First post, I have been lurking for a few weeks now.
My entry into the wet shaving world came a few years back when my father gave me a Christmas gift of a Merkur 23C safety razor and a badger hair shaving brush. He gave me a brief tutorial and told me to pick up some shaving soap.
I ended up going to Walmart and picked up a tub of Van Der Hagen shave soap, despite many uses, most of the tub is still intact.
I have to admit that I did not love shaving with the safety razor, I found it difficult to get a close shave and I tended to cut up my face pretty fiercely. I wound up going back to the cartridge razors, but I kept using the shave soap and shave brush. I never admitted this to my father.
I actually love shave soaps, to me they are miles ahead of the drug store shaving gels that are available. Even the dirt cheap Van Der Hagen. Eventually I started dabbling in aftershaves as well, which was something I never used when I was a cartridge shaver, I think that the reason I never used them was because I hated the way they smelled and they didn’t add anything to the shaving process for me, so I never bothered. That is, until I discovered higher end aftershaves, I tried the Floris 89 aftershave balm and fell in love with it, I ended up buying their aftershave splash and their cologne. Now, one of my favorite things is pairing shave soaps with aftershaves and colognes (and by the way, cologne was never something I liked either until I started dabbling with higher quality stuff). I know that getting excited about shave soap, aftershave, and cologne might seem a little silly when it should be the shaving that gets one excited. It is kind of like getting excited about brands of gasoline when the fun should be the car itself or driving, but whatever aspect we enjoy about a hobby differs for every person.
Even though I love shave soap more than gels and creams, I will admit that one thing I’ve never gotten great at is getting it to a stiff lather, I always either wind up with too thin of a lather, or an acceptable lather but not enough of it. Perhaps if anybody has any suggestions on this, I would love to hear your comments!
I did eventually go back to the safety razor and I found more success by using a much lighter touch, only using a blade for a maximum of 3 shaves, and for some reason, I tend to cut my chin less if I shave down as opposed to the received wisdom of shaving the chin upwards. I still cut myself occasionally and it is because of this I tend to shave infrequently as it isn’t a particularly pleasant process for me.
After a bit of thought, I began to think that perhaps my problem with my chin is that I can’t get the perfect angle, which is why I began to consider buying a straight edge razor, which is something I would be in complete control of. I also loved the idea of buying a tool that will last several lifetimes if cared for properly.
So, after years of thinking about it, as straight razors are a hefty investment, I finally pulled the trigger on it a couple of weeks ago. I chose a Dovo PRIMA (45850), it is a carbon steel 1.2210 with gold-plated accents, full hollow grind, round point with biconcave profile and ribbed tang, 5/8” blade width, and African cowhorn scales and I bought it directly from Dovo online (I did not get the upcharge honing service as their website said their razors ship “shave ready”). It is a gorgeous instrument. I also bought an Illinois 127 strop to go with it along with the appropriate dressing.
My first try with it wasn’t great, I cut myself pretty significantly (nothing that sent me to the doctor for stitches or anything like that, but I will probably have a scar on my cheek from it), and it was a truly painful experience that left me with a very un-close shave. After doing some analysis, I determined that I was holding the blade at too steep of an angle and the short strokes that are used with cartridge and safety razor shaving are not appropriate for straight razor shaving.
So, I adjusted my shaving angle and changed to longer, smoother strokes, subsequent shaves resulted in less cuts, although I still got a few. But, it remained a painful process that did not yield the super close shave that straight razor shaving is famous for. It simply feels like the razor rips at my hairs.
I read about the test to see if the razor will cut a hair mid air and mine will not (at least, not in the middle, there are a few spots towards the ends that will but inconsistently). So, while I am willing to admit that the issue might be my technique as I’ve only shaved with the straight razor a total of four times now, but I’m leaning towards the possibility the razor might be dull. I have stropped between every use, and this is another possibility I’m willing to explore, that I’m not stropping correctly.
