased it to practice on, since it is accumulating nicks.I don't post all that often, but I do lurk and read here. The information provided in this forum on straight shaving is invaluable to me. Kudos go to all the veterans who take the time to write journals, answer questions, and give advice! I really appreciate all that I have read and my interactions thus far.Because I have read some great advice, I have some new gear coming to help out in the honing and maintenance department. I have a coticule on the way. I also have DMT D8C being delivered today for flattening my stones. I ordered from Whipped Dog a four sided paddle strop, and I have some 1 micron diamond paste on order (I am sure to get more pastes as I go along). I think that I have far more gear than I need, but I am having allot of fun learning the ropes of straight shaving and honing at the same time. Having fun and enjoying the shave is what it is all about.

Edit: As suggested by Grips, I will do some journaling here about my experiences and see how this goes. So stay tuned.

 

[Grips]

Awesome!!! You should start a journal. I found mine helps me keep track of what I have actually tried and its results. As well, I have learned a ton from other's journals I wouldn't have if they didn't bother to write them.

 

[primo]

Having fun and enjoying the shave is what it is all about.

Amen to that! I am glad that you are sticking with it, I think shaving with and maintaining a straight razor is a worthwile hobby. Congrats on the change to straights!

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Awesome!!! You should start a journal. I found mine helps me keep track of what I have actually tried and its results. As well, I have learned a ton from other's journals I wouldn't have if they didn't bother to write them.

Good point. I will see what I can do.

 

[noahpictures]

Another vote for starting a journal. I am certain that they accelerate improvement.

 

[Grips]

Great to hear about the journal. The first thing I do when I login to B&B is head to the Straight Shave Clinic and check to see if there has been any new entries on my favorite shaving journals. I have learnt so much from them.

 

[shakin_jake]

@ Great White- the Union City straights are known to be of good quality shave wise in vintage shaving circles. My present razor rotation includes my 11/16 round toe Union Cutlery STR8 razor...bottom razor pictured

I want to applaud you for taking on the task of learning how to maintain your straight razors while simultaneously learning how to wield them. That too was my plan starting out, and one frowned upon by the petty bourgeois= Whaddya mean I can't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time?!?...sheesh! <LOL>

And good on ya for starting a journal...when I first became interested in straight razor shaving, before making my first razor/coticule purchase, I had consulted with Luc (mod here) off list and he encouraged me to start a journal (I never did). At the time I was in the weeds w/my hands full of other things so I opted out and have yet to start one, here.


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

 

[Earcutter]

If I were to do it all over i think I would have got a stone and two razors right off the bat - I think you are going about it the right way. I am sure you will get a lot from more from your shaving having learned to hone right off the bat.

+1 on what noah said too,

"Another vote for starting a journal. I am certain that they accelerate improvement."

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Those are some nice looking blades there Shakin_Jake!

Thanks to all for the encouragement.

This Morning's Shave #11

Used my Union Cutlery blade.

Started at the strop. 30 laps on the felt and 60 laps on the leather (30/60).

Did 2 WTG/XTG passes, and 1 ATG

This morning I worked on blade angle and pressure. I regressed and got a shave much like one of my first ones... stubble all over. But that's how it goes. I had similar experiences when starting out DE shaving. It just takes time and practice.

My working on pressure and angle confirmed for me the razor burn issue I have been having around my mouth and on my chin. Today I have less razor burn in those areas, but surprisingly increased burn on my upper cheeks and on one area of the lower right side of my neck. I definitely need to work on very light pressure and keeping the blade angle around 20-23 degrees.

My shave this morning is patchy... i.e. I have patches of small stubble around my face. I was able to get BBS in most places. Lesson for me learned here is that I was over-thinking the shave. I was concentrating so hard on a light touch that I didn't apply enough pressure where needed (evidence by the blade skipping over denser patches of beard) and in other areas I applied too much pressure and while I got BBS in those areas I also got some burn and a couple nicks.

I also need work on stretching my skin. I notice far better results in areas of my face where it is easy for me to stretch my skin. Areas where it is hard for me to stretch are areas I over compensate with too much pressure and angle... at least I think so.

