Straight razor, day 3: still not what I expected...

[jsauve]

I know, I know, it's only 3 shaves, no way my technique is what it should be, but oy! Not getting anywhere as close a shave as I can with my cheap $14 Schick-thingy, major razor burn...not even attempting upper lip and chin area at this point until I get the rest properly.

Prep: hot water on the face, followed with a hot, wet facecloth held to the face for 2-3 minutes. Proraso pre-shave cream (hoping it'll make the razor glide better across the skin), lather with a sandalwood soap purchased from ClassicShaving.com.

I then shave WTG grain (think fingernails across a blackboard, no smooth glide whatsoever!), trying to hold the blade at different angles to see what works best; long slow strokes vs. short repetitive strokes, again to see what works best.

More Proraso pre-shave cream, lather up again, and then try XTG, except for under the jaw, where I just can't seem to do that so I go ATG.

More cream, more lather, and then try to go ATG on the cheeks to get a smoother shave.

After all this work, it's like, meh...not as close as I'd like and burn!

Sigh. Break until Monday, now...

Jacques

[Gissy]

Where did you get the razor from and what brand is it? Many straights are not sold shave ready or are not really made for shaving at all if it is a cheap pakistani razor or something.

[Luc]

3 shaves won't get you nearly to a BBS. It takes months or practice. Patience...

[sparco]

Try to shave without the proraso pre-shave cream. In my experience the pre-shave cream "burns" quite a bit, when I apply it to the face after rinsing. And that + small cuts and nicks would be torture.

[Attila]

Not a straight shaver myself, but as stated above you need to make sure the blade is completely prepared and sharpened beforehand. Did you make sure to read the straight shaving tutorials on this site before too? If not, I highly recommend it. Good luck!

[jsauve]

Well, this is the kit I ordered: http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...12/9420478.htm

I'm assuming this blade comes ready to shave.

@sparco: I started without the pre-shave cream; razor burn was not more or less. I was just hoping the cream would help the razor glide better on the skin.

@Attila: yes, I've watched a lot of videos and read a lot of posts. Not sure what else to look at...

[shakin_jake]

Hey Jacques!...beautiful kit you bought. I have an idea the vendor sent out a shave ready straight razor. If I guage your experience against my own when I started out, I'll bet dollars to donuts you dulled the edge on your strop, and only because you're new to stropping and like a lot of us when we first start out with a straight razor, have a time of it learning the proper way to strop the razor. I know I did. I felt like the dumbest kid on the block. I had purchased a brand spanking new stainless steel bladed Dovo and got a shave just like the one you are reporting here

After a few shaves like that I went over to another B&B member's home so he could show me how to strop and work with the coticule bout I had just bought. lemme tell ya, when I shaved with the razor Scott tuned up for me (including stropping), it shaved very well, a real stunner but my technique was sorely lacking yet I knew I had a very sharp well stroppped razor and that made all of the difference in the world

I don't know if you have access to anyone local to you that could show you how to strop your new tool and if you don't, not to worry, you will learn how to strop it properly, and that will make all the difference in the world. This straight razor stuff takes time to learn but it's all worth it. In no time you will have all of this figured out

Download this manual http://www.whippeddog.com/app/webroo..._Manual(1).pdf Larry (Whipped Dog) wrote it. I'm sure it will help you along your way. Don't get discouraged, you're payin dues, straight razor dues...and the dividends aren't far off


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[Slash McCoy]

First of all, forget about ATG for the first couple of weeks. Work on a simple two pass WTG shave.

Switch soaps. Try VDH which you can get for about $1.87 at Walgreens or walmart. Better yet, get a tube of Kiss My Face cream. Smush a blop of the KMF about the size of a lima bean between your palms. Rub it onto your face. Wet your brush and work it in your palm to get the residue of cream into the brush. Work the cream on your face into a lather with the brush, re-wetting as needed. You don't need fluffy cotton candy foam. You need slick, moist lather. Either the VDH or the KMF should be very face-friendly and hypo-allergenic.

Watch your shave angle. Place the razor flat against your face. Rotate the spine outward until there is a single spine thickness between spine and face. That is a good starting angle. More and you are just scraping the face instead of shaving. Less could be better but with the spine dragging on the face you might not get good cutting action.

