My continuing Straight Shaving Journey.

Mango said:

That's a journey ........!
i'm learning from your trials my friend

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Ahh if only I could learn from yours.... I am trying to picture the amount of learning I would need to have SWMBO buy me that Dorko 1152 that you showed us that your wife got you... I'm not sure I could ever be that learned...

phat said:

Ahh if only I could learn from yours.... I am trying to picture the amount of learning I would need to have SWMBO buy me that Dorko 1152 that you showed us that your wife got you... I'm not sure I could ever be that learned...

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After 33 years of marriage, if I start now I might get in her good graces after another 33 years to warrant a Dorko. But then I would be too feeble to shave with it if I were lucky enough to still be alive.

Boker King Cutter (Just honed, then 20 passes green/red balsa, 80 passes on leather)
Mitchell's Wool Fat

Shower, then a very nice two pass shave with my newest acquisition. Still a little trouble with the weepers from my bad shave a couple days ago, so I took it easy and only did two passes. WTG, XTG and some touchups. Very nice shave and feels good, but I think I'll wait till the problem area on the right side of my face settles down before doing three pass
shaves again.

A much belated "Welcome" to the wonderful world of straights from another Canuck. You started while I was on vacation (how dare you! ) and only now am I managing to catch up on things, including paying the backlogged bills.

Sounds to me like you've gotten yourself of to a wonder start and somehow managed to avoid the nicks and burn that many experience at the beginning. Having the success you are at honing sort of makes me jealous just a little bit.

Don''t forget to throw the occasional picture into your journals. We like pics

Boker King Cutter (60 passes on leather)
Proraso Green
Whipped Dog Silvertip Badger
Nivea Original Aftershave Lotion

A later in the day shower, before going to pick up my daughter from the airport and have company over.
Two passes with some touchups, I use a lot less pressure with my newly honed razors than before for the same result..

I think I'm mostly recovered from my pre-honing bad time. WTG and XTG pass with a bit of cleanup made for a very nice DFS with the boker. Being much more hollow than my other razors, it really "sings" it's way through the whiskers and I really notice this. Probably back to mostly a three pass shave tomorrow. Could have done three today but I was somewhat pressed for time.

I'll cycle through the other razors, but at least it appears my one honing of the J.R. Torrey wasn't a fluke. my face likes
this one too..


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rockviper said:

A much belated "Welcome" to the wonderful world of straights from another Canuck. You started while I was on vacation (how dare you! ) and only now am I managing to catch up on things, including paying the backlogged bills.

Sounds to me like you've gotten yourself of to a wonder start and somehow managed to avoid the nicks and burn that many experience at the beginning. Having the success you are at honing sort of makes me jealous just a little bit.

Don''t forget to throw the occasional picture into your journals. We like pics

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Thanks - I didn't avoid all the nicks and burn at all - I just lurked and kept going over what I was doing and comparing to what was being shown and said here. I only decided to give in and join after about 50 shaves or so. Most of my true suffering was in silence

phat said:

Thanks - I didn't avoid all the nicks and burn at all - I just lurked and kept going over what I was doing and comparing to what was being shown and said here. I only decided to give in and join after about 50 shaves or so. Most of my true suffering was in silence

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phat said:

Thanks - I didn't avoid all the nicks and burn at all - I just lurked and kept going over what I was doing and comparing to what was being shown and said here. I only decided to give in and join after about 50 shaves or so. Most of my true suffering was in silence

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The only way to suffer!

I got caught up in getting things done, then had to go out for a quick business meeting. As such I had 30 minutes to
shower and get out the door.

.. but I did manage to shave - quickly, effectively and enjoy it.

J.R. Torrey 5/8 "The Celebrated" - 60 passes on the leather
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Whipped Dog Silver Badger Brush
Nivea Original After Shave Balm.

A quick WTG pass, then a quick relather and XTG pass - 9 Minutes total from stepping out of the shower to drying the razor and putting aftershave on my face, (Including making MWF lather). Result is a DFS on my face, and socially acceptable on my neck - most importanly pleasant to do even though I was getting ready quickly. I like that I can enjoy this even when
short of time.