Another area I need to work on, I am finding, is how to place the blade on my skin in starting and how to lift the blade from my skin when stopping. I am finding that I cause irritation, nicks, and the like when I am lifting the blade and setting it on my face, because I am bearing down too hard in both instances. That might sound weird, but that is the only way I can describe it. Evidence of what I am talking about is what looks like horizontal scratches on my face; this from starting and stopping when doing WTG.

Ended at the strop. 15/30 passes.

So today was a "bummer" shave, but I think I learned allot from this shave.

Later today I am going to hone up my Dovo for use in a couple days. I am going to give my face a much needed rest for healing and will pick up the journal on Friday. Tomorrow I am going to DE shave to clean up my face.

Edit: Here is a picture of my Union Cutlery blade... I can't take a picture with a darn, but that blade actually has a mirror finish polish on it. I will try to take more photos and post them up as I go along.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Honing Update

I had time to break out the hones and do some work today. My Dovo was absolutely disappointing to work with. I have worked with good German stainless in the past with knives and I have never seen a cutting instrument resist getting a good bevel on it as my Dovo. It took well over three hundred laps on my 1K King water stone to get a decent bevel on it. I worked another half an hour to get it to cut leg hair effortlessly. Once I got the bevel on it, then it was easy to progress through my other hones. I did about 160 laps on the Norton 4K and an equal number of laps on the 8K side. While lapping I continued to inspect the edge with my magnifying glass to ensure it remained crisp looking. I finished off with my Spyderco Ultra-fine giving the blade another good 160 laps. The edge remained straight and is highly polished. A side note: to my utter dismay the toe on one side of the blade is not beveled at all. It obviously came from the manufacture in that condition. I may look into how I can return this one to the company. However, I am also considering fixing the toe myself and using this as a good learning opportunity. I probably will go with fixing it myself.

I also touched up my Union Cutlery blade just for the heck of it. I refreshed the bevel on the Norton 4K with about 80 laps, inspected the edge with my magnifying glass, and then repeated the same number of laps on the 8K side and on my Spyderco stone. This Union blade is simply excellent and doesn't give me nearly the problems my Dovo is giving me.

Both blades took 60 laps on my plain leather strop.

For those who follow HHT:

The Dovo is HHT 3 with the exception of the very tip of the toe on one side which has no bevel on it at all.
The Union blade is HHT 3

Both blades slice through leg hair comfortably. BTW, I am finding that testing on the leg is good, since it also tells me if the blade is causing irritation. If it does, then it goes back on the hone until the blade is irritation free. For those who might cough at a leg test, I think it is a pretty good test, since my wife tells me that the legs are pretty sensitive to razor burn and the like, too. At any rate, I put more stock in that test combined with looking at the edge under a magnifying glass than I do HHT (which I am still on the fence with its usefulness as a good diagnostic).

 

[Grips]

Good stuff man. Glad you decided to do a journal. I'll be reading. I agree about the stretching. When I get lazy with the stretching I don't get nearly as close.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

This Morning's Shave #12

I was going to give my face a break from a straight razor shave and just go with a DE this morning, but my freshly honed Dovo was calling out to me to put my honing skills to the ultimate shave ready test... the shave test... so I eagerly complied with my razor's bidding. And no... I don't talk to my razors... I really don't.

As usual, I started at the strop. 12 passes on felt and 24 passes on leather. (Note: I typically do more passes as I use the razor, but with it freshly honed, it needn't as many passes to straighten out the blade. When I find I need to do a great deal of passes to get a good shaving surface from the blade, then it is time to go to the hone. This is where I see I will need at least two razors to keep in a rotation (which I have). I would like to have three or four... eventually.)

I used my Dovo "Best Quality" 6/8.

This morning I didn't give to much attention to anything other than that the blade is sharp and I should respect it. So I did.

1 WTG, 1 XTG, and 1 ATG for a total of three passes brought me to BBS on my cheeks, 3/4 of my neck and my chin. I have church tonight, so I wanted to have a great BBS shave and not look too rough, so I finished of my shave with my EJ89 and a Merkur blade. End result is BBS all over. I will allow my skin to rest and heal tomorrow and pick up my Dovo on Friday.

I am having trouble with the lower right quadrant of my neck. It looks "checkered" from all the blade marks and irritation. I am just having a real problem getting in there for some reason.

My shave ended with only two nicks on the chin and the irritation on the area of the neck I mention above. Over all I would say I got a pretty decent shave this morning before cleaning up with the DE razor.

