Worse with every day

Alright, guys. I'm getting concerned.

Every day, I grow more confident in my technique, fewer weepers and nicks. I'm getting better at stropping, I'm mixing soaps and creams like I know what I'm doing.

But every shave is getting more unpleasant. I'm guessing that two days from now, I'll be tearing up while I shave.

What's going on? Is it my stropping technique? I've only had these razors for two weeks. I've grown downright comfortable with my nameless guy, and I've used him, maybe 10 times, and my Dubl Duck maybe 4. Do razors dull this fast? Or am I stropping wrong? Both sellers claimed they were shave ready, but I only found out about the HHT a few days ago. Neither razor passed.

I've got Jnats on the way, so I'll be learning to hone here shortly. I should be able to remedy this.

My question is, did these come sharp and I've messed them up?
Did they come not shave ready, and I just haven't paid attention because I was too busy working on my technique?
Or do razors actually dull this quickly under normal wear?

It's tough to troubleshoot over the internet, but all I can do is speak from experience.

When I started out, I was dulling razors very quickly & could not figure out why. I was confident in my stropping and one of my razors (also a Dubl Duck) was honed by a respected honemeister (Glen from SRP), so it couldn't be the hone job...

Come to find out, it was my angle of attack that was dulling the crap out of my razors! I was using too sharp of an angle & it was quickly dulling my blade (and making for a progressively worse shave each time!)...Could this have something to do with your situation maybe?

Now I try to make a habit of laying the razor almost flat to my skin, and not only do my blades last longer, but the shave is MUCH more comfortable!!!

If you shave with too steep of an angle, you will be scraping, instead of shaving. That beats an edge up fast.

I know, that's what I did when first starting. Keep the razor almost dead flat against your face. Don't aim for the mythical, oft quoted "30 degree" angle, as it will likely result in an angle that is way too steep. simply try to have the razor almost flat against your face, with the spine lifted off the surface just slightly.


It may also be your razors. Unless it says "Gold Dollar" on the tang, it is pretty much junk....

I've played with a couple different angles, and have to come in at different angles depending on the part of my face I'm currently shaving, but I would say I'm almost always under the 30%, and much closer to the "Hair's breadth from laying flat" than anything else.

Good advice from these guys, I too took the edge off my razor half way through the first couple shaves till I got a PM saying the same thing, drop the angle and slide the razor slightly as you shave (it's REALLY hard to do when you are starting out) and the blade lasts so much longer. We had thought it was the edge crashing due to a "foil edge" but turned out to be 100% angle problems.

I had to go back to bevel and bring it through all the films again I botched the edge so bad using a 45° angle to shave with.

Maybe my first couple of shaves messed me up, and I've been living with the benefits since. I know my angle is good now, but I can't attest to that first week

I imagine it's just newbie technique (no offense - it's normal when you're starting out). I wouldn't worry about it. Now that you've had your first dozen shaves, send one out to be honed. Then, use that one as a reference while you learn to hone the other one.

Buy some CrOx for touch-ups. It makes a huge difference, and you can keep a blade shave-ready for quite a while by stropping on CrOx on balsa.

Also, work on your stropping technique. Watch some pros on YouTube, and note how they hold the blade, how they turn it, how taught the strop is, etc.

Could be some stropping issues combined with angle. Then add in heavier pressure to compensate and blam... poor edges.

I wouldn't trust hht until you hone and really understand what's going on and what it means based on different types of hair. Like chest hair vs fine hair..

Do the Blades shave arm hair or top arm hair?

That's a negative on the shave arm hair. For both razors. That's disappointing.

If they can't shave at the base of your moistened arm hair at any angle, up to ~20° then you definitely need help.

What grinds and sizes are they?

I can help out with a blade, if you want to send me the duck and pay for shipping pm me. I'll eval the current edge and do whatever is needed.

I'm back! And they both shave -moistened- arm hair.
Sorry for the confusion. I just went back to try it and they both definitely did the job if I put some water on my arm and mostly dried it all off with a towel.

Now I have a bald spot on my arm!

Also, the Dubl Duck is currently on the 'bay

How many stropping passes do you do after each shave? Should be 50 IMO
Proper prep? If you're beard hairs aren't softened you're gonna have problems.
Too light of pressure stropping is just as bad as too heavy. Hold the strop TAUGHT. That allows some forgiveness if you're using too much pressure.
Do 100 strop passes before you turn to the hones and see if it helps.

gash said:

Buy some CrOx for touch-ups. It makes a huge difference, and you can keep a blade shave-ready for quite a while by stropping on CrOx on balsa.

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I can attest to this. I have a blade that started getting a little dull, and I stropped it a good 40x each on CrOx (0.3 micron) and FeOx (0.1 micron) pasted balsa, and it really brought the edge back. I've been able to go for 20+ shaves without a touch-up on a stone or film.

Look in the main straight razor forum. Doc226 was seeing how long he could go without a touch-up. Looks like he's up over 100 shaves without sharpening his blade. Proper technique and some small maintenance (like stropping and pasted balsa) can keep an edge going for a LOOOOOOOONG time.

Well, Ive actually got my honing set together now, and did a test run last night. I plan on honing my go to razor tonight. My technique might not have improved, but at least I can reset the hone.

Further on to the hht topic-

I have coarse hair, does that mean a day head hair of mine isn't a good judge of the edge for an hht? I should use chest hair instead, moistened?

Really sounds like your razors are not shave ready.

IMO the HHT is a wonderful test but you must correlate the results of the test to the stone and the shave.

I think a properly honed razor should cut ANY hair, coarse or fine. My razors can pass the HHT with my wife's thick hair or my daughters angel thin hair.

Personally I will not shave with a razor that does not pass MY HHT. I have heard of folks getting great shaves from razors that failed the HHT-I would love to try one of those razors-I am willing to bet either the shaves sucks or they don't know how to do the HHT.

Doc226 said:

Really sounds like your razors are not shave ready.

IMO the HHT is a wonderful test but you must correlate the results of the test to the stone and the shave.

I think a properly honed razor should cut ANY hair, coarse or fine. My razors can pass the HHT with my wife's thick hair or my daughters angel thin hair.

Personally I will not shave with a razor that does not pass MY HHT. I have heard of folks getting great shaves from razors that failed the HHT-I would love to try one of those razors-I am willing to bet either the shaves sucks or they don't know how to do the HHT.

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i am a bit tired right now, but what are the other choices? it seems like you have both sides of the coin accounted for.

Isn't hht just dropping a hair onto the blade? How could you mess that up?

global_dev said:

i am a bit tired right now, but what are the other choices? it seems like you have both sides of the coin accounted for.

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Not really.

If they are getting great shaves from the razor then I would bet it would pass the my HHT.

If it fails MY HHT, I would bet I would think the shave sucks.

I have evaluated many edges from different people that they have been shaving with that I would not put to my face

But as you can see from my custom title-I am an edge snob.