Also of note, the Torrey also shaved *very* well, this is my second shave with it after honing it. I had also honed my newly arrived Boker King cutter and shaved twice with it. The Torrey doesn't "sing" like the King Cutter, but still is a great shave. Neither razor has been harsh at all, so what I'm doing with the lapping film progression and then onto CROX and leather seems to work, at least for me and my skin. So with this, I think although it wasn't my original plan I will take the time to hone my Wiss 5/8 that got from Whipped Dog and continue with it in rotation.

phat said:

I got caught up in getting things done, then had to go out for a quick business meeting. As such I had 30 minutes to
shower and get out the door.

.. but I did manage to shave - quickly, effectively and enjoy it.

J.R. Torrey 5/8 "The Celebrated" - 60 passes on the leather
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Whipped Dog Silver Badger Brush
Nivea Original After Shave Balm.

A quick WTG pass, then a quick relather and XTG pass - 9 Minutes total from stepping out of the shower to drying the razor and putting aftershave on my face, (Including making MWF lather). Result is a DFS on my face, and socially acceptable on my neck - most importanly pleasant to do even though I was getting ready quickly. I like that I can enjoy this even when
short of time.

Also of note, the Torrey also shaved *very* well, this is my second shave with it after honing it. I had also honed my newly arrived Boker King cutter and shaved twice with it. The Torrey doesn't "sing" like the King Cutter, but still is a great shave. Neither razor has been harsh at all, so what I'm doing with the lapping film progression and then onto CROX and leather seems to work, at least for me and my skin. So with this, I think although it wasn't my original plan I will take the time to hone my Wiss 5/8 that got from Whipped Dog and continue with it in rotation.

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Sounds like a sound plan. The only way to get good at honing is to hone, then shave with it. I too am pleased with my honing results, and have found a winning combination, at least for now.

McVeyMac said:

Sounds like a sound plan. The only way to get good at honing is to hone, then shave with it. I too am pleased with my honing results, and have found a winning combination, at least for now.

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Yeah, I get that feeling. I avoided it for a long time with all the talk of elitist zen mastery or I would be taking a chainsaw to my face.. Turns out that was foolish, Should really be a newbie's guide to honing that avoids all the nonsense. It's not that hard if you have a little bit of patience. I feel almost foolish for having been scared off of it for so long. Of course I've only honed three razors, (I just did the wiss, and I'll shave with it tomorrow, but the edge on it looks good too..)

phat said:

Yeah, I get that feeling. I avoided it for a long time with all the talk of elitist zen mastery or I would be taking a chainsaw to my face.. Turns out that was foolish, Should really be a newbie's guide to honing that avoids all the nonsense. It's not that hard if you have a little bit of patience. I feel almost foolish for having been scared off of it for so long. Of course I've only honed three razors, (I just did the wiss, and I'll shave with it tomorrow, but the edge on it looks good too..)

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The way that I look at it, I am responsible to keep my tools sharp. If I cannot figure out how to do it, then I will go back to DE shaving. I have been able to get edges that were every bit as good as any professionally honed razor I have ever shaved with, and that is good enough. The difference between my best edge and the zen master's best edge is probably very real, but it probably is only a small percentage of sharpness and keenness that separates them. Don't buy into all of the hocus pocus. Lynn Abrams and the folks at SRP take a much more pragmatic view of the topic, and I have obtained good success emulating these common sense approaches. These will get you 98% of the way there. If you want to get the remaining 2%, you can hone every day for 5 years.

McVeyMac said:

The way that I look at it, I am responsible to keep my tools sharp. If I cannot figure out how to do it, then I will go back to DE shaving. I have been able to get edges that were every bit as good as any professionally honed razor I have ever shaved with, and that is good enough. The difference between my best edge and the zen master's best edge is probably very real, but it probably is only a small percentage of sharpness and keenness that separates them. Don't buy into all of the hocus pocus. Lynn Abrams and the folks at SRP take a much more pragmatic view of the topic, and I have obtained good success emulating these common sense approaches. These will get you 98% of the way there. If you want to get the remaining 2%, you can hone every day for 5 years.

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Yeah, My technique on film is just emulating Lynn's videos on the Nortons that I've watched on youtube. I totally understand the guys who want to do stuff traditionally, but I think the attitude towards newbies that they should never try this and only ever send their razor to a self-titled "honemeister" is silly. That and sorry, for a newbie like me, lapping film simply rocks. it's *easy*.

