It's been a long day. I came home from work late, and my face was pretty scruffy since there was a conference 1.5 hours away I was going to last weekend, and I didn't get a chance to shave since Thursday night. I pulled out a razor I had been planning to sell but have been vacillating over. It's actually my favorite razor when it comes to the aesthetics of it, but I have another just like it that's almost in mint condition. This one has a fair bit of wear in it. It had been honed a couple months ago on my usual "progression", i.e. one coticule from bevel setting to finishing (finishing with clear water). I decided to give it a few water-only passes on one of my coticules anyway followed by the usual 60/60 linen/leather. The edge looked good and seemed to pop hairs mostly fine, so I went at it.
I did my usual prep, which consists of washing my face with cool water while my brush soaks for a couple minutes followed by lathering with cool water. I stopped fussing with warm lather maybe a year and a half ago. My facial hair is curly and very wiry, and warm lather seems to encourage in-grown hairs for me. I really do mean wiry. I've given myself a splinter with one of my hairs before. I thought it was a sliver of metal at first, but, looking under a microscope, I found that it was clearly hair, and the color of it indicated that it was unmistakably mine. I still thought I was nuts until my wife once mentioned getting a splinter from one of my hairs as well! On two occasions! Well, anyway, at least cool/cold water for my lather makes my shaves faster.
Tonight, I decided to try something different. For the longest time, I had found that doing against the grain passes required the most concentration since, even with a long lathering with warm lather right after a warm shower, the razor often tugged even just the tiniest bit if I didn't get the angle (both relative to my skin and laterally) just right. And, hot water softens hair more than cold water, so my way is more prone to tugging than what most do. Also, if I hadn't shortened the hair enough in previous passes, these ATG passes were even more challenging. For me, a really good edge would smoothly go against the grain... as long as I had the angle and prep done right. I don't think it was until a year ago that my edges were fairly consistently satisfactory to me, but I still have my off days when it comes to actually shaving. Anyway, tonight, while about to start my first pass, I decided to do something different. I went straight for the ATG pass. The razor zipped up my neck without any hesitation--not a skip, tug or scrape. The next stroke was the same. I started from the bottom and went upward. I did some across the grain passes just to keep a neat line to my sideburns and on a small area either side of my chin out of habit. Those were the only XTG passes. There were no with the grain passes, and my face feels as smooth as it would after a three pass shave. For every stroke, the spine of the razor was against my skin. My skin does not feel any irritation from those ATG passes. I had shaved off a razor honed on a Spyderco UF hone last week. That particular razor shaved just as willfully, but my skin burned like hell afterwards.
So, on to why this post is in the honing forum. My procedure for honing and shaving is pretty simple. A very small percentage of the time, I will play around with some of the other hones I have: a couple Arkansas stones, a Nakayama and an Oozuku (including my four nagura and a couple tomonagura), synthetics on occasion, chromium oxide paste (still don't like that stuff much), etc. 95% of the time, I'll use only a coticule, creating a bevel with either a Shapton 1k or Cretan hone if needed. It doesn't matter which coticule I choose. I've had dozens over the past three years, but whichever it is, I use that from start to finish. I don't switch to another stone for finishing, although sometimes that means I take a while finishing. I finish with plain water. I don't mess with oil, lather, or whatever cushioning medium is in vogue. I do spend much of that honing time reading various indicators of the edge's progression on the stone. I use the hanging hair test as one of my tools, but the reading can vary depending on humidity or how much conditioner I used in my hair or the thickness of the strand. As explained above, my method of shaving is pretty simple. I shave either at night or after showering, but usually it's at night with no shower beforehand. The way my razor cuts through my hair is more than acceptable to me.
I ask, why do I get great results now when others proclaim that what I use is not enough for them? I mean, I certainly struggled for a while. It was often hit or miss, but increasingly it's almost all hit and rarely miss. I'm also not a terribly patient person nor do I have the best attention span, although I'm amazingly stubborn. So, I've kept chugging along trying to improve. I don't think what I'm shaving is any easier than what others are. I won't claim to have the manliest beard around, but I don't think it's the wimpiest either. I started shaving when I was nine. I've given myself and others splinters with my facial hair. It grows fast and reasonably thick. How is it that what I use isn't sharp enough for so many others? I don't think I'm settling for something mediocre. Is it just a matter of preference? Is it not just the edge but how it's used?