STRETCH the skin to be shaven. Slack skin invites irritation and cuts. Tight skin pops the whiskers out and presents a flat surface for the razor to work with.

Get a piece of balsa, 3" wide, 12" or longer in length, and 3/4" or 1" thick. Your local hobby shop has it, or get it online. Shouldn't cost more than $6 or $7 and in fact you can probably get a 36" long board of it for around $7. Go to www.tedpella.com and get 5g each of 1u and .25u diamond paste. Sand the balsa flat and smooth, finishing with 1000 grit paper. Wipe it clean with a damp cloth and get all sawdust from it. Apply the .25u to one side (label with a sharpie marker) and the 1u to the other side. About 2 bb's worth will be enough. Work it in over the whole surface. Now you have a pasted balsa bench strop. Unlike your hanging strop, this one has some serious abrasive ability. Carefully strop your razor on the coarse side. Give it about 4 dozen careful laps. Use very light pressure, hardly more than the weight of the blade alone. Do not let the shoulder of the razor ride up on the balsa. Do not under any circumstances allow the spine to lift off of the balsa. When you flip the blade, flip the EDGE outward, never the spine. After the coarse side, wipe the blade carefully and repeat on the fine side. Strop on your hanging strop and your edge should be dead whistling sharp. If that doesn't seem to improve the shave quality, do it again with double the number of laps. I am pretty sure that your razor was shipped shave-ready but there is shave-ready, and there is shave-ready. It is a subjective quality. The 1u diamond paste cuts aggressively but leaves a finish roughly equivelant to a 12k Naniwa Superstone, a respectable finishing stone. The .25u side will give you a polish on the edge that few stones can come close to duplicating. Remember, though... light pressure, spine always on the balsa, shoulder never riding up on the balsa. Use a slight x-stroke, too. With good technique, this is a wonderful edge maintenance tool. Once you got your edge dialed in, you can give it a half dozen laps on the 1u and a dozen on the .25u after every shave, and go a very long time without needing to re-hone. You might even skip the 1u and just use the fine side.

When you use the hanging strop, be sure that you pull the strop nice and tight, and use only the lightest pressure. Remember to flip the edge out, never the spine. Keep the spine always on the strop. Be careful not to "bend" the razor over the edge of the strop. This is a major concern with such a narrow strop. Consider and upgrade to a nice 3" strop in the near future, after you have developed your technique to the point where you are no longer nicking or slicing the strop.

Your lather must be slick enough to provide plenty of lubrication. Don't shave dry skin! A quick repeat stroke on an area is okay but repeated strokes are an invitation to razor burn. Re-wet or re-lather as needed, not just before each full pass.

I think your shave angle is the most likely culprit. You might be using too much pressure, too and I bet you aren't stretching enough. Pressure should be the weight of the razor and about the weight of a finger. Just enough to maintain control. With proper pressure and angle, if you are not getting good cutting action, then the razor is not sharp. Often a beginner will increase pressure and angle to compensate for a blade that just isn't sharp enough to do the job. Of course this leads to irritation and cuts.

You have spent what... $347 I think, for your kit? I suggest springing another $25 for a sight unseen shave-ready vintage razor from www.whippeddog.com to use as a benchmark for sharpness, and to keep as a backup to your Dovo. You may even like it better than your Dovo. You will probably wish you had bought the Sight Unseen Deal from Larry and spent the other $292 on beer instead of the kit you bought, but I could be wrong. I do know that Larry's whipped dogs are generally respectable old brands, not always pretty but generally excellent shavers and always nice and sharp, and cheap as dog doo. If you think your Dovo might not be sharp, you can send it to him for honing after you have your whipped dog razor in hand.

[Giant Kiwi]

Welcome
Can't add much to say after Slash.
I got a whipped dog as my first straight and he sent me 109 year old Genco that shaves better than anything else.
Why not check out the straight razor forums too.
Plenty of people to welcome you and loads of advice.

[Legion]

That is a nice razor, and I think it will serve you well. But I saw nowhere in that listing that it is honed beyond what the Dovo factory has done, and many people feel that this is not enough.

