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1st timer with a straight edge

Hi everyone. This is my first thread as iam new to this forum. Its great to see so much interest in shaving.
I recently purchased a dovo straight edge with a mother of pearl handle. I used it first time yesterday on a small part of my face(just as a trial) i also have a merkur future which is excellent. As i shaved it did not seem to shave very much, i have a long way to go in mastering the technique. Do any of you guys think that maybe its not as sharp as it should be?
I really want to master the whole process eventually.
 
Aky007 said:
Hi everyone. This is my first thread as iam new to this forum. Its great to see so much interest in shaving.
I recently purchased a dovo straight edge with a mother of pearl handle. I used it first time yesterday on a small part of my face(just as a trial) i also have a merkur future which is excellent. As i shaved it did not seem to shave very much, i have a long way to go in mastering the technique. Do any of you guys think that maybe its not as sharp as it should be?
I really want to master the :bored: whole process eventually.

G'day Bruce and welcome to B&B!

Probably not! I have it on good authority that straight razors are not ready to use out of the box unless they’ve been stropped by the shop you bought it from. I’m no expert on straights, although I have one, but I have never been able to get it sharp enough to pass “the hanging hair test” (you get a long hair and pass the razor through it, the razor should cut the hair).

Did you get a strop with this razor? If not you might want to consider this Tony Miller. I’ll be buying one of his four sided strops as soon as I get paid!
 
Most razors do not come shave ready from the factory and this is especially true with Dovo. They're almost there but not quite. My suggestion is to send it out and have it honed. Then you'll know what keen is.

Chris
 
I bought a strop yesterday and i had another go. This time the blade was pretty sharp considering im no expert in stropping. I only ran it 6 times on each side of the blade and im sure it needs more than that.
 
Hi,

in my humble opinion 6 passes is much too little. Every morning before shaving I do 30 on each side, then another 10 very lightly after the shave.

A freshly honed razor gets 50 passes before I put it aside for the next days shave...

Just my 2 cents,
-Axel-
 
axel said:
Hi,

in my humble opinion 6 passes is much too little. Every morning before shaving I do 30 on each side, then another 10 very lightly after the shave.

A freshly honed razor gets 50 passes before I put it aside for the next days shave...

Just my 2 cents,
-Axel-


You should never, never, never strop your razor after shaving. After shaving, the very fine edge of the blade will be layed over, and interrupted - but believe it or not, the blade needs to "rest". A good blade with a sufficient carbon rating, will heal itself so to speak. The edge will return to it's normal shape in less than 24 hours.

A quality razor that is properly cared for, needs only be honed once a year. Also, a good razor with an excellent edge needs only be stropped once every three to ten shaves. This flies in the face of what many will read or post, but it goes to show that the knowledge of how the correctly care for a straight razor has been lost. I cringe when I read how men will strop their razor one to two times per day, and hone it once a week. The only thing that will succeed in doing is to substantially reduce the life of your blade...after all, properly care for your blade and your great-great grandson will grace his face with the same Solingen Masterpiece.

All the Best,
Livingston
 
Livingston said:
You should never, never, never strop your razor after shaving. After shaving, the very fine edge of the blade will be layed over, and interrupted - but believe it or not, the blade needs to "rest". A good blade with a sufficient carbon rating, will heal itself so to speak. The edge will return to it's normal shape in less than 24 hours.

A quality razor that is properly cared for, needs only be honed once a year. Also, a good razor with an excellent edge needs only be stropped once every three to ten shaves. This flies in the face of what many will read or post, but it goes to show that the knowledge of how the correctly care for a straight razor has been lost. I cringe when I read how men will strop their razor one to two times per day, and hone it once a week. The only thing that will succeed in doing is to substantially reduce the life of your blade...after all, properly care for your blade and your great-great grandson will grace his face with the same Solingen Masterpiece.

All the Best,
Livingston


I don't entirely agree with this. Barber manuals instruct barbers to strop during the shave when they are shaving a customer. And frankly there never was a real consensus on the issue of when to strop, different sources instructed different things. It’s kinda like the linen strop there’s always been a debate as to it’s purpose and efficacy. Even Trumpers differs from most as to what they suggest. I think they suggest to start out stropping on the leather and end on the linen which is totally against everything else I’ve read. Personally, I’ve tried stropping before and after a shave and then for a time only after a shave. I saw no difference except I was working harder, spinning my wheels so to speak for the same result. So I only strop before a shave.

