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My first straight razor shaving experience...a failure

After using most of the blade and razor formats available (de, injector, ac, single edge) the last medium unexplored was a straight razor for me.

I read that I need a shave ready razor, a strop and a stone. I am familiar using a shavette razors and I get very satisfying shaves when I use one with an AC blade mostly.

So I went and got a shave ready razor from respectable forum member, a poor's man strop and its balsa strop from whipped dog. Thank God for friends who come visit me from USA.

How did the shave go? I don't know if it was the razor problem or me, but I couldn't shave at all. The razor was a 11/16 format and I wish the tail was 1 cm longer.

The blade was sharp when I touched it with my fingers but it tugged on my face. I tried to find the right angle and I could only do very short passes. I need to many passed to clean a small area. The cleaning was not deep at all. Am I spoiled by the Artist Club blade sharpness? I failed with the straight razor and I had to finish the shaving with my AC shavette.

Maybe there are razors and razors...I probably didn't get a quality one, although it is made in Solingen. As it is terrible to source razors in my country, I will try to get the best out of this razor, but I have lost enthusiasm. I think I need another razor of guaranteed quality to completely understand if straight razor shaving is a thing for me.

My best choice was getting an affordable strop. I found out that I can easily cut this trop.

I have another final question please. Do I strop with the spine or the edge in the crox balsa strop? If I used the edge I could cut the balsa with it, so I went with the spine just as in the leather strop.

This was my first day with a straight razor. What did I do wrong?
 
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I have another final question please. Do I strop with the spine or the edge in the crox balsa strop? If I used the edge I could cut the balsa with it, so I went with the spine just as in the leather strop.
Stropping is done with spine leading.
I think the razor may have not been shave ready but poor stropping can also ruin an edge. You could hone the edge with some diamond paste which will get it quickly up to a sharp edge followed by light stropping. It takes a little time to get good at honing and stropping.
Checking a straight razor edge on your fingers is not a good idea. Have a look at the Shave Wiki.
 
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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Assuming that you are experienced with the Feather AC and can get a good shave with it, it sounds as though some work needs to be done in the edge of your 11/16 SR. If the edge was truly shave-ready, you could have dulled it while stropping. Also cutting your strop will dull the edge.

When using balsa, you strop spine leading, just like you do when stropping on leather.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I hope that your friend from the US didn't try to "test" the SR's sharpness before he delivered it to you.

Your SR shaves are not going to get close to a Feather AC shave for quite a while. You will first need to develop your SR shaving technique, your stropping technique and your edge maintenance technique to get an edge close to the keenness of a Feather. That will be difficult without a full pasted balsa strop progression; 0.5μm, 0.25μm and 0.1μm.

Have your read the instructions?


Just out of curiosity, what is the make and model of your SR? A picture of the SR would be nice.

Perhaps @Seelector can chime in here with some advice. He recently started SR shaving and had a similar experience.
 
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When I started out with straights the one piece of advice I took onboard was not to compare the shave with your last used razor. It takes time to learn how to use a straight, and ages to get to know if your straight is indeed sharp enough to actually shave with.
I did what I learned from here, sent a razor to a recognised honer, at least then when my first shaves were poor it was down to me. Patience is a must when you start off, and no need to rush with the prep or the shave.
 
Thinner lather, less pressure, and start the blade moving before it touches your skin. Starting a stroke from a dead standstill on your skin will deliver lackluster performance. Happy shaves.
 
The good news is that with a proper edge, and proper technique, straight razor shaving will likely give you the best shaves of your life. Or at least the most enjoyable.

The bad news is that it takes a while to get to that point, and it can be hard to diagnose what went wrong sometimes.

I am not going to doubt the abilities of your "respectable forum member," who presumably shaves with his edges. There is no reason to, at all.

A newbie on his first shave is in a tricky position. There are a lot of ways to mess up, and most newbies discover most of them. I did. My two nemeses were too much pressure, and too high of an angle. The second one can mess up edges really quickly.

It seems likely that your razor is not shave ready any more. Any chance you could post a picture of it? Lacking magnification, we may not be able to tell anything. On the other hand, we might. Get as close as you can, in good lighting and in focus.
 
IMHO, if you can shave with an AC shavette you can shave with a traditional straight razor/ Not necessarily right away. Personally, I do not find the technique to be that different. Having said that the shavette is shorter and probably sharper and therefore will feel different. A shave ready straight razor should not tug. I would suggest that your edge was not shave ready or that you may have not properly stropped your razor. Keep trying and you will eventually be able to get a satisfactory or better shave
 
I tend to agree with @Robert Anderson . If you can shave with a shavette, a traditional straight isn't all that different. It is somewhat different, but not so much that the shave is wholly unsatisfactory.

So if you are successful shaving with shavettes, I'd assume it was a razor issue. I would not necessarily suggest trying to "fix" it yourself since you seen unfamiliar with stropping, and poor stopping could make things worse. If you have access to someone who shaves with straights locally, I would consult with them. Alternatively, you could take video of your stroping technique, using something other than the razor, to post for a critique.
 
I thank everybody for their advices and ideas. I am new to stropping and honing and I need to buy a loupe.

