How do you know if you have a fine/soft, medium, or tough/coarse beard? I thought mine was either fine or medium but I am having a tough time getting more than 3, 3 pass shaves from a blade. The Rockwell blades that came with my razor seem not at all smooth on my face, leaving me with nicks and weepers. I then tried a Derby blade, thinking I needed a milder blade. It was worse. I had to press down to get it to cut and was again left with nicks and weepers and not a very smooth shave. I then moved to Astra Superior Platinum and Gillette Silver Blue. Both seem to cut with no problem and feel fairly smooth with just the weight of the razor doing the work. My issue with them is that by shave number three I start to feel tugging and get some nicks and weepers around the chin and upper lip. A non-shave issue is that I hate the glue dots on the Gillette Silver Blue blades. The first time I used one I had a devil of a time prying it off my razor's top plate.
I am using a Rockwell 6C razor and find I get the best results on the R-3 base plate which has a blade gap of 0.019” (0.48 mm). One question I have is whether or not I should change base plates between passes. I have tried changing to the R-2 base plate with 0.014” (0.35 mm) blade gap for pass 3, but I cannot really tell if it helps. It feels like I get less irritation but the final result from the shave is not quite as close.
I am using a Rockwell 6C razor and find I get the best results on the R-3 base plate which has a blade gap of 0.019” (0.48 mm). One question I have is whether or not I should change base plates between passes. I have tried changing to the R-2 base plate with 0.014” (0.35 mm) blade gap for pass 3, but I cannot really tell if it helps. It feels like I get less irritation but the final result from the shave is not quite as close.