About the razor burn problem I mentioned in my postings above: today I have no razor burn around my mouth, but I do on the left side of my chin (around where I have the two nicks). I also have some on my upper right cheek. This is definitely an angle and pressure problem in those areas, but I do see improvement.

As an aside, I shave with Tabac and build my lather up in a ceramic Japanese soup bowl. It retains heat really well. In fact, my lather is typically warm throughout my shave. Lately, because I have been taking so much time, it isn't as nice and warm as usual toward the end of my shave. I am building looser lather for straight razor shaving than I do for DE, and working it in really well. I take my time working the lather into my skin with my badger hair brush. That is definitely helping with my straight razor shave. Another thing I do is prior to lathering up, I wash my face really well and I ensure that hot water is being worked over my face for at least two minutes. This has helped immensely with softening my beard. I am one of those weirdos who like to shave before they shower and so it is necessary for me to do a really long face wash for the hydration of my skin and softening my beard. If you're a weirdo, too, keep that in mind.

When my shave was completed, I jumped up and down over the stinging reward my Bay Rum Clubman after shave brought me. I look forward to the day when I am not rewarded like that!

I ended my shave at the strop. 12 laps on the felt/24 laps on plain old leather

 

[shakin_jake]

Those are some nice looking blades there Shakin_Jake!

~~~Thanks!...I have a good picture of the top razor, the square point, here-

I didn't have any decent pics of the barber notched J.R. Torrey so I tried taking some last night in the kitchen...after sorting through most, this was the bettter pic (note to self: take pics outdoors in the sunlight=

and here's a crappy file photo of my Union Cutlery Razor

After reading your last journal installment, I have a comment or two to make regarding your progress...

Sounds to me like you're coming along fine


I'd advise you to consciously think about using lower blade angles *all of the time*...they'll do less or no damage to your skin (depending on angle) so you can make more passes in various directions over the same topography

In an earlier update you mentioned having trouble placing the razor on your face and cutting it. Yes, we've all been there. When I started I would slice just below my left sideburn, and also when placing the razor just below my nose. You will learn how much pressure to apply there (the nose) and soon you wont cut yourself, if that is a trouble area for you as it was for me. Now about starting at the sideburn...IIRC, what I learnt to do was to lay the blade flat against my skin starting out on top of my face either side, then raise enough to obtain a low blade angle and began forward motion

Regardless, you're making great progress and in no time you will have all of this down pat in wood


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Thank you, Jake! I will give your suggestions a try. I particularly like the one about laying the blade flat and then angling it. I was trying to figure out how I could do something like that, but you provided the answer.

BTW, if you are going to post up pics of sexy things like those, then please put a NSFW warning up, OK?

 

[Brent]

I don't really put the blade on my skin, then go... I find that causes cuts if my hand moves back or forth a little bit. What I do is kind of "swoop in" and "swoop out". So, before I put the blade on my face it's already moving in the direction I need to go a little and same thing when I pick it up. Not sure if that works for everyone but it works for me.

I mirror the comment on stretching - very key in closeness and comfort. Where are you having problems stretching the skin? Most of mine are on my neck. I usually turn my head a bit to the opposite side and up, pull on the skin on the very bottom with my free hand, then make a crazy face. Seems to work well for me but probably anyone watching would think I'm having a heart attack.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

This Morning's Shave #13

I shaved with my Dovo "Best Quality" 6/8 razor. For those who follow HHT it is a solid 3.

Lathered up with Tabac... is there any other shave soap in the world? Didn't think so!

This shave was pretty comfortable. I got through 1 WTG, 1 XTG, and 1 ATG passes and some touch up without a single nick and no razor burn. Even the area on the lower right side of my neck where I typically "dig in" to the skin was left with very minor irritation. When I splashed some Tabac aftershave on my face I didn't have the urge to jump up and down.

Mostly I got BBS with DFS on parts of my neck and on the back of my jawbone under my ears. If I were to get a nice shave like this everyday, I wouldn't at all complain.

I do have some minor "scratches" where I am still struggling with laying my blade on my face too hard when doing ATG. I also need much more work in stretching the skin. I am still not comfortable with my skin stretching technique... if I can even call it that!

I ended my shave at the strop. 24 passes on the felt and 40 passes on the leather. I didn't start at the strop this morning, since it slipped my mind. I had a hard time waking up!