Really, there should be a sharpening your razor forum dedicated to guys who want to keep their tools sharp, like you and I, and a separate forum for honing as an end to itself.

You using film or stones?

Took my time today.

Wiss 5/8 - 30 more strops on the leather after a hone, 20/20 on crox/red balsa, and 80 on leather.
Col. Conk Amber Soap
Whipped Dog Silvertip.

WTG, then XTG - a momentary lapse of concentration led to a oops on my neck below my chin, gave myself a nice little nick that I had to stop and attack with the styptic pencil. Finally and ATG pass across the cheek and jawline.

Pretty clean except for a small area of my left neck. The rest feels fantastic.

phat said:

Yeah, My technique on film is just emulating Lynn's videos on the Nortons that I've watched on youtube. I totally understand the guys who want to do stuff traditionally, but I think the attitude towards newbies that they should never try this and only ever send their razor to a self-titled "honemeister" is silly. That and sorry, for a newbie like me, lapping film simply rocks. it's *easy*.

Really, there should be a sharpening your razor forum dedicated to guys who want to keep their tools sharp, like you and I, and a separate forum for honing as an end to itself.

You using film or stones?

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I know you figured it out, but yea, I am using stones. The only reason that I am doing this is that I already had a full progression of stones due to my knife addiction. I likely would have went with films if I had been sitting with nothing to hone with. Certainly more cost effective than stones to get you started, and it gets the job done.

Stay sharp!

McVeyMac said:

I know you figured it out, but yea, I am using stones. The only reason that I am doing this is that I already had a full progression of stones due to my knife addiction. I likely would have went with films if I had been sitting with nothing to hone with. Certainly more cost effective than stones to get you started, and it gets the job done.

Stay sharp!

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I actually have a 1K->8K stone progression, but I had read enough to know that I would probably need a finishing stone beyond that for a comfortable shave - so with that in mind I made the decision to do a fine lapping film for the last finish, and at that point bought the coarser films anyway.

Wiss "Wissdom" 5/8
60 passes on leather
Whipped Dog silver badger
Col. Conk Amber
Nivea Original Aftershave Balm

Moved my shaving stuff up to the upstairs bathroom at the request of SWMBO, so I have more room, better light, etc.
As a result I took my time, slow stop, hot towel, latherup. First WTG pass nothing special, but no issues, XTG from ear to mouth top and then angle down on neck, then an XTG/ATG pass from mouth to ear on top, and along the jawline and touchups on bottom. One tiny weeper that was my fault I believe. BBS from my jaw up, nice DFS on neck, but I don't
quite have it down pat to get a nice ATG pass on my neck yet, although I did start a bit today. Altogether a very nice
shave.

I do like the "hot towel" treatment, which I did a little more of up here.

Still need to work into ATG on my neck better. My whisker growth direction makes this challenging for me.

Might also wanna think about trying some Left Handed work on my left side. I gave up on this early in my learning
and have been shaving only right handed.. Maybe a WTG pass tomorrow if I remember...

Col Conk amber is for sure not my favorite soap.. just nothing to write home about. Smell uninteresting to me, not super great on my face.. Really must buy myself a full tub of Stroppe Shoppe Baker street which is my favorite so far. Although my Christmas Present to myself got muled back from england for me - Two pucks of Mitchell's Wool Fat (which is cheap like candy on UK amazon compared to here)

Sounds like a pretty good shave. I am amazed at the subtle tweaking that I have done over the past week that has resulted in very good shaves. Sounds like you are dialing it in.

Actually, it was probably the best I've done so far.. the last few days have been a combination of getting re-used to a truly sharp edge, and to avoid obsessive touchups on problem areas before I do all my "planned" passes. I'm getting a lot better at a light touch of ATG, and if I just do that, rather than trying to touch up before getting that far, I get much better results.

A take my time shave.

Yesterday was a really good shave. I think today is better. Pretty much full on BBS except for a tiny patch on right neck!

Boker King Cutter
60 passes on leather.
Col. conk almond soap.
Nivea original after shave balm.

Went back to technique today and did shorter strokes than I have been. A wtg pass top to bottom and I used my Left hand on the left side of my face for the first time since about shave 5. Xtg from ear to mouth and up on neck, then atg up on face and angled up on neck...

Used left hand for wtg pass. Must keep doing this.

Stretched well. Jawline completely smooth.