CyiDev's Shave Journal

Sounds like you're really making some nice strides.

I agree. Sounds like you've made some pretty quick progress.

So it has been a while since I posted here. I lost track of time with the holiday coming and finals at school. Bottom line I am in need of some advice. I have two straight razors both Dovo's and they are really nice. I previously had one of them honed by Wid and he did an excellent job honing them. As I progressed I wanted to hone my razors by myself, since after all I was adding on the newer one. I still have my Astrale, its collecting dust because of a honing mistake... It has been replaced by a Dovo best 6/8 - really nice razor if you can get past the scales. I am bleeding more than I should be during these shaves, I was past the point of small nicks but it almost seems like some of these "nicks" just manifest from nothing. One or two on my cheeks the size of a needle hole. Tiny ones the size of a leg on a Ant (I'm just guessing everyone can imagine it) on my chin and neck. Maybe one decent sized one on my neck the size of an ant. And several tiny ones on my upper lip every so often. My quality of my shave is still the same as far as smoothness maybe a little less smooth on my chin than BBS but it is still pretty close. The best way I can describe this is that it feels like I placed a feather blade in my DE razor since I generally get the same results. Very few blades just end up being super nice with me and others just tear me to shreds. I changed to much at once to be able to pick the problem myself.. I have also tried different stropping techniques to help alleviate some of the aggressiveness of the shave - More linen passes, less linen passes, leather etc. What is everyone's opinion? Could it be technique, my honing, stropping or the weather(Just kidding on the last one)?

Edit: I should probably throw this in here. I am not looking to spend anything more on hones / pastes until after the holidays (January).

Is this a more frequent thing. Did this happen with the Jnat and Coti edge?

It is quite frequent just about every-time I shave. The edge is more than sharp it leaves nothing behind and to be honest they bevels shave arm hair like it was nothing. I'm beginning to wonder if I either made them to sharp, or not smooth enough. It seems like my first few Naniwa shaves were smoother but they lacked sharpness because they were sort of tugging. I am hoping it is technique issues on either the hones, strop or shave. My money is on either the honing or stropping more so on the stropping since I have really been trying to go as fast as I can and feel that I may have gotten careless on it.

Edit: I experienced almost none of this with the coti or Jnat edge.

What an adventure. I spent the day thinking (while cleaning up the garage and basement). I really started to consider what changed besides the type of stone it was honed on. I decided that a few things did in fact change:

#1 First few Naniwa shaves were comparable to the coti edge I tried. Maybe not as sharp or smooth but close enough that I couldn't tell much of a difference.
#2 My strop received major rework around the same time and I used a command hook to attach it to the wall.

Well I went ahead and changed both things. I used slurry on Naniwa 10k and 12k in order to ensure the edge was smooth (I did this on neither the last time I honed because I wanted sharper). I first took it to the 8K and treated all the stones identical. I feel that a Crox strop or maybe even a Jnat would really finish things off after my 12k. I guess we will have to see how Christmas goes, if I get a Tony Miller Strop my Illinois one will become an Crox strop. If not I may just consider really laying down some money on a 8x3 JNAT since I love the size of the Naniwa stones. To correct #2 I left my strop modifications but installed a hook normally used on a ceiling, directly onto the wall and pushed it into the 2x4 behind the drywall.

The stropping: The hook really let me hold the strop taught and this was not exactly possible with the command hook. I did 100 on the leather only since I wanted to also compare leather and linen.

The shave: Same 4 pass shave I have been doing. I did not really concentrate on smoothness and instead on how the razor felt and what feedback it was giving me. My end results surprised me, not much bleeding at all and I could really consider what bleeding that occured was a mistake from me on my chin (tiny spot) and perhaps past wounds being reopened on my neck and mustache area. The same trouble areas persisted maybe a little bit more stubble below / on my chin that there should be. The edge did not feel extra sharp obviously because of the slurry on the finishing stones. I can tell when it is extra sharp or just sharp because extra sharp causes me to not even feel ATG shaving because the razor never slows down. Sharp causes a little jumping / resistance on my mustache area. Anything below sharp just makes it impossible for BBS on my cheeks.

I find I get weepers when I go over the same area too often in pursuit of BBS. Its usually on my upperlip and corners of my mouth, where if I don't catch myself Ill go over the same area 3-4 times without lather, and with more pressure than prudent. I also agree the sharper the blade, the easier to get weepers.

Admittedly I have not been updating this because the towel was beginning to look like it needed to be tossed "in". The past two days pushed me away from it and really got me back to where I wanted to be.

New acquisitions: Tony Miller 3" Old No.2 with genuine linen.

New Years Eve Shave: This was my second shave with my razor honed on Naniwa stones with absolutely no slurry. I stropped it 10/60 before and after my shave. I dropped the linen down a little bit because it just felt right to me.

The Shave: WTG, XTG, XTG, ATG - The shave was so smooth and the blade was sharp I had absolutely no bleeding. I was capable of shaving ATG on mustache area with no resistence - something that was not possible on the shave 2 nights ago. I got BBS everywhere except for the right side of the hollows of my neck. This is because I am right handed and I did not want to risk cutting myself with my left hand trying to get that tiny spot. I put up the razor and was quite proud of the results.

Nice! You might find Tony's linen has magic strop dust on it...

It is something else that is for sure. Huge difference in the quality of his linen when I compare it to my Illinois 827 w/ faux linen. Nothing beats the real thing. The only thing I did notice is that my 3" does have minor cupping, so did my 827 at first so it may just need to be broken in a little more or my technique needs tweaking on how tight to hold it. I find myself having to force myself doing the x stroke because a straight stroke just seems so natural on it.

So I did a 2 day growth shave tonight on the same razor (3rd shave since honing). I did my same prep as usual, same shave pattern etc. It almost seems as if my hair was a little more resistant because I could really feel it resisting and not so much tugging. I did get a similar shave to my first shave and I was able to shave my mustache with no bleeding. None the less I made sure I did 30/60 today because I wanted to ensure the linen did its "magic". I may hone my other razor up using the same method and start shaving with it as well.

Question: If I get a really sharp edge like I did this time on my 12k and use it say 3 or 4 times. Would it be acceptable to take it directly to my JNAT when it arrives or should I back it down a few grits first?

If it's a good edge, put it on the Jnat.