McVeyMac Straight Journal

[phat]

Ahh. (nevermind my question in my journal) - I see you're on stones. I'm gonna follow your progression on these with interest - you seem to be of the same mind as me about where you wanna get to - just using a different technique

Cheers!

 

[McVeyMac]

Ok, today was a bit dissapointing. I re honed my 5/8" Dovo from the ground up again and finished on the Strata. Shave was not harsh, but the blade was not cutting like it should. ATG pulled and bogged down quite a bit. Back to the drawing board. Not sure if I screwed up the bevel, or if it was at a latter stage. I have not been honing around the heel at a suggestion by another honemeister, but I can now feel a high spot at the heel that might be throwing the rest of the bevel off when I hit it. I finished the shave with my 6/8" Dovo that was just waiting for this day to come.

Normal pre, post and setup with the exception of the razor which is explained above. Today as time is not limiting, I decided to try a full 3 pass shave. First pass completely N-S and with the 5/8" Dovo. Second pass ear to midline with a S-N neck to over jaw/chin line. Started with 5/8" Dovo, switched early to 6/8" Dovo. Third pass was midline to Ear with S-N again on the neck, chin to mouth, and above the mouth. All in all a pretty good and close shave all over with lots of BBS. My beard this AM was only about 3/4 of a day's worth of growth. I think I get better results if I have a bit more growth at the start of the shave. I should test this hypothesis under controlled conditions, but that has been my n=1 experience. No nicks, weepers or irritation.

 

[McVeyMac]

Merry Christmas to those following along. Today I wanted to do a special shave as it is a special day. First I will update the 5/8" Dovo journey. It turns out that the stablizer on one side is different than the other in the way it protudes. I spent some time honing it down on the offensive side using Chosera 1K. Removed quite a bit of metal, but no have an even bevel accross the majority of the blade, with the exception of the heel on the offending side. Took the blablade through 12K, Stropped 30 on nylon and 100 on leather.

Today's shave started with the Dovo on WTG off hand. The edge was very smooth, and it cut noticeably better. After the description of the shave, I will come back to the Dovo with an approach for it in the future.

Today I shaved with the1/4 hollow ground Nate Straights razor pictured above. I also got a Wipped Dog High Mountain Badger brush as a gift. I finished the WTG pass and decided to do two more. Second pass, ear to midline with S-N on neck and mouth area. Third pass midline to Ear with same neck and mouth area pass as second. Result is mostly BBS with only a few small areas of DFS. The NS razor is exceptionally smooth, and almost silent. Just enough feedback to let you know you are accomplishing a shave.

Dovo will go back to the 4 -8k then refine as the bevel is now good.

 

[McVeyMac]

I took the Dovo to the 3K and 8K Naniwa SS, and did a 10 stroke pyramid. Finished with Strata. Very comfortable shave, but not quite there on the sharpness yet. Perhaps do a full pyramid for tomorrow.

Time was a little pressed today, Noxema preshave, Prorasso cream, Whipped Dog badger. Two pass shave N-S, on first, ear to midline on second with a S-N neck, then a touch up on the neck and mouth. A pretty good DFS overall with plenty of BBS throthrown in for good measure. No cuts, weepers or nicks. Dovo 5/8 is almost there. Back to the stones today. Not doing any paste on the strops, taking razor from stone to webbing for 25 passes, then 100 on leather. Modified slightly my stropping and I am not holing the strop nearly as taught as I was. It sounds like I am getting the edge better on my stropping.

 

[phat]

Think you've got that 5/8 licked?

 

[Sploosh]

Think you've got that 5/8 licked?

Sounds like it may be a 3/8
at this point.

 

[McVeyMac]

Sounds like it may be a 3/8
at this point.

LOL, I did some serious grinding on it, and it shows! But that was what this razor was for. I probably should have gotten a shave ready GD to practice on.

 

[McVeyMac]

I took the 5/8" Dovo back to the stones, and did a full 40/40, 20/20, 10/10, 5/5, 1/5 pyramid with little to no presure. Finished on the Strata until the resistance to motion felt even on both sides and seemed to be working against magnatism. The Dovo is now dialed in to be very sharp and very keen. A very comfortable shave today. Now that my shaving technique is improving, the degree of sharpness and keenness of the razor is becoming more obvious to me, whereas before shave ready or not, my resulting shaves sucked. My eyes are opening to another level of what shave ready really is. It does entail more than just smooth. It entails just barely touching the whiskers in those hard nooks and crannies and having the blade severing it into smithereens.

