What's new

Hello to the community - and please help me out!

Bearded-Man82

Bearded-Man82

Hi Everybody!

What a marvelous community I have stumbled upon here - I thought I was alone in trying to learn how to straight-shave :)

Im afraid I have to jump right in with my problems:

Before deciding to purchase a straight, I had been using a Shavette/feather razor thinking this would help me to adjust to the difference between a modern razor and a straight edge. - I was able to get a very good shave from this device, so decided I was ready to "graduate" and treat myself to a "real" cut throat. Also I have done some research before begining this project, and have not gone completely blind into it.

I have been attempting to shave with the razor I purchased for the past week, having tried perhaps 4 shaves. - careful to strop before and after. -

I am dismayed to find that I cannot get the blade to cut my stubble when going with the grain, and have been patiently adjusting and re-adjusting my angle - going against the grain I do get some purchase, but not easily and not smoothly, and not happily as I would not normally go against the grain except for a very close shave on a third pass.

A little detail on the razor, - it is solingen german made, Timor blade, and I think it is full hollow or close to it.

I do use a hot flannel before the shave, and apply shave cream with a brush.

How likely is it that I may have damaged the blade somehow with my amateur stropping? - Which I do not feel I have done excessively, but I am a novice, and Im sure I was applying too much pressure at first.

Is the best advice that I keep at it and eventually with patience I will get the angle right? - I worry about continuing in case I am damaging the razor.

If I have damaged the bevel a bit with poor stropping - can I get it back without having to send away to a honemeister? (quite expensive here in the UK) - Ive not gone to town stropping on the razor... are they really that fragile?

Hopefully you can offer me some advice, and I thank you for your time.
 
Luc

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Welcome to B&B!

Was the razor honed by a pro to start with? If the answer is yes. practice practice practice... Make sure your blade angle is as flat as possible. If you do need to have the razor re-sharpened, have a look here: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Honemeister
 
rajagra

rajagra

You may have dulled the blade by stropping, but it's equally likely it just wasn't very sharp to start with.
How many passes on the strop have you done in total? You never know, you may just need to do some more. Try 50-100 passes, after checking you are doing it right. Concentrate on doing it properly, not quickly.
Getting the blade honed may not be (dirt) cheap, but it's worth £18.75 getting the InvisibleEdge people to do it to know how the razor is supposed to be.

If you want, I'd be willing to hone it for you if you pay for the postage. My only warranty is that I'm not a clumsy oaf who breaks things, though. My honing results won't be as consistent as the InvisibleEdge. But it sounds like I won't make things worse. PM me if you are interested. (I do have Barbicide for disinfecting. :smile:)
 
tice75

tice75

Is your razor a Giesen & Forsthoff Timor? I had bought one once and returned it to the seller because it wasn't shave ready and the seller didn't specify that in their ad.

-Steve
 
Adam R

Adam R

Welcome. Keep us posted how it works out. I'm de shaving now and thinking about jumping into straights. A whole different learning curve for me.
 
R

Rossmeister

Same happened to me once. Bought a shave ready straight, decided to practice stropping it before shaving. Didn't cut squat after. I figure I must've bent the edge.
 
shakin_jake

shakin_jake

Bearded-Man82 said:
Hi Everybody!

What a marvelous community I have stumbled upon here - I thought I was alone in trying to learn how to straight-shave :)

Im afraid I have to jump right in with my problems:

Before deciding to purchase a straight, I had been using a Shavette/feather razor thinking this would help me to adjust to the difference between a modern razor and a straight edge. - I was able to get a very good shave from this device, so decided I was ready to "graduate" and treat myself to a "real" cut throat. Also I have done some research before begining this project, and have not gone completely blind into it.

I have been attempting to shave with the razor I purchased for the past week, having tried perhaps 4 shaves. - careful to strop before and after. -

I am dismayed to find that I cannot get the blade to cut my stubble when going with the grain, and have been patiently adjusting and re-adjusting my angle - going against the grain I do get some purchase, but not easily and not smoothly, and not happily as I would not normally go against the grain except for a very close shave on a third pass.

A little detail on the razor, - it is solingen german made, Timor blade, and I think it is full hollow or close to it.

I do use a hot flannel before the shave, and apply shave cream with a brush.

How likely is it that I may have damaged the blade somehow with my amateur stropping? - Which I do not feel I have done excessively, but I am a novice, and Im sure I was applying too much pressure at first.

Is the best advice that I keep at it and eventually with patience I will get the angle right? - I worry about continuing in case I am damaging the razor.

If I have damaged the bevel a bit with poor stropping - can I get it back without having to send away to a honemeister? (quite expensive here in the UK) - Ive not gone to town stropping on the razor... are they really that fragile?

