Today was my 100th SR shave, all in all I think I've done pretty well. I suspect my learning curve was shortened some because I had been using DE for a little while and didn't have to learn the soap and brush as well as the razor. I have kept a journal of my journey for anyone who might be interested ...tickets are only $5 and all proceeds go to my Straight Razor purchasing fund.
In addition to working on figuring out how to shave with the darn things I dabbled in collecting a few, honing some, making a couple, rescaling some, stropping and making a strop... You know, the typical progression a new guy follows in his first 100 days. So what have I learned? I made a list of some of the things that come to mind, feel free to add to it if you are so inclined.
**Oh and, remember I've only been doing this 100 days so don't take anything I say here seriously...what the heck would I know? About all I can say for sure is I haven't bled out yet.
Lessons learned from 100 straight shaves
1) A sharp blade is the difference between success andfailure. Having an unquestionably sharpblade (and using it) improves results and reduces the tendency to use poortechnique to compensate for a poor quality edge.
2) Good lather for DE shaving isnt necessarilygood lather for Straight shaving. Inaddition to ample cushion, straight shaving needs lather to be slick, wet and thinis better than thick, dry and sticky.
3) Alum is great for maintaining control of therazor when that slick lather gets on your hands or razor But alum finger printson your face ruin good lather, make the blade stick and drag and even makesknots in your favorite badger hair brush.
4) Stretching the skin tight and flat with your offhand makes a huge difference. Stretchingby making faces without using your hand to pull skin tight is a DE techniqueat best.
5) Use a cloth around your finger to help get gripon your skin for stretching, it helps.
6) When you are getting poor results changesomething. But DONT do it with theblade still on your face.
7) Small changes to consider (ones Ive tried):Blade angle (more/less), Razor angle(raise or lower heel/toe), More/Less pressure,Lather, Order of passes, direction of pass, COLD water prep/rinse, morestropping, pasted balsa strop.)
8) Face Lathering is good for preparing the beard,bowl lathering is good for getting the lather just right do both.
9) Dont be a sissy, shave with purpose (applies toDE too), use enough pressure and force to keep the blade in good contact andmoving through your beard.
10) If you find yourself increasing the angle and/orpressing harder as you shave, you might be subconsciously compensating for ablade that is not sharp enough OR you might be getting confused or frustrated. Check.
11) Pasted Balsa strops are a GREAT way to maintaina sharp edge on an already great edge. 0.25u diamond is excellent but produces a harsh feeling edge if you dontuse 0.1u after. Using JUST 0.1u perSlash McCoys instructions will work very well.
12) I like lots of stropping- strop on good linen,strop on good leather strop, strop, strop.
13) Films, higher grit paste and/or honing stonesare options for bringing a dulling edge back to life. When it comes down to it, it isnt that hardto use film or a high grit synthetic stone in combination with pasted balsastrops to restore an edge at home.
14) Pro TIP- If you have a difficult patch (on yourneck), use your finger like it was a blade to mimic a blade stroke to determinewhat kind of alternate approach and paths might be able to address that area.
15) Pro TIP- Think in more than one direction.Sometimes a slicing type stroke that is moving BOTH up/down and side to sideis the answer you are looking for. Evena small degree of slicing motion can improve the efficiency of the blade andmake each pass more comfortable. Donewell it is a game changer, done wrong it is a blood bath BE CAREFUL and havestyptic on hand.
16) Watch the TIP of your razor, I think we allcatch our ear in various places and it bleeds like hell.
New Guy Honing observations.
1) Searching for information about honing is likefinding the secret word in a stereogram, there are no books and every time you searchthe internet it sends you back to B&B or one of the same two or threepages. The answers are there, you haveto pour yourself a drink, close one eye and squint real hard and it starts to make sense.
2) If you keep looking for pictures of what aproperly set bevel looks like under a loupe or asking what the edge shouldlook like when the bevel is set you got some more learning to do. BUT dont worry, youll figure it out.
3) The hardest part about learning to hone isfiguring out what questions to ask.
4) I use the Burr method to establish a goodclean bevel edge. I dont know how elseit can be done when starting from a poor state but people make it sound like I haveoptions. (the stereogram again...pour a drink and squint)
5) Films are cheap and easy BUT not foolproof. If you are a by the numbersrecipe following kind of person, films are likely going to work very well foryou.
6) Cheap Synthetic stones are capable of getting agood job done job done, combined with films and/or pasted balsa strops they canproduce a great result.
7) Wider is easier I think. I find 2.5 stones and film to be a perfectwidth to accomplish a decent x stroke and about any other stroke I know howto do.
8) If it aint working, change something; I foundsuccess by:
a. Stopping to strop on linen when it seemed thestone stopped working.
b. Frequently rinsing the residue off the stone andblade to avoid deep scratches and chips
c. Using LESS pressure or using MORE pressure
d. Use heel/toe leading strokes and change up aftera few sets of half strokes.
