Hello gentlemen, I have been thinking about making the jump to straights for some time now, and am ready to begin. I opened this thread to hopefully get a bit of feedback and advice on my technique, so here it is without further adieu.
Hardware:
Here is what I used. The steel is Genco I picked up from a member on here who made a disclaimer after the purchase as to the shave readiness of the blade (more on that later), a very stiff 3 inch leather strop I have been trying to oil up slowly, a Semogue boar and MWF.
Took a shower, added some pre-shave oil, lathered up and went at it. Just did my cheeks and lower neck to start. Cheeks were not as easy to scrape my thick beard off, no matter the angle. The blade seemed to tug a lot and not glide through the hair like I was hoping. Every once in a while it did easily, but my guess would be a less than shave ready blade. Prior to using I inspected the blade under a bright light, but on the hair test the very center of the blade seemed to be sharp enough, but the ends required me pilling the hair a bit over the blade to get it to catch and pop in 2. I could not just drop it to get it to cut.
I did not strop yet because the member I got it from said he did before he shipped it so that is not the problem. Despite all this I ended up with very slight razor burn in a few places, and one nick. On my lower neck and face I did a north south pass and left all the tricky areas for the DE. The DE seemed to glide through easily after the firmness necessary to push the straight through my beard. Ended up with a very close shave and I think I am going to like this!
- I did have a couple of questions. Should I wipe or rinse the lather off the blade, or does it not matter? Second, I did acquire a balsa strop and some green ferrous oxide powder .01, should I give this a go, or just try strapping well first, or break down and send it out to Larry at Whippeddog to redone it? I have read where it is a good idea to get 2 straights, one being from Larry if the first is from another member so you know what shave-ready feels like.
Thanks for reading!
Hardware:
Here is what I used. The steel is Genco I picked up from a member on here who made a disclaimer after the purchase as to the shave readiness of the blade (more on that later), a very stiff 3 inch leather strop I have been trying to oil up slowly, a Semogue boar and MWF.
Took a shower, added some pre-shave oil, lathered up and went at it. Just did my cheeks and lower neck to start. Cheeks were not as easy to scrape my thick beard off, no matter the angle. The blade seemed to tug a lot and not glide through the hair like I was hoping. Every once in a while it did easily, but my guess would be a less than shave ready blade. Prior to using I inspected the blade under a bright light, but on the hair test the very center of the blade seemed to be sharp enough, but the ends required me pilling the hair a bit over the blade to get it to catch and pop in 2. I could not just drop it to get it to cut.
I did not strop yet because the member I got it from said he did before he shipped it so that is not the problem. Despite all this I ended up with very slight razor burn in a few places, and one nick. On my lower neck and face I did a north south pass and left all the tricky areas for the DE. The DE seemed to glide through easily after the firmness necessary to push the straight through my beard. Ended up with a very close shave and I think I am going to like this!
- I did have a couple of questions. Should I wipe or rinse the lather off the blade, or does it not matter? Second, I did acquire a balsa strop and some green ferrous oxide powder .01, should I give this a go, or just try strapping well first, or break down and send it out to Larry at Whippeddog to redone it? I have read where it is a good idea to get 2 straights, one being from Larry if the first is from another member so you know what shave-ready feels like.
Thanks for reading!
