TL;DR → I can't get a fine shave with the straight razor; it mostly skates over the hair.
I've been using a surgical scalpel for years to take off the super fine hair, but it's small and the disposable element bothers me, so I tried to move to straight razors. I like everything about the idea, but I can't get it to work. The razor is a dovo 5/8, supposedly sent shave ready. I've since had it honed by a professional again to make sure it isn't just dull. I strop it before I make my attempts, which does improve things a little, but it's still no comparison. On coarser hair, it cuts, but not particularly closely -- close enough to make it look good, but I can still feel stubble. On the fine hair, it's difficult to cut the hair at all. I'm hoping that I'm just forgetting some fundamental step, but I've tried everything I can think of. As I understand it, a straight razor shave done right is the closest shave you can get -- is that not true?
The things I've tried: hot towels and steaming, shaving cream, shaving gel, against the grain, with the grain, long strokes, short strokes, many passes, varied angle, varied pressure. After all of that experimenting, I took it back to the bladesmith to make sure I hadn't mussed it, but he said it's as sharp as it's ever going to get.
With the scalpel, it's super easy -- I don't even wet the skin first. I never cut myself and it always gets all the hair perfectly, what's the difference?
I've been using a surgical scalpel for years to take off the super fine hair, but it's small and the disposable element bothers me, so I tried to move to straight razors. I like everything about the idea, but I can't get it to work. The razor is a dovo 5/8, supposedly sent shave ready. I've since had it honed by a professional again to make sure it isn't just dull. I strop it before I make my attempts, which does improve things a little, but it's still no comparison. On coarser hair, it cuts, but not particularly closely -- close enough to make it look good, but I can still feel stubble. On the fine hair, it's difficult to cut the hair at all. I'm hoping that I'm just forgetting some fundamental step, but I've tried everything I can think of. As I understand it, a straight razor shave done right is the closest shave you can get -- is that not true?
The things I've tried: hot towels and steaming, shaving cream, shaving gel, against the grain, with the grain, long strokes, short strokes, many passes, varied angle, varied pressure. After all of that experimenting, I took it back to the bladesmith to make sure I hadn't mussed it, but he said it's as sharp as it's ever going to get.
With the scalpel, it's super easy -- I don't even wet the skin first. I never cut myself and it always gets all the hair perfectly, what's the difference?