First straight razor shave

[Mach Won]

Hey everyone! I've been DE shaving for four or five years now and I've been waiting to get a straight; well, no more excuses for me! My wife gave me a Theirs Issard straight razor for my wedding gift and I was finally able to try it out tonight.

I was so nervous, but I managed to avoid cutting myself. I was able to do 2 passes WTG on the cheeks and neck, but the mustache area, jaw line, and chin just seemed to be too difficult, so I finished up with my DE. Do you all find it easier to do straight razor shaves with fewer days of growth? I let my hair grow for 4 days before this and it seemed to cause a lot of catching and dragging with the blade.

I can't say the shave was any good, but it's something I'll definitely stick with and keep working at. My next opportunity is probably two days from now. Looking forward to it!

 

[temjeito]

Congrats!!

I'm only on my second SR shave myself, but have read that it is best to start out with as little growth as possible, for the reasons you are describing.

 

[inspiringK]

Congrats, I am still learning too and enjoy it.

With the straight, more so than with a DE, I don't find that it makes much difference how many day's growth there is. So, shave away. To be fair though, my experience here may be a little limited, I tend to shave at least 6 days a week, so the times when I have more than 2 day's growth are rare.

 

[Krodor]

Was it honed before you used it, or is it still the factory edge? Best razors in the world are no good without being well-honed.

 

[Mach Won]

Was it honed before you used it, or is it still the factory edge? Best razors in the world are no good without being well-honed.

She had it honed when she bought it through Classic Shaving. She did her research beforehand

 

[oakeshott]

She had it honed when she bought it through Classic Shaving. She did her research beforehand

Good woman and good razor.

It is easier with less growth, but as your skill grows, you will enjoy the experience of scything away acres of beard with the big 19th century chopper that one day you will own.

Most but not all had mediocre shaves on their first SR attempt. Your experience is normal. Keep at it every day, however, and within 2 weeks you will see a marked improvement; in a month, you will be getting dfs routinely; and in three to six months your shaves will be equal to or better than what you get today with a DE. You just finished the hard part which is starting. The rest is easy.

 

[global_dev]

1 days growth is probably easiest to learn on. Great work. Keep it up

 

[Slash McCoy]

Congratulations and welcome to the dark side! Your initial results are typical, so take encouragement from your first shave. Call it a success. It is a process, and you won't be Sweeney Todd right off the marks.

My suggestion after this is to ditch the training wheels. Rely 100% on your straight for the next couple of weeks. Your skills will improve much mroe quickly. Check out the youtube videos and the shave wiki. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/. Two WTG passes is a great way to learn the basics. Master the 2-pass WTG shave before trying XTG or ATG.

Watch your angle. The spine should stand off from your face by about one spine-thickness. Stretch the skin well. If your face topography doesn't allow WTG, near-WTG is just fine. Pull your nose up to get under it. Push it to the side to get under the corner. Don't worry about getting a clean shave on the first pass... just go for a good reduction of the whiskers. The second pass will clean it up. You will get less irritation by not going all medieval on the first pass. A nice slick lather makes a LOT of difference.

A pasted balsa strop, used after each shave, will keep your edge nice and sharp, with proper use. I like diamond paste, .25u on one side and .1u on the other, but initially you might want a little coarser, like 1u or .5u for the coarse side, .5u or .25u for the fine side. A couple dozen careful laps on each side will do you. Or you can wait until your razor feels dull, and use a LOT MORE laps, and maybe get frustrating, unsatisfying results.

Happy Shaves!

 

[Mach Won]

So would you recommend something like this? Also, I have a question about working with something like diamond pastes. Would stropping with these scuff up the sides of the spine? I'm sort of a stickler about keeping things looking as nice as possible.

http://shop.starshaving.com/product.sc?productId=105&categoryId=8

 

[Slash McCoy]

So would you recommend something like this? Also, I have a question about working with something like diamond pastes. Would stropping with these scuff up the sides of the spine? I'm sort of a stickler about keeping things looking as nice as possible.

http://shop.starshaving.com/product.sc?productId=105&categoryId=8

Scuff up the spine? What about scuffing up the edge? The spine is your angle guide. It is meant to be in contact with hone or strop. The bevel is determined by a ratio of the sides of a triangle made up of the spine thickness, and the distance between the thickest point on the spine to the edge. Honing (or abrasive stropping, for that matter, but to a far smaller degree) wears away both spine thickness and blade width, at the edge. If these two dimensions wear proportionally, the bevel angle remains unchanged. If you increase or decrease one or the other, you change the bevel angle, though this change is typically very very slow. But suit yourself. Prevent the spine from touching anything, if you like. It is your razor, after all. But I am telling you that the spine is MEANT to wear in proportion to edge wear, and for proper function over the razor's normal lifespan, this wear must not be prevented at the spine, since you are not preventing wear at the edge.

 

[Mach Won]

That's a good point, I was just curious if it was standard procedure or not. Hopefully my pasted strop will arrive soon.

 

[Mach Won]

Shave #3 in the books! I'm definitely getting better, but I'm still struggling with the chin area and I think my lather could really use some work. And probably my stropping too, since I'm not getting that satisfying stropping sound!

 

[BDF]

Fine diamond pastes or sprays won't remove much material and will leave a virtually scratch- free surface behind. I would not worry too much about the spine of the razor on a pasted strop as long as the paste is a micron (1 micron) or smaller. It is really only true honing that will cause any appreciable wear on the spine of a razor and even then not all that much unless a huge amount of honing is required because of something like blade damage.

As to the blade angle and wearing the spine down with the blade, just a different opinion but I do not believe it makes much, if any, difference in the life of the blade. If you protect the spine the edge will wear away during honing of course but it isn't like you are going to hone away 1/3 of the razor's width in your lifetime (or the razor's lifetime really). Angles vary considerably between different razors and I believe the small change in angle that will occur by not having the spine wear is insignificant. No data or studies to back that up but just as an example, I do not believe any straight razor will ever be worn down so far as to equal the angle put on double edge blades in the first place, and those shave fine when used in a straight razor type holder. By the way, if you use cellophane tape (Scotch brand for example) to cover the spine there will be virtually no change in the cutting edge angle on the razor for a very long time.

Brian

So would you recommend something like this? Also, I have a question about working with something like diamond pastes. Would stropping with these scuff up the sides of the spine? I'm sort of a stickler about keeping things looking as nice as possible.

http://shop.starshaving.com/product.sc?productId=105&categoryId=8

 

[Mach Won]

I wanted to thank everyone for the information; it's all really helpful.

Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to get a straight razor shave in until today. Coincidentally, my paddle strop with diamond pastes came in today, so I prepped the razor with 30 passes on each side before 50 passes on the nylon side and 60 passes on the leather.

My technique has really improved! I'm still only doing two passes, but I'm able to get the jawline, mustache area, and the vast majority of my chin area. I'm getting a little razor burn feeling around the chin, so my angle is probably just too aggressive.

It's really satisfying to know I'm really getting better at this!