Jefebadskin's straight razor journal

[Jefebadskin]

Rather than spamming my thread in the regular forum I'll start one of these.picking up at shave 3. To recap shave 1 clean face, unbelievable irritation, lots of cuts from ATG. Shave 2 lots of missed spots on chin, neck but cut free, mild irritation, no ATG.
Equipment: Gold Dollar 66, Truefitt 3/2 Silvertip, Mystic Water Viola di Bosco soap, The Veg aftershave.

This shave consisted of two WTG passes, removed most hair except for my usual trouble spots no matter the hardware. The problem is I'm feeling tugging, not cutting as clean. I'm bad at stropping so I spent a lot of time on that. I think I brought the sharpness back, but man was it easy to mess up. I'm using the poor mans strop from whipped dog. I think long-term I'm going with something much wider, or a paddle.

 

[temjeito]

Tugging is very common this early, and is often technique (angle) related, but could also be that you rolled the edge with bad stropping technique. Do you have the red/green balsa strop from whipped dog? If so, you might try 40 or so laps on green, then 40 on red. Then try laying the leather strop down on a table or other flat surface, and stropping that way. This will eliminate one variable (tightness of the strop), and give you an opportunity to get a better feel for light pressure and leading with the spine.

 

[Jefebadskin]

I do have the balsa. I may give that a go.

 

[temjeito]

Check out this video on stropping technique. I found it very helpful.

 

[AndroiDad75]

temjeito,

Cool video. Thanks for posting.

Jefebadskin,

Being new too, I understand what you mean. I was feeling tugging early. I wasn't sure if I rolled the edge during stropping. Since then the tugging has seemed to subside some. Not sure if the stropping is getting better, or the angle is getting better, but it is still getting a bit better each shave.

As for the ATG pass, I am trying to stick to WTG only, for 2 passes only, until I get a consistent reduction in beard with no cuts. In other words, until my technique gets better. It means I sacrifice a bit of closeness, but I am getting very little irritation - outside of the occasional slice / nick.

 

[Jefebadskin]

The ATG was a huge mistake spurred by such a good first pass. I didn't bleed, but after clean up I looked like I got in a knife fight.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Where did you get your Gold Dollar? Was it modified in any way? Did you hone it yourself? If it was modified, could you post a pic?

A good shave angle is a gap between spine and face about one spine thickness. Most razors that are good and sharp will cut at least some whiskers even with the spine touching the face. If you have to lean it out much more than one spine thickness to get it to cut, your razor is probably not very sharp. It doesn't take much to dull an edge. Stropping can do it. Shaving at too high an angle can do it. A high angle can also in and of itself be responsible for tugging.

 

[Jefebadskin]

Got it from here, modified and honed by someone who actually knows what they're doing. It came to me very sharp. The first shave I had horrible angles, grip and it was still clean whiskers like a champ. Second shave better trchnique, still very sharp but I went much easier. 3rd shave I could tell it was off regardless of angle, part of my face. It definitely tugged less when I had it right (my angle is much better on sideburns and neck under it) but at no point did it just remove hair effortlessly like the first two shaves.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Ah. Well then. A pasted balsa strop should get you sorted out. Get a block of balsa 3" x 12" from a hobby shop or online. Flatten it on a whole sheet of sandpaper. Maybe 150 grit and then 220 or 320 grit. Apply just a couple of BBs worth of diamond paste, .1u to one side, .5u to the other. Be careful not to contaminate the fine side with the coarse diamond. I get mine from www.tedpella.com. To bring back a dullish edge, strop on the coarse side as many laps as you need. Whatever number it takes to get sharp again. It might even be a few hundred laps but it will gitter done. Then 4 or 5 dozen light laps on the fine side. Now it should be crazy sharp.

After each shave, you can give the razor 4 dozen on the fine side before putting it away. Wipe it clean so you don't get diamond on your hanging strop. This post shave treatment will possibly keep your razor sharp forever, once you get your stropping and shaving technique dialed in. It's what I do.

 

[Jefebadskin]

Shave #4--spending time onstropping last time, watching all those videos and your alls advice did the trick. The edge was back to what it was.
Equipment: GD 66, T&H 3/2, T&H Trafalgar Cream, Clubman Talc, Floid Blue
I hit my stride in this shave. I had multiple days growth that just slid right off. I think besides having a better edge, my grip was the biggest improvement, by far. My non-dominant hand (right) performed better than my left. For the first time the grip felt natural in both hands. As for the downside my trouble spots will be the last thing I get right. I have to go much harder directions for me. I barely take anything off there. Also I ran out of my go to soap. the T&H cream is good but it's not the same and introducing other new variables is not my thing while trying any new blade/razor.

 

[Jefebadskin]

Shave 5-- maintaining the edge is good now, shave is okay.
equipment: gd 66, t&h 3/2, Mystic Water Sandalwood Rose, Floid Blue
Today was interesting. No cuts, light irritation due to the grip finally working out. The exception is a small part of my chin I just couldn't figure out how to hold comfortably. In the end my trouble spots ended up better than my easy areas, probably from not thinking about those areas much. I'm still only going with the grain. ATG is saved for my de until I get a proper grip on the different ATG directions with the straight.

 

[Jefebadskin]

Shave 6-- I got a handle on the trouble spots, and a slightly different style of pass.

Equipment: GD 66, T&H 3/2, Mystic Water Sandalwood Rose, Clubman Talc, Floid Blue

Today was very good. I got my trouble spots clear without crazy irritation. Also, rather than doing crisp linear passes only adjusting for beard direction, I went with smaller strokes and areas. What it amounted to was a first pass that was essentially multiple WTG and XTG passes that were comfortable and mowed the stubble down. I am very pleased with the results. I'm not very good at describing this, but I hope you know what I mean. End result, SAS, with DFS WTG, still not going ATG.

 

[Attila]

Congratulations. Those are fantastic results for shave 6!!