So...

It could well be your newbie technique (and three shaves is pretty soon to be expecting good results. Most of us had to stick out a month before we were getting close to what we could get off a DE), or the razor may not be all it can be. It might be worth sending the razor to one of our more experienced hone-blokes to eliminate one variable.

[jsauve]

Thank-you, everyone! Really appreciate all of the comments, suggestions and tips! This is like, The Brotherhood of the Face, here! LOL!

@Slash: Whew! That was some post - thanks! I'm not sure I want to tackle you're balsa wood procedure just yet! If I feel the razor needs honing, I think I'll just send it out to someone! Might just follow your suggestion of ordering a SR from WhippedDog...

Oh, and $292 of Canadian beer would not put me in any state to bring a deadly weapon to my face and neck!

As per all of your suggestions, I believe my stropping does indeed need some work - I believe I may be applying too much pressure, for one thing. Will go lighter tomorrow when I try again. Will also be careful of my angle and pressure, and will work on WTG passes only until I get better.

This is a lot more work then I anticipated, but it's fun! Even though I'm nowhere near a good shave, yet, I look forward to the time spent on the whole process every morning. It's a Zen thing, I guess...

[shakin_jake]

That is a nice razor, and I think it will serve you well. But I saw nowhere in that listing that it is honed beyond what the Dovo factory has done, and many people feel that this is not enough.

So...

It could well be your newbie technique (and three shaves is pretty soon to be expecting good results. Most of us had to stick out a month before we were getting close to what we could get off a DE), or the razor may not be all it can be. It might be worth sending the razor to one of our more experienced hone-blokes to eliminate one variable.

~~~looks like you're right David... http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...15/8689623.htm

I would have thought Classicshaving did a rudimentary touch up before any new blade left their doors but obviously you have to add $20 to your order and wait some more weeks to get a premium service. I can say this with confidence...the razor Jacques bought is not a cheap Dovo...Jarrod charges $270 for this same razor http://www.thesuperiorshave.com/Dovo...ght_Razor.html and I see that it is a stainless steel razor. FWIW, my first straight razor was a Dovo stainless purchased from Jarrod and I was at his shop at the point of sale. I bought the Dovo master's and back then it sold for about $170-$180 and I vividly recall Jarrod saying that on the razor I bought and higher prioced Dovo models, the Dovo factory does a higher end hone and does not require much if any further hone work. I remember Jarrod opening the sealed coffin my razor was in (factory seal) and he did an HHT before my eyes. It was a solid HHT4. Again, this was done on a factory sealed Dovo master's

None the less, Jarrod ran the razor over his coticule while I watched doing nothing more than a half dozen, maybe a dozen laps on straight water then another HHT, same result with a swifter cutting of the hair. HHT5 is a noble state. Anyways, I do recal Jarrod saying that on lessor priced Dovo's, some needed more work, others, none at all and he (Jarrod) inspects each and every razor before it leaves his shop, doing an HHT and some hone work

That said, take a look at this video Jarrod did on this subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqP-T...layer_embedded that was a factory sealed Dovo passing HHT quite easily

Anyways, I have a good idea the razor that was sent to Jacques could easily pass a respectable HHT. Any trouble he is having (and has already stated), is due to his n00bness in both stropping skill and ability to wield this tool, using unlearned hands. But not to worry, time is on your side. Every shave I'm sure your stropping skills will improve and so will the edge pick up as a result of. The edge can dull some from poor stropping skills but with better skills the same edge will gain in sharpness. Not every edge is dulled beyond use from improper stropping and can easily regain sharpness when properly stopped. You'd have to really boink the edge for it to need further honing

While I'm remembering the edge I brought to Scott way back when (March 2011), it turned out I nicked the edge on my razor dinging it on the bathroom sink faucet. First thing Scott did w/o him asking me if I damaged it was he took it into a dark room and shone light on the edge (w/the razor/edge upside down) using a flash light and he found the nick, which was slight enough that it was easisly worked out using the coti bout I brought along for Scott to show me how to use

Long story short, practice your stropping skills Jacque=:-), you'll get there



Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.