First honing and shave

A while back, I bought two vintage straights off the bay. I did not get very good shaves with them...I think either the razors weren't as shave ready as advertised or I dulled them with poor stropping. I am leaning towards my stropping technique. I think I used too much pressure and caused them to dull.

I decided to order a straight from Larry (Whipped dog), as I was told his are shave ready. It shaved much better, but my technique with straights was still in it's infancy, so the save was not that great. I then stropped it and dulled it, as it did not shave well the next time.

I decided it was too much hassle trying to keep these razors maintained properly and just put them away and went back to my feather artist club ss (I am still surprised how different these are to straights).

Well, my friend that got me into wet shaving somehow convinced me to try the straights again.

I had to wait until I got a honing stone though, because my thought is: 1. I am to cheap to pay someone to hone my razor, especially since I was dulling them so quickly. 2. I want to be self sufficient.

Well, I ordered me a norton 4k/8k for my 1st stone. I plan to get some type of 12k stone at some point, but I'm not sure when or what yet. I have a tchick piece of glass that I think came from a desk and used 400 and 600 wet/dry paper to flatten the stone. I honed my razor and followed up with a stropping on balsa (the one I got from Larry's poor man's strop) and then the leather stropping as well.

I shaved once with just 2 passes. Wtg and xtg. I didn't feel it was going too great so I stopped there. An ok shave, but not smooth like I prefer.

Stropped after the first shave on leather and put the razor aside for a couple of days.

Stropped on leather again and shave 3 passes. I got a great shave! Easily as smooth as the shaves I get from my feather artist club ss!

Now, the stars may have just aligned properly or I just had some good luck..I know I won't get these results everytime, but I know I can do it. My interest has been reinvigorated and I know I will improve my techniques and consistancy now.

I hadn't planned on writing so much, but I was just too excited about my success that I needed to share!

Congratulations!
Maybe the razor needed more stropping, especially after you honed it?
Is your strop a good one?
Sometimes I notice my strop gets better if I rub it several times with my palm before stropping the razor. Especially if it was unused for a while, it becomes stiffer and a good rub makes it like new again.

Cheers,
Cristian

The strop was pretty new the first go, so maybe it was too stiff. I'll try the palm rub the next time I use it. Thanks for the advice.

Congrats! You should be able to get fine shaves from your straights, but there are some skills to learn. That's part of the fun though.

Cheers, Steve

Mushraeddur said:

The strop was pretty new the first go, so maybe it was too stiff. I'll try the palm rub the next time I use it. Thanks for the advice.

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Yes, rub it vigorously until it gets pretty hot. This way you are sure it is clean (any small particles on the surface can ruin the edge). It also changes the way blade slides on top of the strop, and it makes it more supple. Oils from your hand may help the strop not to dry out.

You are off to a good start. None of us nailed it on the first (or second, or third) try. You have found that you can do it. Now you just need to refine your technique. Your face will give you all of the feedback that you need from here on out.

Congrats on the first shave. Honing and stropping take some practice to get them just right. Lots of videos on YouTube to learn from!

Ya, the honing is going to take some time to get there, but like my discovered joy of wet shaving with de's and now straights, it's a journey I look forward to.

kelbro said:

You are off to a good start. None of us nailed it on the first (or second, or third) try.

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This is definitely the truth! I think my first good shave with a straight was about the 20th. Still, once you get a good one it's addicting. Congrats!