My shave today was back to normal using Arko, but I have incorporated the Whipped Dog High Mountain Badger into my daily routine. I did a 3 pass shave with N-S, Ear to midline with S-N on the neck, and a midline to Ear with a S-N on neck, chin and mouth. Shave today was as good as I've gotten yet, even though there was not much stubble from a close shave yesterday. BBS with the exception of about 1 in square near my chin and jaw line that is DFS. Very pleased with the razor and the shave. It will be hard to take this one back to the stone in fear of making it worse than it is currently.

I modified my stropping technique such that I am not pulling the strop as taught to allow for just a minimal give while stopping. I think that I am reaching the edge more effectively than before. I was always afraid of rolling the edge, so I kept the strop very taught.

 

[McVeyMac]

Second shave on the Dovo 5/8" after the last honing. Applied slightly modified stropping technique with not as taught of a strop. The razor is exceptionally smooth and cuts very well. I am very pleased with the performance. Tomorrow I will try using the NS as well as the Dovo to make a direct comparison.

Today was a normal setup. I do not think that the Whipped Dog High Mountain Badger is quite broken in yet. The lather is slightly different, or I am leaving more water in the brush. Any way, it is subtly different than my other Badger. I went three passes: 1. N-S both hands, 2. Midline to ear with S-N on the neck, 3. Ear to midline with S-N on neck, chin and around mouth. A very close and comfortable shave all over, with a majority being BBS. Small amount of DFS on lower R jawline, and a stray whisker or two on the problem L neck area. Overall a very good and close shave that I will enjoy all day. I incorporated a new trick I learned on the sideburns that gave me a straight line cut. I placed the blade against the skin where I wanted the straight trasition prior to stretching the skin. Then lifted the skin with the off hand. Perfectly straight transition!

Dovo, is working so well that I am reluctant to go back to the stones. But my learning necessitates that I hone. Perhaps it is Gold Dollar time.

Edit: one small nick left side jawline while stretching skin above on ear to midline. Razor got a little too much angle when hitting scare there, and dug in a litlle. About 1/4 line. No other nicks or weepers.

 

[Sploosh]

Congrats on the successful 43rd shave!

 

[McVeyMac]

Congrats on the successful 43rd shave!

Thanks for the well wishes dp.

 

[McVeyMac]

I am having a difficult time believing how smooth this edge on my Dovo 5/8" is. It is so smooth that it doesn't seem like it is able to cut hair, but for the third day in a row I am getting almost BBS all over. But it is very forgiving of subtle and small mistakes. It is reminiscent of the saying associated with coticule stones that it cuts hair, not skin. I have not read this before about a Strata stone, but this is the closest that I have come to experiencing this so called phenomenon. Very smooth, very forgiving, and very close shave.

Today I did the same setup as yesterday with the same three pass shave. I am not yet used to this new brush and the lather that it makes. Perhaps it has yet to "Break In." The lather was looking pretty thin like you want it for a straight, but it was drying out by the end of the pass pretty significantly. No nicks, no weepers and BBS over 95% of face.

 

[phat]

You got it dialed in.. Enjoy it. Strop it carefully and just take it back for a refresh when it needs it.

You can wait for the gold dollar or get another one to practice on

Congrats!

 

[McVeyMac]

You got it dialed in.. Enjoy it. Strop it carefully and just take it back for a refresh when it needs it.

You can wait for the gold dollar or get another one to practice on

Congrats!

Yea, this Dovo will only see the stones again when it needs to see them. I will continue to use it almost exclusively until I have nailed my straight razor skills, then it will likely become part of a travel lineup. I certainly have accumulated other more worthy examples to fill a daily rotation lineup. The Dovo does not have much monetary value, but it will likely have a great deal of sentimental value as it is the one that I am using to learn on.

 

[McVeyMac]

Today my newly acquired C-MON Cadillac got the honors, and it is the maiden voyage for this razor in it's approximately 60 years of life:



I also got recently acquired Proraso Green that I put into the mix. Never used either of these before, and it was probably a mistake to incorporate them both into the mix this early in my learning.

Resulting shave is overall DFS. The soap was new to me, and the lather took a little getting used to making compared to the Arko I have become accustomed to. But the soap worked fine for me. The Cadillac had a remarkably smooth shave ready edge on it. Being a square point, I really slowed down making sure I was always aware of where the point was. The razor is also a 6/8", and I am learning on a 5/8". All of this added up to a so-so shave. None of which was the fault of the razor, but my lack of experience in manipulating the finer details of angle that is required to obtain BBS over the entire face.

I think I will repeat again tomorrow with the Cadillac and Arko to remove this variable, and to also try another 6/8" shave now that I have a recent shave using it under my belt. The result I got today does not reflect nearly the potential of this fine razor. 1/8" in width sure doe make a difference in feel and approach. This is not my first time shaving with a 6/8", but it is the first time since getting nearly 100% BBS results from the 5/8" razor.

