Angle question from humble yet ambitious rookie

[Tranqville]

I now have two SR shaves under my belt, it's going all-right. I watched a lot of vids and read some of the stickies before my first shave, so overall it was a surprisingly smooth experience.

I noticed that in the videos, gents are sometimes using angles different from recommended 20-30 degrees. I realized that when I shave under my nose, I have to use a much steeper angle, and still I got a decent shave in those places and no irritation. BTW, incredibly sweet feeling of being able to cut those hairs that I had not been able to reach for years with the cartridge.

Anyway, back to my angle question. What is really the range that can be comfortably used for shaving? is 15 degree Ok? How about 70? etc.

Somehow, in some parts of the face it's intuitively easier to find the right angle. Neck is difficult. XTW was easy, for some reason. ATG was the most difficult, especially with the left hand, this is where I did most the damage in the shape of nicks and irritation for today's shave, fortunately minor.

Also, why is the razor stopping sometimes? I suspect it's because of insufficient lathering, but could also be my technique. I especially have trouble with razor stopping (what is the right word for that) on my chin and just under my chin - wherever the stubble is the toughest and the contours of my face are most complex.

 

[Revan]

What works for you can vary greatly from what works for somebody else, unfortunately the only real answer is to experiment. This frustrated me a bit when i started with a straight, but when you get it right on your own it's a pretty cool feeling.

 

[conroygc]

Regarding the angle question, it varies from person to person and razor to razor. There's some spots on my face I feel like I'm holding the razor at almost 90, but it still works.
The razor stopping as you are shaving is probably from using too much pressure, i.e. pushing the razor on your face too much. It takes a long time to get it down, but zero pressure means zero pressure.

 

[Attila]

Aim for 1 to absolute max 2 spine widths away from your face. Anything more than that and you will be scraping skin, unless you are shaving under your nose and starting the down stroke, as well as at your sideburns to trim them before you start your down stroke. Often some gents will use close to 90 degrees there but only as you just start, not to continue. Just use an EXTREMELY light touch when you do that.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I always recommend one spine thickness. Of course under your nose you gotta do what you gotta do. Troublesome areas you might benefit from having the spine actually touching or nearly touching. For ATG you should have a very shallow angle, too.

High angles can prematurely dull your edge, as well as cause scraping and irritation. High angle with too much pressure and not enough skin stretching is like asking for the ancient Chinese Death of a Thousand Cuts.

 

[drmatt357]

OK Slash, I just PMd you a technical question because I couldn't find a thread to ask it but this actually is a perfect one so here goes:

Hey Slash,
Have a GD been working on and experimenting with over time. It's pretty narrow and I don't think the spine thinned proportionately to the blade width (it may never have been). Anyway, I hear there is an angle calculator at coticules.be. Can't find it, do you have a link or a way to calculate short of trig?

Also, I'm pretty sure just the spine will need to be thinned and I'm going to try NOT to narrow the blade anymore. Should I put tape on the edge and run it on my Atoma?

Thanks,
Dr. Matt

 

[Slash McCoy]

OK Slash, I just PMd you a technical question because I couldn't find a thread to ask it but this actually is a perfect one so here goes:

Hey Slash,
Have a GD been working on and experimenting with over time. It's pretty narrow and I don't think the spine thinned proportionately to the blade width (it may never have been). Anyway, I hear there is an angle calculator at coticules.be. Can't find it, do you have a link or a way to calculate short of trig?

Also, I'm pretty sure just the spine will need to be thinned and I'm going to try NOT to narrow the blade anymore. Should I put tape on the edge and run it on my Atoma?

Thanks,
Dr. Matt

Spreadsheet. Enter spine thickness in cell A1. Enter distance from the back edge of the spine bevel to the razor's edge in cell B1. Enter the following formula as a function for cell C1:

f(x) =Degrees(ASIN(A1/2/B1))*2

Click on cell C1 and it will calculate and display the bevel angle.

Fir best results format the first two cells to accept and display numbers to the nearest 1000th so you can use inches if you like. Format the third cell to display your degrees to the nearest 100th or if you like, the nearest 10th. Workes in Open Office and so I would assume it does in MS Office as well.

 

[Attila]

↑ This makes my head hurt....owie..

 

[Chaloney]

Try the file linked in this post:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...lator-looking-for-input?p=4447294#post4447294

 

[Slash McCoy]

Hmmm... the attachment manager says I can upload an xls file. It also says I can upload a zip file. I tried uploading the bevel calculator spreadsheet as xls and also in a zip and it says invalid file. Mods... what's going on? Am I missing something here?

 

[conroygc]

Can someone explain to me what the bevel angle is? And which measurements you use to find it? I'm sure I can come up with the equation if I know what we're looking for.

edit: Assuming you know the width of the razor at the spine (w) and the height from edge to fattest part of spine (h), and the angle is of the whole straight razor and not just one side it should be:

Angle = 2arctan[w/(2*h)]

you can use wolframalpha.com to solve this, but it'll give you the angle in radians.

 

[Chaloney]

Height is measured from the shaving edge to the farthest edge of the hone wear on the spine. This is the widest part of the spine and is where a pair of calipers will measure the spine width.