9) If you are bold enough to put a straight razorto your face and shave with it, you are capable of maintaining that razors edgewith some basic hones and pasted balsa strops. Honing a, antique finds might take more work and skill but you may stillbe able to do it.
In addition to working on figuring out how to shave with the darn things I dabbled in collecting a few, honing some, making a couple, rescaling some, stropping and making a strop... You know, the typical progression a new guy follows in his first 100 days. So what have I learned? I made a list of some of the things that come to mind, feel free to add to it if you are so inclined.
**Oh and, remember I've only been doing this 100 days so don't take anything I say here seriously...what the heck would I know? About all I can say for sure is I haven't bled out yet.
Lessons learned from 100 straight shaves
1) A sharp blade is the difference between success andfailure. Having an unquestionably sharpblade (and using it) improves results and reduces the tendency to use poortechnique to compensate for a poor quality edge.
2) Good lather for DE shaving isnt necessarilygood lather for Straight shaving. Inaddition to ample cushion, straight shaving needs lather to be slick, wet and thinis better than thick, dry and sticky.
3) Alum is great for maintaining control of therazor when that slick lather gets on your hands or razor But alum finger printson your face ruin good lather, make the blade stick and drag and even makesknots in your favorite badger hair brush.
4) Stretching the skin tight and flat with your offhand makes a huge difference. Stretchingby making faces without using your hand to pull skin tight is a DE techniqueat best.
5) Use a cloth around your finger to help get gripon your skin for stretching, it helps.
6) When you are getting poor results changesomething. But DONT do it with theblade still on your face.
7) Small changes to consider (ones Ive tried):Blade angle (more/less), Razor angle(raise or lower heel/toe), More/Less pressure,Lather, Order of passes, direction of pass, COLD water prep/rinse, morestropping, pasted balsa strop.)
8) Face Lathering is good for preparing the beard,bowl lathering is good for getting the lather just right do both.
9) Dont be a sissy, shave with purpose (applies toDE too), use enough pressure and force to keep the blade in good contact andmoving through your beard.
10) If you find yourself increasing the angle and/orpressing harder as you shave, you might be subconsciously compensating for ablade that is not sharp enough OR you might be getting confused or frustrated. Check.
11) Pasted Balsa strops are a GREAT way to maintaina sharp edge on an already great edge. 0.25u diamond is excellent but produces a harsh feeling edge if you dontuse 0.1u after. Using JUST 0.1u perSlash McCoys instructions will work very well.
12) I like lots of stropping- strop on good linen,strop on good leather strop, strop, strop.
13) Films, higher grit paste and/or honing stonesare options for bringing a dulling edge back to life. When it comes down to it, it isnt that hardto use film or a high grit synthetic stone in combination with pasted balsastrops to restore an edge at home.
14) Pro TIP- If you have a difficult patch (on yourneck), use your finger like it was a blade to mimic a blade stroke to determinewhat kind of alternate approach and paths might be able to address that area.
15) Pro TIP- Think in more than one direction.Sometimes a slicing type stroke that is moving BOTH up/down and side to sideis the answer you are looking for. Evena small degree of slicing motion can improve the efficiency of the blade andmake each pass more comfortable. Donewell it is a game changer, done wrong it is a blood bath BE CAREFUL and havestyptic on hand.
16) Watch the TIP of your razor, I think we allcatch our ear in various places and it bleeds like hell.
New Guy Honing observations.
1) Searching for information about honing is likefinding the secret word in a stereogram, there are no books and every time you searchthe internet it sends you back to B&B or one of the same two or threepages. The answers are there, you haveto pour yourself a drink, close one eye and squint real hard and it starts to make sense.
2) If you keep looking for pictures of what aproperly set bevel looks like under a loupe or asking what the edge shouldlook like when the bevel is set you got some more learning to do. BUT dont worry, youll figure it out.
3) The hardest part about learning to hone isfiguring out what questions to ask.
4) I use the Burr method to establish a goodclean bevel edge. I dont know how elseit can be done when starting from a poor state but people make it sound like I haveoptions. (the stereogram again...pour a drink and squint)
5) Films are cheap and easy BUT not foolproof. If you are a by the numbersrecipe following kind of person, films are likely going to work very well foryou.
6) Cheap Synthetic stones are capable of getting agood job done job done, combined with films and/or pasted balsa strops they canproduce a great result.
7) Wider is easier I think. I find 2.5 stones and film to be a perfectwidth to accomplish a decent x stroke and about any other stroke I know howto do.
8) If it aint working, change something; I foundsuccess by:
a. Stopping to strop on linen when it seemed thestone stopped working.
b. Frequently rinsing the residue off the stone andblade to avoid deep scratches and chips
c. Using LESS pressure or using MORE pressure
d. Use heel/toe leading strokes and change up aftera few sets of half strokes.
9) If you are bold enough to put a straight razorto your face and shave with it, you are capable of maintaining that razors edgewith some basic hones and pasted balsa strops. Honing a, antique finds might take more work and skill but you may stillbe able to do it.
As I hear you keep coming of the worse.
