Well my Dovo Bismarck and Heirloom strop arrived today, from Tony at http://www.thewellshavedgentleman.com/ .
So I tried a bit of stropping first, it went went ok but I definately need to work on my technique. It didn't make the nice clean swooshing sound that Lynn was making on his demo video.
After washing with hot water I lathered up, and put a hot towel on my face for 2 minutes, then rinsed and lathered up again. Tentatively holding my straight in the gentlest 'death grip' I could manage, I put it to work.
I got the hang of the action fairly quickly. I wasn't using much of an angle but it was making a lot of noise like when you use too much blade angle on a DE, it also felt like it was dragging quite a lot. It was removing a bit of beard, but not very much and certainly nowhere near as much as a single "with the grain" pass using a DE.
I persevered and was able to finish my first pass without any nicks or cuts at all.
I rinsed and then lathered up again, and made another pass - this time going slightly across the grain. Again lots of noise but not much cutting, though it was obvious the beard was being reduced gradually. Again I made it to the end of the pass without any nicks or cuts, but by now I could feel a little razor burn starting to appear. I opted for safety and switched to a Futur/Feather for a last pass and T&C.
Overall I'm reasonably happy, I didn't spill any blood and the shave probably would have looked passable from a distance - at least for a couple of hours. The razor has been properly honed, but doesn't cut a hanging hair (at least not in my ham fisted paws it doesn't). I'll try another gentle pass tomorrow morning after I've showered, in case it was my prep which was at fault.
I'm going to Trumpers for a lesson a week on Friday, so hopefully they'll be able to give me some good advice on stropping and shaving.
Cheers,
Iwan
So I tried a bit of stropping first, it went went ok but I definately need to work on my technique. It didn't make the nice clean swooshing sound that Lynn was making on his demo video.
After washing with hot water I lathered up, and put a hot towel on my face for 2 minutes, then rinsed and lathered up again. Tentatively holding my straight in the gentlest 'death grip' I could manage, I put it to work.
I got the hang of the action fairly quickly. I wasn't using much of an angle but it was making a lot of noise like when you use too much blade angle on a DE, it also felt like it was dragging quite a lot. It was removing a bit of beard, but not very much and certainly nowhere near as much as a single "with the grain" pass using a DE.
I persevered and was able to finish my first pass without any nicks or cuts at all.
I rinsed and then lathered up again, and made another pass - this time going slightly across the grain. Again lots of noise but not much cutting, though it was obvious the beard was being reduced gradually. Again I made it to the end of the pass without any nicks or cuts, but by now I could feel a little razor burn starting to appear. I opted for safety and switched to a Futur/Feather for a last pass and T&C.
Overall I'm reasonably happy, I didn't spill any blood and the shave probably would have looked passable from a distance - at least for a couple of hours. The razor has been properly honed, but doesn't cut a hanging hair (at least not in my ham fisted paws it doesn't). I'll try another gentle pass tomorrow morning after I've showered, in case it was my prep which was at fault.
I'm going to Trumpers for a lesson a week on Friday, so hopefully they'll be able to give me some good advice on stropping and shaving.
Cheers,
Iwan