Damn Comfortable Shave

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I do that routine every time I use a razor, only using CrOx before a shave and not after.
I was having real problems in the first half of the month using my Hoshi Tombo every shave.
One shave and the edge was good, next shave it was dull.
I almost threw in the towel on FFFMM over it.

After adopting that routine for the last half of the month the edge has stayed pretty much the same as it was when I created it, and I don't think 6 laps on CrOx is doing my coticule edge any harm.
I see it as just cleaning up and then lightly polishing the edge.
Going to use it for all my razors and see how they go from shave to shave.

Thanks, Doug.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

After this morning's shave I had to do something with the edge. Not that the shave was really bad or anything, but it wasn't as comfortable or good as I want.



First I examined the edge as carefully as I know how with the little microscope.

I couldn't find anything wrong. Having been a smidgeon concerned there might be a chip this was great news; I'm no expert but I can see chips.

Not really knowing what to do I decided to take the edge to the pasted strops.

• CrOx on linen, about 10 round trips or maybe nine.
• Wash and dry the blade.
• Red paste on small leather board strop, about 20 round trips.
• Wash and dry the blade.
• Black paste on small black leather strop, about 20 round trips.
• Wash and dry the blade.

I then stropped a bit on plain linen and stropped about 30 round trips on my horsehide leather strop.

During the leather stropping I noticed a different sound. More of a zing! I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's something.

Tomorrow I'll strop preshave as usual and perform a Scientific Shave Test. Then I'll know everything for sure.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Clay S]

After this morning's shave I had to do something with the edge. Not that the shave was really bad or anything, but it wasn't as comfortable or good as I want.

View attachment 968900

First I examined the edge as carefully as I know how with the little microscope.

I couldn't find anything wrong. Having been a smidgeon concerned there might be a chip this was great news; I'm no expert but I can see chips.

Not really knowing what to do I decided to take the edge to the pasted strops.

• CrOx on linen, about 10 round trips or maybe nine.
• Wash and dry the blade.
• Red paste on small leather board strop, about 20 round trips.
• Wash and dry the blade.
• Black paste on small black leather strop, about 20 round trips.
• Wash and dry the blade.

I then stropped a bit on plain linen and stropped about 30 round trips on my horsehide leather strop.

During the leather stropping I noticed a different sound. More of a zing! I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's something.

View attachment 968903
Tomorrow I'll strop preshave as usual and perform a Scientific Shave Test. Then I'll know everything for sure.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Tomorrow we discover if das zing gut ist oder nicht.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Wednesday's shave was night and day.

Yesterday's stropping on the three pastes made a huge difference. What a nice edge! It did not feel sharp, but it performed much better in all the areas which test the sharpness of my edges. Plus, it was as comfortable as comfortable can be. Just wonderful!

Speaking of which...

OMG. This is an incredibly great shaving soap. It has immediately gone into contention for all time favorite. Contention! I did not say it's the winner, but OMG!

Grooming Dept for the record. Mo continues to impress me. This duck soap is a big time winner! I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of his duck soaps (not that any are currently available but they're worth getting on the mailing list and keeping an eye out for). These Grooming Dept soaps are in short supply and not worth the bother of buying. Stay away from them and leave the few available soaps to those of us truly crazy enough to be GD Fanboys. Stick with what you're using, please!

My Proraso Pro ProPro brush continues to break in. This is the hardest brush to truly break in in my boar and badger collection. Well, that's correct as a statement, but synthetics are harder because they never break in.

But, I'm aware that synthetics are hugely popular, so perhaps I'm weird.

Spoiler: But...

Anyway, this was a very nice shave especially compared to yesterday's. Fixing the edge turned out to be simple. Even better, fixing the edge - making it both sharper and more comfortable - did absolutely nothing to hurt the edge. If anything the edge felt today even more coticule-like and even sharper than it did off the coticule when I honed it with my Dilucot Oil Honing method.

I'm very pleased! Thanks, Doug, for pointing me in the right direction.

The razor won't be pasted-strop stropped again before tomorrow's shave. I think it should be fine just off the linen and horsehide.



I've not used the Cremo yet, but I will. Although my skin feels like it doesn't need a moisturizer experience has taught me that's not a smart conclusion.

I've not decided on a splash and may forego one, or not.

Did I mention what a nice edge this was?

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Tomorrow we discover if das zing gut ist oder nicht.

If you say so. It's all Greek to me.

 

[Clay S]

If you say so. It's all Greek to me.

