Keep at it, friend. It's early in the game, the good shaves will follow shortly!
I did a bunch more stropping on the leather and i think that combined with my improving technique resulted in a really fine shave. My 5 year old daughter even watched the whole process and was asking questions throughout.
I used (new) Williams, which btw has been so far so good, with the Shea Moisture brush, and the GD108 (as that is the only razor I have).
I tried to greatly decrease the amount of pressure and work on angles. only 1 little small (re)cut near my adams apple, but all in all a great shave. 3 passes..
1. face & neck WTG,
2. face & neck XTG
3. face ATG & neck A/XTG
I am noticing the general skin tone after shaving is much less visibly irritated than i expected after about a half hour, however, witch hazel feels nice, but alum and aftershaves kinda tingle...
For your strop, yes, sandpaper. I use 1200, the strop won't look pretty but as long as you don't have anything sticking out it's good. The surface must be smoother in both directions when you strop.
Bummer for your last shave.
I would hold on the hones for now. Hopefully you didn't roll the edge after 7 shaves but it's possible. Are you applying any pressure on the strop?
You could try a paste but it might be easier to get a honemeister looking at the edge if it's as bad as it sounds.
I went to Harbor Freight, found the sandpaper and a polishing compound, but couldn't determine it's grit. didn't buy anything. the salesman said that I would have better luck at Lowe's and when i got there they had nothing, not he sandpaper nor the paste...they had a porter cable metal polishing compound, but it looks like it is only supposed to be used with a buffer, as it was hard as a rock...
so i went home determined to see if i could strop this GD back into shape. Instead of hanging the strop i laid it on the table and used the felt 30x, leather 60x, and then newspaper 75x. i tried to use minimal pressure and it seemed a bit obvious that I had previously not been holding the strop tight enough and had been applying too much pressure.
i went for another shave with only 1 day stubble and it was much smoother. I was able to complete the shave visible-irritation and blood free. I got a pretty consistent shave, but nowhere near DFS.
some other thoughts, i whipped up a great batch of col conk lime or so it seemed and it completely disappeared on my neck while I was going slowly on my cheeks i didn't think i was going that slow... i figured i would add a bit more water to no avail. Then I thought I would only lather the parts i was shaving, but it still wasn't lasting. it looked great, but no staying power. i finally added a squirt of KMF to allow me to keep shaving. I think col conk has been my least favorite.
last straight shave was over a month and half ago.. just didn't have a shave ready razor until last week and time flies... I used another gold dollar, this time from seraphim's lot and proceeded to have a sunday morning shave with a 24 hour beard, not a lot to mow through, but for me that's enough to practice technique.
it was a beveled squarepoint (muted tip), hollowed heel, modified monkeytail 13/16 GD straight.
I think i prefer a squarepoint over a round, even if muted on this one... easy for me to get under the nose and around the ears. I have a great 2 pass shave that left me nice and clean and only one long but shallow vertical cut under my eye... my wife tells me I look like a pirate.
I also used a car wash sponge on the laying on the side of the sink (i think i saw this in Chimenschs video) instead of running water and it was nice and easy to clean off the razor, i could see the hair come off and no worries about the razor hitting anything...
I also spent about 90 minutes in Woodcraft on Staurday looking at all the stones, grinders, exotic wood stock and talking to the staff... talk about a kid in a candy store. I left with a DMT dual sided C/F diasharp stone, a granite surface plate (that thing is a monster) and some honing films...
I used Mama Bear Dublin Tweed with a CO Bigelows Best Badger brush.
what is Thayers cuke?
what is Thayers cuke?
Though the spelling would be slightly different, in swedish, Thayers cuke would be Thayers dick . Thanks a lot, that made my day.