Armed with patience I stropped the razor to my poor's man strop which got some other cuts by me. So glad I bought a cheap one. I am getting used to stropping though. I think after a week or two I will not cut my strop. :)D, :D positive thinking)

I have a pasted balsa also. I tried to shave with the razor after stropping it. Well, this time I could manage to have a shave (far from perfect). I used very short repeated strokes mostly. I practice with pressure and angle to find the effective stroke. It took a lot of time but I finished it. The only positive thing that pushes me to continue is that the skin after the shave is soooo smooth. Much smother than with a shavette and I love it.

I hope I will refresh the edge with the pasted balsa strop. Hope I will not fail.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Remember, the sharper the edge, the flatter the shave angle needs to be. Also, the lighter the pressure of the edge against your skin, the closer your shave will be.
 
Lots of good advice posted here already. Light pressure, short strokes, flat shave angle, and blade moving before it touches your skin are what I’ve found to be the most important. Really focus on those points and don’t worry about how your shave will end up. If I start thinking about how my shave will end up, I start to increase shave angle and pressure in an effort to shave more closely. You can’t force the shave, you need to let your technique take you there. It takes practice for it all to come together, and it doesn’t happen every time, but when it does it’s shocking how close and comfortable the shave is.

I’ve ruined a couple edges with poor stropping or poor technique or both, and needed pasted balsa to bring them back. If you have 0.5µm, 0.25µm, and 0.1µm balsa strops do the full progression. If you only have 0.1 you might want to do that step of the progression a couple times. I find that stropping on balsa is more foolproof than stropping on leather, so try shaving straight off the balsa without stropping on leather.
 
Another update. As an inexperienced user in maintain a straight razor, I went with directions of Larry in using its pasted balsa strop. 20 passes on both sides of the pasted strop and 30 maybe in the lather strop. I have received some great instrutcions from @rbscebu on using the pasted balsa strop and I will follow them next time when I find time.

Third shave. Well, we have an acceptable good shave. I even got a big cut with the top of the razor going xtg . I think it is a user error because I am used to shorter AC blades and I didn't control the top part of the razor. But the shave went well. Much, much better than the first two ones. Two passes and skin was smooth and clean. There is hope for me.

One question pls. The tail of this razor is really short and uncomfortable for me. Is the tail a standard for straight razors? How can I find its dimensions if I want to buy another one.

Thank you.
 
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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@albsat, the tail length on a modern SR is generally about 20mm to 25mm when opened 270°. The only way to find out is to ask the sell "When the razor is opened 270°, what is the tail length?".
 
Another update. As an inexperienced user in maintain a straight razor, I went with directions of Larry in using its pasted balsa strop. 20 passes on both sides of the pasted strop and 30 maybe in the lather strop. I have received some great instrutcions from @rbscebu on using the pasted balsa strop and I will follow them next time when I find time.

Third shave. Well, we have an acceptable good shave. I even got a big cut with the top of the razor going xtg . I think it is a user error because I am used to shorter AC blades and I didn't control the top part of the razor. But the shave went well. Much, much better than the first two ones. Two passes and skin was smooth and clean. There is hope for me.

One question pls. The tail of this razor is really short and uncomfortable for me. Is the tail a standard for straight razors? How can I find its dimensions if I want to buy another one.

Thank you.
The tail length on my dovo razors is larger on my 6/8 then on my 5/8. My TI razors do not follow the same pattern. My 7/8 TI has the same tail length as a dovo 5/8 and a TI 6/8.
 
The first progress I am seeing in maintaining the razor is stropping. I have made several damage to the leather strop in three days, but today my movements were fast without any cut in the strop. I think I can master it in a few weeks. The problem now is the honning. I don't have a clue what I am doing in it. I need to buy a loupe ASAP.
 
Stropping can make all the difference. I started out with a strop with a light draw and my edges went sour. Then I tried a strop with a heavy draw and that made a world of difference.

You might also consider another SR from a different honer to compare. Yes shaving with a SR is quite different to shaving with a shavette.
 
Its not a failure, its part of the learning experience. None of us is an expert the first time we do any activity. It takes time, practice, using the correct techniques, gaining muscle memory, before we get proficient. Every time you shave with a straight, you'll learn something new.

Just think if you want to be a baseball pitcher. Do you pick up a baseball, walk onto the mound in Yankee Stadium to throw a pitch to Aaron Judge and expect him to swing and miss three times? Or do you practice, practice, practice for many years to become proficient and an expert first?
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Stropping can make all the difference. I started out with a strop with a light draw and my edges went sour. Then I tried a strop with a heavy draw and that made a world of difference.
....
My experience has been different than yours. Like you, I have stropped on both light and heavy draw clean leather. I found no noticeable difference between the two. There was definitely a difference in the feel of the stropping but not the end result on the edge.

My preference now is to strop on a leather with a lighter draw. I find that it gives me better feedback on how the edge is being corrected while stropping. I strop by feel, not number of laps. Sometimes with some blades it takes just 10 to 20 laps. Other times and blades it can take 50 or more laps. Generally, the softer the steel, the less laps are required.

Due to @albsat's location, it may be difficult for him to be able to experience an edge from a different SR honer. Like me when I started the gentlemanly art, I only had my own devices to work with. Luckily I was able to start out using the B&B Method.
 
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