If the zing is good or not.

"Zing" sounded like "thing" with a fake german accent, so I ran with it.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

If the zing is good or not.

"Zing" sounded like "thing" with a fake german accent, so I ran with it.

Das Zing der Kante ist ziemlich gut, ebenso wie die Rasur, vielen Dank, Sir.

 

[Somerled]

Wednesday's shave was night and day.

I'm very pleased! Thanks, Doug, for pointing me in the right direction.

Did I mention what a nice edge this was?

Happy shaves,

Jim

You are very welcome Jim, glad it worked for you.
We all do things differently, as long as the main ingredients are there it should work out.

Doing the FFFMM forced me to think things through and try stuff I may not have tried if I had a choice of different razors to use. After the first two weeks I was getting tired of honing my razor just before I shaved with it. There just had to be another way.
So I invented my stropping regime, and, so far, it's working a treat.

BTW, had my first shave with my, new to me, Japanese Tanifuji razor.
Wow what a shave, even the wife noticed how smooth my face was after the shave.
Yet another favourite to add to all my other favourites.
It was honed by me on coticule, dilucot method and finished under running water with my La Rose. Beautifully sharp and smooth edge.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

You are very welcome Jim, glad it worked for you.
We all do things differently, as long as the main ingredients are there it should work out.

Doing the FFFMM forced me to think things through and try stuff I may not have tried if I had a choice of different razors to use. After the first two weeks I was getting tired of honing my razor just before I shaved with it. There just had to be another way.
So I invented my stropping regime, and, so far, it's working a treat.

BTW, had my first shave with my, new to me, Japanese Tanifuji razor.
Wow what a shave, even the wife noticed how smooth my face was after the shave.
Yet another favourite to add to all my other favourites.
It was honed by me on coticule, dilucot method and finished under running water with my La Rose. Beautifully sharp and smooth edge.

View attachment 969156

Oh, my, Doug. That works a treat just looking at it.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[dundak]

Glad to see your sticking with it. Eventually your stropping will get to the point you can maintain a razor in a steady state with just leather. At that point it will all click, at least it did for me.

I think a quite a few of straight razor users never get there. It’s easy to feel you have a grasp of it when your rotating thru many razors and not shaving daily. It’s only when you use just one every single day that all the small things start to coalesce.

Congrats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Glad to see your sticking with it. Eventually your stropping will get to the point you can maintain a razor in a steady state with just leather. At that point it will all click, at least it did for me.

I think quite a few of straight razor users never get there. It’s easy to feel you have a grasp of it when your rotating thru many razors and not shaving daily. It’s only when you use just one every single day that all the small things start to coalesce.

I see it much the same way, in a way.

I see why most people trying the SR probably give up, but I think it might be the best way to shave once you get it all figured out. It sure is comfortable as hard to imagine as that is.

Probably this SR stuff was somewhat easier when most men shaved with the SR. You could learn from relatives, etc. Everybody had a neighborhood honemeister. Or, maybe that's total fantasy about the never existent good ole days. Anyway it's not so easy now.

On the other hand we can buy pretty great razors on eBay. Pretty cheap or super cheap or whatever as long as we learn a few basics about what makes a decent SR. And, we have videos (good and bad). And, we have this community which is very helpful albeit not perfect.

For a while I was trying to get buy a really sharp "shave ready" razor, but having no luck doing so. I bought a bunch of so called shave ready straights, but, until fairly recently none were really very sharp; I was able to get them sharper with my rudimentary and unrefined honing skills. My skills at shaving and honing improved of course; partly because I also bought razors to hone so I had some practice. Anyway, I muddled along with some success, and became more successful.

I don't think this would have worked until now, but I'm now at the point where I feel reasonably competent, enough so that I think I might be able to actually shave every day with just one razor. If it needs a bit of tuning up on a stone I think I can do that job without spending hours on it, etc.

Of course, I have other razors to fall back on if need be, but my plan right now is to use just the one razor (or mostly just the one razor; this is not going to be rigid) as long as I want to, perhaps until I have strong confidence that I know how to use and maintain that blade.

Probably then I'll pick another razor and do the same thing.

I'm not saying I couldn't change my mind, but this is my current plan.

I'm not opposed to using whatever I need to use (stones, pastes, leather) to maintain the edge, but the simpler the better.

I'm pretty impressed with my coticule and Arkansas edges particular with pasted strops thrown in.

