Finally!

[Amer]

After months of trying, I finally got a good shave with a straight today! BBS in most areas with a few little patches.

The culprit to all those horrible shaves that made me want to quit and forced me to use my DE for clean up or to finish? Stropping.

Today, the frustration of all those bad shaves just hit me and I decided I was going to show that razor who was boss. I hit the leather with some extra force. I could hear the difference immediately. I could feel it. The blade was moving evenly across the strop. I was so afraid of ruining my edge before that I wasn't using enough pressure nor going fast enough to properly sharpen my edge.

I got into a groove and wound up putting 125 laps on my Filly with my Dovo Special.

I took the razor to my face and the difference was blatant and immediate. The thing cut like a sharp DE blade. No dragging or jumping. It just cut. Encountered some resistance ATG that probably could have been avoided with a better XTG pass.

I was on the verge of giving up, and now I'll never quit. To all the other noobs out there, don't give up. You'll get it eventually!

Now I want a new strop!

 

[superbleu]

Congratulations Andy.

And welcome to the club.

 

[Luc]

Congrats!!

 

[maxman]

now this is why I want to try the straight razors.
it looks terrrfying, but when you see posts like this, it gives you confidence.

Thanks for posting.
I'm still scraping together the funds to get into this.

soon i'll be posting my first shave experience.

 

[Omnichron]

congrats man! I am about to dive into SR shaving myself. any tips?

 

[Peto]

Congratulations, Andy! I've had my ninth shave with straight today and I'm still improving and it still isn't as great as with DE. But posts like the one from you keeps me in a good mood . Thanks!

 

[LarryAndro]

I believe this should emphasize the need for 2 razors if financially possible. You have your "in use" razor you learn on, and you optimally should have a second honemeister edged straight razor. Shave a part of your face with the honemeister edge and clean, strop and store. That gives you the awareness of what a true edge feels like.

Now, shave with your "in use" razor knowing that you have the honemeister blade as backup should you dull your edge through stropping and the like.

If Amer, or really I am saying anyone, had been shaving with two razors they probably wouldn't be so tentative with stropping.

Get a second razor when learning if financially possible...

 

[Amer]

With one good shave down, I'm not sure I'm qualified to be giving tips but the big ones for me obviously are don't give up and don't be afraid of ruining the edge.

When you are stropping, as long as you aren't raising the spine and you're not totally mashing the blade into it you will be okay. Speed is also key. Once I started getting to a lap a second or faster the edge was starting to improve, then once I added a little more pressure to make sure the edge was staying on the strop while going through the motions is when it really got nice and sharp. Honestly looking back I think that with how I was going, I was really only really stropping one side of the razor. I'd get that draw feeling and the proper noise when coming back towards me but not when I was stropping out away from me. The extra little pressure just made sure I was getting the edge down on the strop.

I actually used to use this pressure when I first started but I stropped slower than molasses in January so I think that was my problem when I first started. Then I got paranoid and started using less pressure but more speed. Finally combining the two finally worked for me.

EDIT: Larry, looks like we posted the same time, I just wanted to respond. I actually did start out with two razors. I have a RupRazor Gold Dollar and the Dovo from SRD. I started out with the GD, wanting to save the Dovo for when I "got better." At first use, it wasn't very sharp, very grabby and skippy. I put up with it for a week or two and switched to the Dovo, with a slightly better but mostly the same result. No stropping before either's first use. I'm not sure if it was just bad technique at the time or if somehow the edge had deteriorated during shipping, etc. Both razors did arrive in a very cold and snowy January and were left outside until I came home from work to get the boxes. I'm just going to say bad technique because I can't imagine either vendor giving me a poorly honed razor. Especially now that they are shaving better and neither has been re-honed.

I do have to say I implemented this same stropping on the Gold Dollar the shave before the Dovo and it was an improved shave, but nothing like I had yesterday with the Dovo. I think the difference was number of laps, as I only did about 30-40 or so on the GD before the shave.

 

[JPM]

Congrats!