 

[phat]

I've come to the conclusion I get mental issues on a new blade in general. I think I'll be making sure I shave a few times with anything new before coming to judgement, unless I'm *sure* I've got edge issues.

As for Proraso Green, I've actually come to really like it, but at least for me I don't find it difficult to lather at all, compared to lot of things I pick up my brush wet it and barely even *look* at the proraso in the green tub and I have lather everywhere... But then again I don't seem to have too many problems lathering stuff, so I'm perhaps just accidentally lucky that way.

 

[McVeyMac]

I've come to the conclusion I get mental issues on a new blade in general. I think I'll be making sure I shave a few times with anything new before coming to judgement, unless I'm *sure* I've got edge issues.

As for Proraso Green, I've actually come to really like it, but at least for me I don't find it difficult to lather at all, compared to lot of things I pick up my brush wet it and barely even *look* at the proraso in the green tub and I have lather everywhere... But then again I don't seem to have too many problems lathering stuff, so I'm perhaps just accidentally lucky that way.

As for Proraso Green, I had no problem making lather with it, and like you, I had it all over the side of the green bowl. I was just not comfortable making it to an effective consistency. I think that this will be a winning go to soap in the future, but for now I am sticking with what I know.

I shampooed the Whipped Dog Mountain Badger brush again today, and the Arko lather was spot on. The break in period of the brush must be over now.

I attempted the Cadillac again today using a full three pass shave as described above. Today's results were better than yesterday's, but there are still problems in some of my problem areas where I have not fully dialed in the technique using this 6/8" blade. I even did a partial fourth touchup pass of the problem areas, and still they are DFS. Interestingly, in some of the other challenge areas (chin/mouth/mustache) the shave is exceptionally close and represents the best I ever had to date. In others it is DFS as stated. Overall a very good and pleasant shave, even though I do not have this razor completely dialed in yet wrt technique.

Tomorrow I will go back to the 5/8" Dovo, and I will continue developing my technique. I am breaking in a large translucent Ark stone, and getting it ready for the GD honing practice razors when they arrive. Until then, I am giving the honing stones a rest and focusing on the shave.

 

[McVeyMac]

Back to the Dovo today. Two pass, N-S and ATG/XTG on neck/cheek. Did a cleanup third pass ATG on neck, chin, mouth and mustache. I have had better shaves with this razor, but clearly my edge is somewhat lacking comcompared to the Cadillac. Not by a lot, but lacking. I give it a DFS overall, but have about 60% BBS. Clearly there is more work to do on my technique. Now cuts, one small weeper, no irritation. Mitchell Wool Fat arrived today. Not sure when I will break it out. I have gotten so used to the urinal puck Arko.

 

[McVeyMac]

Freezing rain this AM, so I had ample time to go for the BBS shave. Stuble was not that heavy as it was only about .75 days since my last shave.

Dovo 5/8", Arko, three pass with a fourth cleanup. 1, N-S, 2 and 3 were S-N. Cleanup was with soap on neck and jawline. About 99% BBS. I have scars on my face from a car wreck many years ago, and they reside just under the jawline. They drive me nuts trying to get a BBS. I tried a S-N above the jaw line for the fist time today, and I did two passes using it. I am looking for the most effective and efficient passes to incorporate into a two pass work day shave.

Just one fabulous shave with only a couple minor exceptions, one, I got a small nick on my right cheek on the first N-S pass when focusing on the mouth area. Small mole tug the tip in. I also am cognizant of minor irritation on my jawline. This is due to too many passes as this area got 4 passes, 3 of them S-N. Overall, this is the closest shave I have ever obtained overall. This is an example of the kind of shave that I hoped to get when embarking on the straight journey, and I am well pleased and glad I made the investment in both time and money?

 

[McVeyMac]

Normal setup today with Dovo, et. al. Back to work tomorrow, so I determined to do a 2 pass with a partial cleanup. N-S was very quick, efficient, and not bad at all. The second pass was XTG/S-N on the cheek/neck/jawline and mouth area and above.thisr cleanup was neck/jaw/chin and mouth, all S-N. My left neck problem area grows toward the ear, and requires the right hand to try an XTG, so of SW-NE in order to shave it clean. Overall I got a very good shave, but it was not as quick as I will need to have during the work week. I have been so relaxed with them during the holiday break that I now have to get back to the grind, and get back to shaving as efficiently wrt time as I can.

Two small weepers today due to my angle on the ATG on the chin and another on the right jawline. I still loose angle sometimes in an attempt to get closely shaves XTG. I have to stop doing this!