I did my usual prep, which consists of washing my face with cool water while my brush soaks for a couple minutes followed by lathering with cool water. I stopped fussing with warm lather maybe a year and a half ago. My facial hair is curly and very wiry, and warm lather seems to encourage in-grown hairs for me. I really do mean wiry. I've given myself a splinter with one of my hairs before. I thought it was a sliver of metal at first, but, looking under a microscope, I found that it was clearly hair, and the color of it indicated that it was unmistakably mine. I still thought I was nuts until my wife once mentioned getting a splinter from one of my hairs as well! On two occasions! Well, anyway, at least cool/cold water for my lather makes my shaves faster.
Tonight, I decided to try something different. For the longest time, I had found that doing against the grain passes required the most concentration since, even with a long lathering with warm lather right after a warm shower, the razor often tugged even just the tiniest bit if I didn't get the angle (both relative to my skin and laterally) just right. And, hot water softens hair more than cold water, so my way is more prone to tugging than what most do. Also, if I hadn't shortened the hair enough in previous passes, these ATG passes were even more challenging. For me, a really good edge would smoothly go against the grain... as long as I had the angle and prep done right. I don't think it was until a year ago that my edges were fairly consistently satisfactory to me, but I still have my off days when it comes to actually shaving. Anyway, tonight, while about to start my first pass, I decided to do something different. I went straight for the ATG pass. The razor zipped up my neck without any hesitation--not a skip, tug or scrape. The next stroke was the same. I started from the bottom and went upward. I did some across the grain passes just to keep a neat line to my sideburns and on a small area either side of my chin out of habit. Those were the only XTG passes. There were no with the grain passes, and my face feels as smooth as it would after a three pass shave. For every stroke, the spine of the razor was against my skin. My skin does not feel any irritation from those ATG passes. I had shaved off a razor honed on a Spyderco UF hone last week. That particular razor shaved just as willfully, but my skin burned like hell afterwards.
So, on to why this post is in the honing forum. My procedure for honing and shaving is pretty simple. A very small percentage of the time, I will play around with some of the other hones I have: a couple Arkansas stones, a Nakayama and an Oozuku (including my four nagura and a couple tomonagura), synthetics on occasion, chromium oxide paste (still don't like that stuff much), etc. 95% of the time, I'll use only a coticule, creating a bevel with either a Shapton 1k or Cretan hone if needed. It doesn't matter which coticule I choose. I've had dozens over the past three years, but whichever it is, I use that from start to finish. I don't switch to another stone for finishing, although sometimes that means I take a while finishing. I finish with plain water. I don't mess with oil, lather, or whatever cushioning medium is in vogue. I do spend much of that honing time reading various indicators of the edge's progression on the stone. I use the hanging hair test as one of my tools, but the reading can vary depending on humidity or how much conditioner I used in my hair or the thickness of the strand. As explained above, my method of shaving is pretty simple. I shave either at night or after showering, but usually it's at night with no shower beforehand. The way my razor cuts through my hair is more than acceptable to me.
I ask, why do I get great results now when others proclaim that what I use is not enough for them? I mean, I certainly struggled for a while. It was often hit or miss, but increasingly it's almost all hit and rarely miss. I'm also not a terribly patient person nor do I have the best attention span, although I'm amazingly stubborn. So, I've kept chugging along trying to improve. I don't think what I'm shaving is any easier than what others are. I won't claim to have the manliest beard around, but I don't think it's the wimpiest either. I started shaving when I was nine. I've given myself and others splinters with my facial hair. It grows fast and reasonably thick. How is it that what I use isn't sharp enough for so many others? I don't think I'm settling for something mediocre. Is it just a matter of preference? Is it not just the edge but how it's used?
