Mediocre shave, duff edge?

[BakerAndBadger]

Hi
i honed up my first inox razor last night and shaved with it straight afterwards. Now I am only a beginner at both straight razors and honing so I was wondering, my shave wasn't as good as normal, not as close, still very comfortable but after 2 WTG passes and a bit of touching up I still wasn't satisfied. Now I did have a couple of days growth so it may be my imagination more probably my technique but I'd like your feedback.
My inox is probably (haven't measured but looks like) a 7/8 and after settin the bevel I could pop hairs no problem on the full length of he blade. I set the bevel on my coti and after a dilucot I did about (can't remember) 4 sets of 15 half x on water, two sets of 15 x and then 50 or so x on oil followed by 60 strokes on my strop.

My real question is could I get a comfortable yet un-noteworthy shave from a razor that isn't fully shave ready? Is it the fact that I'm not using the right angle for my new larger blade? Am I just experiencing my crap technique?
I didn't do an HHT as I think SWMBO has too fine hair for a decent test - sometimes it works others not and the. I can still get a decentish shave for a newbee.

For info I didn't get any weePers or razor burn.

 

[danjared]

Whether it's one day of growth or two or five, it shouldn't matter so long as the number of hairs is the same. The cross-section of hair that's cut is the same. Think about cutting a rope (assuming a uniform rope). It doesn't matter if you cut it at the end or the middle. The effort to cut is the same.

How well the blade cuts after setting the bevel confirms that the bevel is set, but it doesn't say anything about the state of the edge when you're done honing. Since you haven't done any further tests, it's hard to say whether it's mostly the honing job, your shaving prep or technique, or all.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

I'm plumping for all of the above! Will reset the bevel tomorrow after passing it on a glass and see what happens then!

 

[superbleu]

Too many variables to diagnose what's going on.
If you are new to honing, and new to straight razor shaving then it could be, one or the other, or a combo of both.

 

[smalltank]

also depends on skin type..I COULD shave after a day waiting..wont help..I would just be "scraping" my face with almost no hair removed..I wait 3-4 days usually...keep in mind straights love hair..the more..the merrier..the longer you wait the more oils your face makes naturally aiding in shaving it off.

 

[professorchaos]

Could also be the lather. I've gotten so-so shaves from known good razors when I didn't pay enough attention to the lather. Next time around with the same straights, I paid more attention to the lather and got excellent shaves.

 

[Castel33]

If you have an already shave ready straight I would try the TPT on that blade and the blade that you honed they should be the same or very close. If so it was probally technique and or lather. If you do not have a shave ready razor you could do the TPT on a de blade and that will also give you a good idea for what to aim for.

 

[Kentos]

It just takes time, friend. Eventually it will all come together. I would suggest getting a shave ready razor to use as a constant to compare to.

 

[Doc226]

It just takes time, friend. Eventually it will all come together. I would suggest getting a shave ready razor to use as a constant to compare to.

Yes.

 

[Krodor]

You might take a look at the edge with a loupe or microscope. I've had good HHT from a razor that had a "good" bevel set, went through the whole sequence, only to look at it at the end and see it still had micro-chipping going on. Back to the bevel setter I went.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

It just takes time, friend. Eventually it will all come together. I would suggest getting a shave ready razor to use as a constant to compare to.

Thanks for the advice but I already have a sight unseen from Larry. I was in rather a hurry to hone this one as SWMBO was due back home and I wanted to finish before she arrived so I may have cut Andre corners. I'll try again today or tomPrros and let y'all know.

 

[Raithskar]

It just takes time, friend. Eventually it will all come together. I would suggest getting a shave ready razor to use as a constant to compare to.

+1

INOX feels differient than carbon on the face, to me anyway. I have two Pumas with identical shape, size and blade type. One is carbon, the other is INOX. They both have a totally differient feel and even sound differient when cutting. INOX can be tricky on the coticule.

I do a set of 30 halfstrokes, then 10 x strokes. I use a dry thumbpad to check the bevel. If it catches and stops my thumb I will do an arm hair test. If it passes I will start dilutions. If not I keep doing sets of 30 till it does.after I have done about 7 dilutions I will check and see if the edge will either catch and tear, split or violin a medium thickness hair. If it does I do 2-3 more sets and then go to finishing. If not keep going till it does, probing the edge with the hair. It has worked well for me so far.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

+1

INOX feels differient than carbon on the face, to me anyway. I have two Pumas with identical shape, size and blade type. One is carbon, the other is INOX. They both have a totally differient feel and even sound differient when cutting. INOX can be tricky on the coticule.

I do a set of 30 halfstrokes, then 10 x strokes. I use a dry thumbpad to check the bevel. If it catches and stops my thumb I will do an arm hair test. If it passes I will start dilutions. If not I keep doing sets of 30 till it does.after I have done about 7 dilutions I will check and see if the edge will either catch and tear, split or violin a medium thickness hair. If it does I do 2-3 more sets and then go to finishing. If not keep going till it does, probing the edge with the hair. It has worked well for me so far.

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go.
I did take it back to the coticule yesterday morning for a power touch-up to see if I could get a better edge and it seemed after shaving to be almost there, not quite hitting the hair pop on the HHT but not far off - I am a little unsure as to the HHT test as SWMBO has very fine hair and so even with my sight unseen, which has seen very little use since getting it, I don't always get great results even if I get a decent shave.
Will try and find half an hour or so one evening this week to go from bevel setting through to oil. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[danjared]

For what it's worth, when I started, it took me many months to get a positive HHT result, and before then I thought I was getting good edges. Now, I can't comfortably shave with something that does not get a certain minimum HHT result. I would not be surprised if anyone else has a similar experience.

 

[Kentos]

The HHT is a skill unto itself. For myself I bought into using the HHT from day one, and as my honing skills increased, so did my shaving skills as well as my HHT skills.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Well I now realise that the blade isn't shave ready at all, compared it with a new arrival which happened to be shave ready and the difference in shave quality is huge. Back to the stones for this one!