My straight razor journey

[Aidah]

Good evening all. I can finally add myself to the ranks of people who shave with straight razors. I had my first shave tonight with my 5/8 Ralf Aust razor. While I wouldn’t count this my most successful shave ever, I completed two passes, wtg and xtg, without any cuts or nicks.

I do have some irritation which is to be expected from me learning a new shaving technique. I also used a brand new soap and base ( gravefruit from southern witchcrafts) and created too creamy of a lather which didn’t have enough slickness. My next attempt will be with noble otter soaps since I’m very familiar. I think maybe I’ll try to add more water then normal for my de shaves, but I’d like to hear others opinions on this.

Believe it or not but I, finding 5e most difficult part of the shave is stropping afterwards. I’ve watched a ton of videos on stropping but cut up my strop quite a bit. Thankfully it’s a cheap starter strap and I plan to get more until I get the technique down. Does anyone have any good resources for learning to strop?

 

[Tomo]

Congratulations and welcome to the fold. It will only get better from here. You’ve picked a great razor to start with (same as mine). If you follow the basic guidelines there is really no need to give blood to learn to SR shave.

I am still on my first strop. Eight months in it still doesn’t have any nicks or cuts. It’s only gotten better and more supple. I always start and finish a stroke with the spine down and the edge up. You will not nick the strop while the blade is moving forwards. The danger is when you stop or change direction. Start with the spine down and edge up. As you start to move forwards rotate the razor to bring the blade down onto the strop. Keep a light torque on the blade to maintain good contact with the edge. Just enough torque to keep good contact no more. The spine should be lightly flexing the strop not the edge. As you get to the end of the stroke rotate the edge up and off the strop while maintaining contact with the spine. Rotate the edge off of the strop before you come to the end of the stroke. The edge should only touch the strop while the blade is moving. In the stationary position only the spine should be touching. This is my method and I’ve never had a problem.

You can practice with a butter knife and an old belt until you internalize the motion. Pushing hard or going fast does not give a better result. It’s ok to go slowly and carefully at first. It’s better to do more light laps than a few hard ones. Try to keep even pressure along the length of the blade. The strop should stay tight and flat. If it starts to rotate, you have more pressure on the heel or the toe. Keep the blade flat and perpendicular to the strop. You will get there.

A wide strop is easier to learn on. That way you don’t need to bother with x-strokes to work the entire edge. Tony Miller does nice strops and he sells the leather as a replacement part. If you are worried you can buy a spare piece of leather with your order and have it as a back up. It’s pretty cost effective to do it this way because you save shipping in the spare.

 

[seattleshaver]

The post above uses my technique as well so the blade never has a chance to cut the strop. Just type in stropping on YouTube and I'm sure you can find plenty of visual examples.

I only paid about $20 or so for my first strop and it was a wide 2 piece nice strop. I only just decided to order another strop (I couldn't find one like my first one) and I paid less than $20. It's shorter and narrower than my first one but it works fine.

I kept my old one and I've repaired the cut spots with superglue but now that my technique is much better I just wanted to have one without superglue spots on it. The new inexpensive one works fine however.

You can buy a nicer and more expensive one just like you can do with razors but as with razors it's a personal preference and it really has little to do with the quality of the shave.

 

[rbscebu]

@Aidah welcome to the gentlemanly art of SR shaving. I agree with everything said by others above.

As for soaps/creams, I have found that my favourites for DE/cart shaving do not necessarily work well with SR's. Proraso cream works well for me with SR's but there are plenty of others out there to try and they may be even better.

I also found that SR shaving works much better with a wetter lather than I was use to with DE/cart shaving. With SR shaving, for a good shave I was using a very wet lather, almost dripping off my face. As my technique improved (nearing 300 SR shaves) my lather wetness is now about halfway between my almost dripping wet and DE/cart lather. You also do not need a super thick lather. My lathers are applied thin enough that I can still see small parts of my skin underneath.

 

[Aidah]

@Tomo @seattleshaver @rbscebu Thank you all for your advice regarding stropping and the lather. I’ll work on all of that for my next shave. I guess my next question is should I create my balsa strops now, or wait until I have my stropping technique down? I’ve already acquired the balsa and .5, .25, and .1 u pastes.

 

[rbscebu]

I suggest that you make and start using them now. Using them may mitigate any minor damage you may do to the edge while stropping.

I am assuming that your SR is still "shave-ready", and a Ralf Aust should be. Diamond pasted balsa strops should ONLY be used on truly shave-ready SR's. They are used to further polish the bevel that affects the edge, not to get an edge shaveable.

 

[Ravenonrock]

I’ve also upped my SR game lately. Basically committed to getting in lots of shaves. I sometimes reapply wet lather if I’m being too deliberate and things dry up. This happens frequently, I take it slow. I have two practice strops, both nicked, it happens. My new strop is the real deal, makes a big difference but glad I waited. I only now understand the wisdom of getting in a number of shaves and muscle memory and developing my technique. I’m learning.