Hopefully you can offer me some advice, and I thank you for your time.
Click to expand...



~~~short answer...yeah, you probably flubbed your edge with your n00b stopping technique...it's a learned experience and we all do it. Only those that walk on water get away with out screwing up their first stropping attempts. that said, you may have messed up the edge of the blade too which could very well need straightening on a hone. My advice for you would be to learn how to hone yourself. Sure, it's going to take some time but if you want to stick with straights, it's really the only way, keeping the edges up yourself. I myself am a big fan of using coticules to hone with*, but that said, there are other avenues for you to explore (synthetic stones, jnats, shapton, on and on). May i suggest for you to spend some time on the straight razor forums here?...reading and researching. Another good forum if you want to learn about coticules is coticule.be http://www.coticule.be/ All of us that use a straight razor try to encourage those just starting out, so please take this advice (mine) with that thought in mind (trying to help). I wouldn't be where I am w/o the help I've recieved here and elsewhere learning how to hone and strop

Having a conversation with another straight razor the other day, we discusssed how it is that some of the so called prevailing wisdom concerning straight razors actually dissuades the n00b from learning how to sharpen their razor. how unfortunate...and it doesn't have to be that way, so please, look past conventional wisdom and explore the world of keeping your straight razor sharp (honed) on your own...it's not rocket science and is actually fun keeping your own straights sharp, but you will have to connduct research, just as one would to learn from scratch, how to shave with a safety razor, starting out


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

*coticules are the only stones one can hone with that is truly a one stone honing system, if all you're after is keeping an edge sharp (shave worthy) on a razor in good condition
 
Bearded-Man82

Bearded-Man82

Thanks everybody!

A few thoughts on the reply's Ive gotten...

Ive not done masses of stropping - perhaps ten passes each way slowly before and after each shave (or attempted shave) - maybe rajagra is right in that if I try to get my technique right and go for 100 strops, I might be back in buisness. - If I have wonked things already with nooby stropping Im not going to make it worse trying this am I?

my strop is a hanging one, and quite small, I figured it might be best not to get a big expensive one first off as I was likely to mess this one up. - would I be better off with a paddle type as a beginner? - I think the fact that my current strop is only wide enough for 1/2 the blade, meaning Im trying to do a kind of X action when stropping to cover the full blade... is likely a factor here.... all the vids I see use a full width strop.

Thanks for your offer of giving it a hone too - however the vendor has gotten back to me, and seems a legit fellow - i.e genuinely seems to want me to get a good shave and discussing with me stropping and have I prepped my face right to soften the bristles and whats my shave angle... that sort of thing - so Im going to see how that rides out before I send it away elsewhere.

N.B yes, sold as shave-ready.

Thanks to Shakin Jake for the coticule website, it looks like a real goldmine of information, and yes I am keen to be able to hone my own blade, I dont like the idea that if I make a couple of errors I cant correct it myself on a hone, perhaps not to the high levels proffessionals can, but enough that I dont have to go crying to the honemeister every month! - my comment on the expense was because of this, £20 a pop alright once or twice a year but as I am now?... I get it back, wonk it again via a mistake and have to send it right back again? soon adds up. Ill be looking on B&B for a thread on first time honing and what to get.

It has helped my angst over this to find that Im not alone!

Luke.
 
Luc

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Bearded-Man82 said:
Thanks everybody!

A few thoughts on the reply's Ive gotten...

Ive not done masses of stropping - perhaps ten passes each way slowly before and after each shave (or attempted shave) - maybe rajagra is right in that if I try to get my technique right and go for 100 strops, I might be back in buisness. - If I have wonked things already with nooby stropping Im not going to make it worse trying this am I?

my strop is a hanging one, and quite small, I figured it might be best not to get a big expensive one first off as I was likely to mess this one up. - would I be better off with a paddle type as a beginner? - I think the fact that my current strop is only wide enough for 1/2 the blade, meaning Im trying to do a kind of X action when stropping to cover the full blade... is likely a factor here.... all the vids I see use a full width strop.

Thanks for your offer of giving it a hone too - however the vendor has gotten back to me, and seems a legit fellow - i.e genuinely seems to want me to get a good shave and discussing with me stropping and have I prepped my face right to soften the bristles and whats my shave angle... that sort of thing - so Im going to see how that rides out before I send it away elsewhere.

N.B yes, sold as shave-ready.

Thanks to Shakin Jake for the coticule website, it looks like a real goldmine of information, and yes I am keen to be able to hone my own blade, I dont like the idea that if I make a couple of errors I cant correct it myself on a hone, perhaps not to the high levels proffessionals can, but enough that I dont have to go crying to the honemeister every month! - my comment on the expense was because of this, £20 a pop alright once or twice a year but as I am now?... I get it back, wonk it again via a mistake and have to send it right back again? soon adds up. Ill be looking on B&B for a thread on first time honing and what to get.

It has helped my angst over this to find that Im not alone!

Luke.
Click to expand...

20 isn't enough, try 50-60 laps at least...
 
Bearded-Man82

Bearded-Man82

next shave I will be going for careful 100+ stropping taking real care, and see if it makes a difference.

If not Ill have to send my new pride possession off for a rehone..... so soon!

Hey - could my Badger Brush issue be related?

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...-Badger-hair-Brush-is-this-expected?p=3464659

Next shave I will also switch back to my old synthetic - see if this was part of the problem.

will be a few days, I think I need a thicker stubble for a proper test.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
First shave
Replies
16
Views
720
Old Hippie
Old Hippie
A
Razor Sharpness
Replies
14
Views
1K
gpjoe
gpjoe
B
Hello there!
Replies
17
Views
653
86-foxtrot
86-foxtrot
L
Brand new DOVO Solingen Straight Razor blunt out of the box?
Replies
12
Views
506
Brutus
Brutus
H
Ideas/suggestions for a shavette
Replies
14
Views
1K
albsat
albsat
Top Bottom