I can’t say it shortened the life of my edge either. The edge’s life is dictated by the coarseness of one’s beard, shaving technique and honing skill. Some will hone more frequently than others and there is standard time between honings. Most will go for a few months but others may go longer or shorter based on the factors I cited. One thing you also have to take into account is that with pastes these days you can get an edge finer than our grandfathers ever could with what was available to them. Finer edges need honing much more frequently because finer teeth are not as strong. Just my 2 ¢.

Chris
 
Today i stropped before my shave. I still beleive it could be sharper. I only shaved the easy parts until i can feel more confident to move on to the other areas. It was a better shave this time, but im just not getting it real close. I hope to acheive this. (its not even a week that i have been using it).
 
Livingston said:
You should never, never, never strop your razor after shaving. After shaving, the very fine edge of the blade will be layed over, and interrupted - ....

Hi,

sorry but I do have to disagree. A test done over at Straightrazorplace some months ago showed no negative effects from stropping after the shave.

Of course I am aware that the edge will show some effects from the shaving, but if the edge would become that "serrated" after the shave that there are pieces of metal that would break when stropping you would never get a blade to last one shave, let alone a number of them.

Also it should be mentioned that I do just very light strokes and only a few, just to remove the soap and moisture from the very edge.

But as with everything in straight razor shaving, YMMV :)

Just my 2 cents,
-Axel-
 
Back on track, get a hone and sharpen the razor. You can also purchase a paddle strop and apply a paste with honing powder inpregnated into it. All razors need to be sharpened.
 
Yes that is what im going to do. Im going to hone the blade, i think it just needs that extra sharpness. I had sent Dovo an email thatey replied to me back saying that they are ready to go from the box, but unfortunately i did not have that privelage.
Any ideas on where to get a good stone and what one is suitable?
Thanks.
 
Yes, I have tons of ideas. Purchasing a hone and learning to use it is actually a pretty elongated task. Are you sitting down? My advice, and you'll get lots of it with varied answers, is to go out on Ebay and purchase a barber hone or two. Preferably a medium and fine. If you can contact Redtrader99 she has some nice ones (if I remember correctly). A Norton 4k/8k is pretty good as an all around hone but is pretty expensive comparatively, and technically its really not a straight razor hone but works really well. Steer away from any hone made for knives unless its for the first 20 laps or so. After that you'll need very high grits.

If your original razor costs over $100 dollars US I would consider purchasing a razor to practice on. From your original post it sounded pretty expensive. Ebay again can be a good source for a practice razor.

Start by reading this

http://www.en.nassrasur.com/razorcentral/index.html

and see how things go from there.

If you thought there was a flood of ideas on stropping, watch what happens now. Do some research first and try and keep your advice limited to those that actually shave with a straight razor. Learning to shave with a straight razor is more like learning to play the piano than the stock market. Advice is great, practice is better.
 
Thanks Afdavis 11 for your input and advice.Yes the straight edge that i bought is probably about 120 130 us dollars. I will have to get one and practice. Your right its like playing the piano. Im a musician and practice does make perfect. Eveyone has a different technique and i have to find whatt fits with me. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.
 
It was my barber who taught me how to shave with a straight. He watched how I prepped, lathered up, and how I even held the razor. I must say, this has been the most enjoyable shaving experience for me in my entire shaving life!

Jeff
 
You should have him teach you how to hone. Scant few know how to do it. What did he teach you about stropping?

Aky007, try as best you can to keep the ideas simple. You have a long, difficult learning curve. Keep to the basics. If 20 guys can't come to a concensus on what the best DE razor is then surely there is lots of leeway on how to shave with a straight (which on the complexity scale is waaaaayy past DE shaving). Good luck.
 
Using the hone is a steep learning curve I'm still working on it but haven't gotten there yet. The one thing I've had the best of luck with is the pasted Strop that I got from Tony Miller. With a brand new razor you should be able to get it shave sharp just with the strop. I was able to get a new TI razor shavable with just the strop. The Ebay razors I've tried just with the strop and they need a little extra help with the hone. I'm new to this so I'm no expert and I've only been able to get a grand total of three razors to the point I can shave with them, but I wouldn't of been able to do it with out the strop.
 
I've simply found that you should pick up tips, lisen to them and then when they don't work for you (
and some won't) completely forget about them. As with a lot of things it's a matter of practise.
 
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