All that said, I recognize I have to get a decent or better than decent shave almost every day plus I'm at the point where I don't have to even really consider a safety razor. It's not that I have anything against the safety razors. To me, they leave my skin not as comfortable as the SR, but I have plenty of them that shave me well enough and I know how to use them. I can see myself one day using them again maybe; maybe even using them a lot, or maybe mixing them in with the straights. Or, not.

It's been a pretty long times since I've used the safety razors, any of them, at all. Mostly it's been just straights (and a brief interlude with the Feather SS AC barber's razor) since I began with the straight razor. I like the SR.

I shave almost every day. On occasions I can take a day off but only on days I don't have to be shaved for work when they coincide with days my skin needs a little break. Mostly I shave even then because I enjoy it and because I want the practice. On some days when I think about a break I just decide to do a half good job; sometimes those are my best shaves.

It's all pretty interesting. I'm a long, long, long way from having everything just click into place. At least it seems that way to me.

Thanks so much for encouraging me and helping me.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Thursday's shave was very good. Not perfect as I cut myself with a stray movement (not bad). Not perfectly close (like an E-2 shave).

Sharp.



Good kit.

Good scent.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[steveclarkus]

I see it much the same way, in a way.

View attachment 969223

I see why most people trying the SR probably give up, but I think it might be the best way to shave once you get it all figured out. It sure is comfortable as hard to imagine as that is.

Probably this SR stuff was somewhat easier when most men shaved with the SR. You could learn from relatives, etc. Everybody had a neighborhood honemeister. Or, maybe that's total fantasy about the never existent good ole days. Anyway it's not so easy now.

On the other hand we can buy pretty great razors on eBay. Pretty cheap or super cheap or whatever as long as we learn a few basics about what makes a decent SR. And, we have videos (good and bad). And, we have this community which is very helpful albeit not perfect.

For a while I was trying to get buy a really sharp "shave ready" razor, but having no luck doing so. I bought a bunch of so called shave ready straights, but, until fairly recently none were really very sharp; I was able to get them sharper with my rudimentary and unrefined honing skills. My skills at shaving and honing improved of course; partly because I also bought razors to hone so I had some practice. Anyway, I muddled along with some success, and became more successful.

I don't think this would have worked until now, but I'm now at the point where I feel reasonably competent, enough so that I think I might be able to actually shave every day with just one razor. If it needs a bit of tuning up on a stone I think I can do that job without spending hours on it, etc.

Of course, I have other razors to fall back on if need be, but my plan right now is to use just the one razor (or mostly just the one razor; this is not going to be rigid) as long as I want to, perhaps until I have strong confidence that I know how to use and maintain that blade.
View attachment 969216

Probably then I'll pick another razor and do the same thing.

I'm not saying I couldn't change my mind, but this is my current plan.

I'm not opposed to using whatever I need to use (stones, pastes, leather) to maintain the edge, but the simpler the better.

I'm pretty impressed with my coticule and Arkansas edges particular with pasted strops thrown in.

All that said, I recognize I have to get a decent or better than decent shave almost every day plus I'm at the point where I don't have to even really consider a safety razor. It's not that I have anything against the safety razors. To me, they leave my skin not as comfortable as the SR, but I have plenty of them that shave me well enough and I know how to use them. I can see myself one day using them again maybe; maybe even using them a lot, or maybe mixing them in with the straights. Or, not.

It's been a pretty long times since I've used the safety razors, any of them, at all. Mostly it's been just straights (and a brief interlude with the Feather SS AC barber's razor) since I began with the straight razor. I like the SR.

View attachment 969224

I shave almost every day. On occasions I can take a day off but only on days I don't have to be shaved for work when they coincide with days my skin needs a little break. Mostly I shave even then because I enjoy it and because I want the practice. On some days when I think about a break I just decide to do a half good job; sometimes those are my best shaves.

It's all pretty interesting. I'm a long, long, long way from having everything just click into place. At least it seems that way to me.

Thanks so much for encouraging me and helping me.

Happy shaves,

Jim

You are doing really well Jim. Very happy you stuck with it and didn’t rely on DEs and put a wiggle in your learning curve. I’m coming up on my first anniversary in a couple of weeks and already have over 300 shaves under my belt. Shaving straight is second nature now and so much better than other methods. All you have left is a bit of fine tuning. Congrats!

Steve

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

You are doing really well Jim. Very happy you stuck with it and didn’t rely on DEs and put a wiggle in your learning curve. I’m coming up on my first anniversary in a couple of weeks and already have over 300 shaves under my belt. Shaving straight is second nature now and so much better than other methods. All you have left is a bit of fine tuning. Congrats!

