Im wondering if anyone can give some intuition or insight into this. I’ve been practicing since I got my new razor in last January. I can give myself a pretty good shave now but there is still one part on the sides of my lips where if I try to get to close a shave I get burned. It tugs a little more than I’d like it to, and I think that’s what’s making it burn (in this spot to get close I really need to go like 45 between across and against the grain)
A must say that the big draw to me for straight razors has always been the notion that I can sharpen them myself. Turns out that is really a difficult skill but I’m getting better. But I still can’t quite get my razor as sharp as when I bought it. I can get it to treetop somewhat, but it doesn’t cut every hair when I test. When I bought the razor it was like a light saber, the hairs would actually audibly ping off the edge and fly away from the blade. It was wicked sharp.
I’m looking for some advice as to what might be an area of improvement, be it honing or stropping. It’s really difficult for me to tell what I can do to improve.
The razor is a filmaronica 4/8 inox
I hone with a combination of coticule and BBW. And my strop is a dovo leather/canvas strop. I use a white alox/diamond paste I bought from the art of shaving on the canvas side, but I also tried putting a little on the leather. My morning prep is always heat the canvas with my hand then the leather. Then 8-10 strops with canvas then 50 with leather.
The thing is (could be my imagination) but I feel like I’m getting ever so slightly worse an edge now. I feel like my best shave of my own sharpening was shortly after I tried getting the strop paste. Since my canvas is clearly getting some metal in it from the color, I was wondering if this could be attributing to my problems. I tried to search on how to clean this out but couldn’t really find anything.
A must say that the big draw to me for straight razors has always been the notion that I can sharpen them myself. Turns out that is really a difficult skill but I’m getting better. But I still can’t quite get my razor as sharp as when I bought it. I can get it to treetop somewhat, but it doesn’t cut every hair when I test. When I bought the razor it was like a light saber, the hairs would actually audibly ping off the edge and fly away from the blade. It was wicked sharp.
I’m looking for some advice as to what might be an area of improvement, be it honing or stropping. It’s really difficult for me to tell what I can do to improve.
The razor is a filmaronica 4/8 inox
I hone with a combination of coticule and BBW. And my strop is a dovo leather/canvas strop. I use a white alox/diamond paste I bought from the art of shaving on the canvas side, but I also tried putting a little on the leather. My morning prep is always heat the canvas with my hand then the leather. Then 8-10 strops with canvas then 50 with leather.
The thing is (could be my imagination) but I feel like I’m getting ever so slightly worse an edge now. I feel like my best shave of my own sharpening was shortly after I tried getting the strop paste. Since my canvas is clearly getting some metal in it from the color, I was wondering if this could be attributing to my problems. I tried to search on how to clean this out but couldn’t really find anything.