Next shave is Sunday. I typically only shave every other day.

Edit: About shave angle... I made a strong effort to get the right angles and keep them as I was shaving this morning. The tip given to me to lay the blade against my face up around my side burns and then to angle the blade worked fantastically for me. I am going to keep up that practice until I get blade angle perfect.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Honing Update

I received my order from Whipped Dog Straights in the mail today. Whipped Dog is excellent, btw! If you don't order from them, give them a shot. I am very happy with their service. What I received today was their four sided paddle strop. The thing came with two balsa sides, one treated with Chromium Oxide and the other side treated with Iron Oxide. The remaining sides are leather. Whipped Dog also included some Neatsfoot oil for the leather sides and a sample of Bald Frog Chocolate Espresso shaving soap. I am really impressed with Whipped Dog.

Any way, I couldn't wait to use the paddle strop so I broke out my Dovo "Best Quality" 6/8 full hollow for a test drive of the strop. I followed the instructions Whipped Dog provides with the strop and then took a peek at the edge. The edge glistens in the light it is so polished! Definitely shave ready!

For those who follow the HHT, I think I will add a new category... HHT 6, which means the hair jumped out of my fingers, grew legs, and ran from the blade before I could even touch the hair to the edge! How's that for sharpness? Definitely I have, on average, HHT 4. Some places were a 5. Keep in mind that I worked pretty hard on the bevel for this razor and if the bevel had not been good, then I wouldn't have these great results from the strop. There is definitely no substitute for working the blade on water stones of some sort. But, I am really happy with this paddle strop and it didn't break the bank.

I am probably going to shave with the Dovo on Monday. I will let you all know how it goes. This sucker is sharp!

 

[Great White Shavealo]

Final posting for the Journal

Sorry folks. I thought I could give back a little to the community for all that many here have share by writing this journal, but events are not going to let me have the time to keep up a journal. So this is my last journal entry.

No worries though! I will be sure to "haunt" the journals of others and I look forward to reading the straight razor shaving adventures sure to be written.

 

[Grips]

Too bad. I was enjoying the read. Best of luck with the straights.

 

[Great White Shavealo]

I am not going to do a regular journal, but I will add to this thread anything significant as far as I am concerned.

I have a Boker "King Cutter" coming to me. I purchased it on the Bay and I will see if it is in the moderate to good shape it appeared in the pictures. Got it for $21 and am not disappointed with the price. Once I get it, I am going to polish it and then hone it up and will see how it shaves. If the blade is in good shape, then I will have three razors to use in my rotation, which will give me plenty of honing practice.

This morning's shave was a DFS on the neck, side of the chin and BBS everywhere else. I feel like I have the angel of the blade down much better and it showed with no irritation and a couple minute nicks not even worth looking at. I also noticed that by keeping the angle of the blade closer to my skin that the blade glide improved significantly. There was obviously considerable less drag, but there was also a noticeable increased efficiency at cutting hairs on my face. It makes sense, since if the edge of the blade is being driven into the skin, then it makes it harder to cut hair. If the blade edge is gliding close to the surface of the skin, without interference from the skin, then of course hair is being mowed down much more efficiently, with less irritation, and not to mention a more comfortable shave results. Of course, too, the life span of the blade's edge increases since it isn't being rounded off by the skin because of excessive pressure.

Anyway, I will likely come back to this thread and post, but I can't call it a journal... not really. I just don't have the time for a daily or every two day update. But hopefully I can write something occasionally which will be of some interest and help to others.

Edit: I just wanted to add that if anyone reading this thread is wanting to straight razor shave, but just doesn't want to have to deal with honing, the good news is that you don't. I would recommend buying at least two razors so you can send one out to be honed in a rotation. Of course, I want to add that there is no reason at all why you shouldn't work at honing your own while learning to shave with your razor. I can absolutely guarantee you that you will find out REALLY quick if your razor is not shave ready when you put it to your face. Don't be afraid of a razor which isn't shave ready. Just put it down and shave with a known sharp razor, then get to honing up the dull blade. Just be patient with yourself and you will get excellent results and will have learned great new skills by learning to straight razor shave and hone your own at the same time.