Steve

Thank you, Steve. That means a lot to me, sir.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[steveclarkus]

Thank you, Steve. That means a lot to me, sir.

Happy shaves,

Jim

You deserve it. Too many people just give up before they earn their way through the crucible.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Friday's shave was good.

This razor: I noticed today something that I should have noticed earlier and I noticed it the hard way. The blade's edge extends a smidgeon below the scales. Don't ask me how I noticed because you already know. Can I fix it easily? We'll see.

The soap is great! Way great!

This is probably the best boar brush I've ever used. It is vying for favorite status. Jade Omega Premium from Connaught.



Got a few tiny micro cuts (which demonstrated a quarter drop of blood in aggregate). So, used alum although I was planning not to.

Good skin stuff.

This is a super nice smelling and even better feeling aftershave lotion. I wish it had a much stronger and long lasting scent, but it's great as it is.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Twelvefret]

Congratulations, Jim. We started at the same time, took different paths, but reached close to the same destination.

I'm different in that I don't mind using more than one tool to get the job done. To each their own. Whatever turns your crank, or other.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Congratulations, Jim. We started at the same time, took different paths, but reached close to the same destination.

I'm different in that I don't mind using more than one tool to get the job done. To each their own. Whatever turns your crank, or other.

I'll say intermediate destination, and agree with you.

As good as the edge of my current Kukri (currently the only razor in my "experimental" rotation) is, I want it to be better + I'm interested in trying my Zulu Grey.

We'll see how that goes.

It's also somewhat contingent on fixing the other issue with the Kukri. That issue being the scales are currently allowing the edge to protrude beyond their protective boundaries. I'm going to see if I can easily fix that problem (without removing scales and pinning them from scratch). If I can't accomplish that I will jump to another "only razor in my experimental rotation."

I think you and I are not at our final destinations, but we're having fun with the hobby (or project or endeavor or whatever it is; not that I'm quite sure what it is).

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Twelvefret]

I think you and I are not at our final destinations, but we're having fun with the hobby (or project or endeavor or whatever it is; not that I'm quite sure what it is).

Happy shaves,

Jim

Yes, whatever it is!!!

Last two days I had time to use the Geneva. It really took off a days growth. Even went against the grain on the corners and neck. So what makes this razor work better than others with the same hone and maintenance. I suppose if I knew the answer I should write a book.......lol!!

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

My Saturday shave was highly experimental such that I went into it with some trepidation. I was planning to interrupt the shave if necessary and hone the edge on a different stone.

This was my very first use of my Zulu Grey stone.

That's the kit. I tightened up the pins today so the razor is safe (but just barely).

Here's the stone...

I did absolutely nothing to the 8x3" stone except unwrap it, look at it, wet it down, build a light slurry using the edge of the slurry stone, and hone.

My honing technique was basically the dilucot method (with water) using my usual edge leading/spine leading/edge leading, etc. strokes. About 25 round trips before each dilution. Usually I diluted with about three large drops. I used some pressure and lightened the pressure as I went along. Towards the end I switched to a rinsed stone (no slurry remaining) and a rinsed blade, and began using only edge leading single half laps flipping the blade after each half lap.

This is a heavy stone. I have been mostly honing on the bench (dining room table) recently and not holding the stone in my off hand. I did the same today. I used both hands on the blade but ultimately finished with only the weight of the blade, just guiding it.

After a while there was a lot of sticktion. I did a number of strokes (maybe 50 or less) with the blade sticking some to the stone. However, when I finished I had zero confidence in the edge. Going by my thumb pad tests I wasn't impressed. Nevertheless, I elected to do only linen (about 30 round trips) and horsehide (about 70 laps) stropping. No pastes.

Let's do the bottom line.

This was a terrific shave. I knew right away that the edge was much sharper than I thought. Every part of the shave confirmed what a nice edge I got honing with the Zulu Grey.

As you probably don't recall, this razor was subjected to my Coticule Oil Honing method, and later to my pasted strops. It didn't entirely need honing again, because it was sharp, but it felt somehow not just right to me so I decided to play with the Zulu Grey.

Sharp edge. As comfortable as comfortable can be. Of course, one shave is still only one shave and one razor honed on the ZG is merely a beginning, but it's a great start.

Good kit. Good shave.

Good skin.

The Zulu Grey seems like a hard and slow stone.

Happy shaves to you,

Jim