 

[Tomo]

A very sharp edge is beneficial when learning. It will remove one common cause of irritation from the equation. I wouldn’t hesitate to get straight onto the balsas. You should note that they will only be effective if the bevel is correctly set and the blade has already been finished to a very high level, 1 micron Aluminium Oxide Film or equivalent. You won’t damage the blade if it’s not at this standard but you won’t get any benefit. I always run a film progression first to be sure I’m at the right standard for the balsa progression. RA’s are normally pretty sharp out of the box but you can get a lot sharper than the standard factory edge. If it’s tree topping easily and passes the hanging hair test it should be pretty good.

Do you have any other honing equipment apart from the balsa and diamond paste?

 

[Aidah]

@Tomo i have the 12k Japanese shapton yellow synthetic stone. But I haven’t honed yet. Think I should take the RA to the 12 k then progress through the balsa from .5 to .25 to .1?

 

[McBlade]

As a general rule, if you're not sure what to do try the finer grit first. You can always move down to coarser grits if it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

PS: two passes and no cuts is pretty good for your first attempt

 

[rbscebu]

@Tomo i have the 12k Japanese shapton yellow synthetic stone. But I haven’t honed yet. Think I should take the RA to the 12 k then progress through the balsa from .5 to .25 to .1?

That would depend on the condition of the bevel/edge. Not sure what Ralf Aust finishes on. If he finishes on 12k then just use the balsa.

Personally, without knowing, I would just use the balsa at first. If I didn't notice any improvement from just the balsa, I would drop back to the 12k and then go to balsa.

FYI 0.5um is about 50k, 0.25um about 100k and 0.1um about 200k.

 

[Tomo]

It sounds like you have the perfect setup for maintaining a shave ready razor. I’ve heard that the 12k is a great finisher in its own right. The balsas will take that edges significantly higher.

As has been said, if the razor is already shaving well there’s no harm in trying to go straight onto the balsa.

Starting with the 12k better but there’s a little more risk of stuffing something up. As the saying goes. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The balsa is in my opinion a little more forgiving.

With either method always remember.
1. The surface must be lapped and totally flat.
2. Never ever lift the spine before the edge (you will dull the edge straight away). The spine should be the first thing and the last thing to touch the hone. Rotate the razor on the spine to place and remove the edge. Keep the spine down on the hone at all times. I can’t stress this one enough.
3. Use light and even pressure. Do not use pressure so hard that it flexes the blade. You will stuff the bevel. Do not use pressure so light that you loose contact with the hone. You risk lifting the spine before the edge.
4. Almost all mistakes can be corrected if you have the tools. Don’t be afraid to have a go.

Balsa strokes are spine leading like the strop. Excessive spine leading strokes can lead to a fin edge. To combat this you need to do a few pull strokes once in a while (every ten to twenty strokes). These are short strokes at 90 degrees to the normal spine leading stroke.

The whetstone strokes are typically edge leading.

 

[rbscebu]

I'm looking forward to a month or two when @Aidah reports "Why didn't I start this SR shaving in my teens?"

 

[Aidah]

Thank you all for your advice. I’m going to bust out the balsa strops tomorrow and get to work. I’ll report back after my next shave. In the meanwhile I’ll be practicing my stopping technique on this cheaper gold dollar I picked up to practice honing.

 

[Aidah]

@Tomo @rbscebu How many passes should I do on each strop from .5 to .25 to .1 u?

 

[rbscebu]

You will find basic instructions here:

How To Use a Pasted Balsa Strop

lol camo

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Aidah]

October 13th, 2020 SOTD

Today was day 2 of using my Ralf Aust 5/8. It was another 6.5/10 shave but I got the lather right this time having it be extra wet for the SR. I did two passes with the SR and one cleanup with the Super speed.Overall a good shave but the SR was tugging more then expected even with a super slick lather. I'm thinking I may need to work on honing the SR. Should the straight razor be tugging when used? It glided well enough on the lather but it wasn't doing a good job of cutting the hairs. Maybe I need to hone it on stone first before bringing it back to the balsa? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm getting my technique for how to hold and have with the razor down better though.

My only comparison to another SR is shaving with the feather proguard blades which cut super well.

 

[McBlade]

If it feels too tuggy to you then it's not sharp enough for you.

How sharp a blade should be is a personal preference, within reasonable limits. If a blade just doesn't want to cut against the grain it's absolutely too dull. If it will cut against the grain but there is some resistance, just how much resistance you will accept is a personal preference.

I like the way a milder edge gives me a much more relaxed shave with less chance of nicks but on the downside it's a bit harder to shave against the grain.

If the blade is skipping and jumping when you go against the grain that's definitely too dull. There's a good chance you'll cut yourself as the blade catches and digs in.

 

[Aidah]

It's funny because with DE razors I prefer a milder razor with a mild-medium blade. But with this SR it's not cutting too well going with the grain, but okay with against the grain. Too much tugging in both directions. So maybe I'll consider trying to hone it on my 12k shapton then going back to the balsa strops before my next shave. If it's not sharp enough I'll consider taking it to the 8k stone, then 12k, then balsa. Worse case I can take it back to the 4k stone before progressing forward I think. I've never honed before so I'm a little hesitant to start on my ralf aust but I'm willing to give it a go.

 

[haggis]

I appreciate your sharing your experiences as I am on a similar newbie path, so it's all relevant