So, I guess at the end of my lengthy introduction, I am soliciting a little advice here. Does it sound like my razor needs to be honed, or do you think I still need to work on my technique? If you think it probably needs to be honed, do you have any suggestions on where I should send the razor to get that service?
I have to say that this forum is fantastic, I have learned more about shaving in the past few weeks by lurking that I ever imagined possible.
Thanks in advance!
My entry into the wet shaving world came a few years back when my father gave me a Christmas gift of a Merkur 23C safety razor and a badger hair shaving brush. He gave me a brief tutorial and told me to pick up some shaving soap.
I ended up going to Walmart and picked up a tub of Van Der Hagen shave soap, despite many uses, most of the tub is still intact.
I have to admit that I did not love shaving with the safety razor, I found it difficult to get a close shave and I tended to cut up my face pretty fiercely. I wound up going back to the cartridge razors, but I kept using the shave soap and shave brush. I never admitted this to my father.
I actually love shave soaps, to me they are miles ahead of the drug store shaving gels that are available. Even the dirt cheap Van Der Hagen. Eventually I started dabbling in aftershaves as well, which was something I never used when I was a cartridge shaver, I think that the reason I never used them was because I hated the way they smelled and they didn’t add anything to the shaving process for me, so I never bothered. That is, until I discovered higher end aftershaves, I tried the Floris 89 aftershave balm and fell in love with it, I ended up buying their aftershave splash and their cologne. Now, one of my favorite things is pairing shave soaps with aftershaves and colognes (and by the way, cologne was never something I liked either until I started dabbling with higher quality stuff). I know that getting excited about shave soap, aftershave, and cologne might seem a little silly when it should be the shaving that gets one excited. It is kind of like getting excited about brands of gasoline when the fun should be the car itself or driving, but whatever aspect we enjoy about a hobby differs for every person.
Even though I love shave soap more than gels and creams, I will admit that one thing I’ve never gotten great at is getting it to a stiff lather, I always either wind up with too thin of a lather, or an acceptable lather but not enough of it. Perhaps if anybody has any suggestions on this, I would love to hear your comments!
I did eventually go back to the safety razor and I found more success by using a much lighter touch, only using a blade for a maximum of 3 shaves, and for some reason, I tend to cut my chin less if I shave down as opposed to the received wisdom of shaving the chin upwards. I still cut myself occasionally and it is because of this I tend to shave infrequently as it isn’t a particularly pleasant process for me.
After a bit of thought, I began to think that perhaps my problem with my chin is that I can’t get the perfect angle, which is why I began to consider buying a straight edge razor, which is something I would be in complete control of. I also loved the idea of buying a tool that will last several lifetimes if cared for properly.
So, after years of thinking about it, as straight razors are a hefty investment, I finally pulled the trigger on it a couple of weeks ago. I chose a Dovo PRIMA (45850), it is a carbon steel 1.2210 with gold-plated accents, full hollow grind, round point with biconcave profile and ribbed tang, 5/8” blade width, and African cowhorn scales and I bought it directly from Dovo online (I did not get the upcharge honing service as their website said their razors ship “shave ready”). It is a gorgeous instrument. I also bought an Illinois 127 strop to go with it along with the appropriate dressing.
My first try with it wasn’t great, I cut myself pretty significantly (nothing that sent me to the doctor for stitches or anything like that, but I will probably have a scar on my cheek from it), and it was a truly painful experience that left me with a very un-close shave. After doing some analysis, I determined that I was holding the blade at too steep of an angle and the short strokes that are used with cartridge and safety razor shaving are not appropriate for straight razor shaving.
So, I adjusted my shaving angle and changed to longer, smoother strokes, subsequent shaves resulted in less cuts, although I still got a few. But, it remained a painful process that did not yield the super close shave that straight razor shaving is famous for. It simply feels like the razor rips at my hairs.
I read about the test to see if the razor will cut a hair mid air and mine will not (at least, not in the middle, there are a few spots towards the ends that will but inconsistently). So, while I am willing to admit that the issue might be my technique as I’ve only shaved with the straight razor a total of four times now, but I’m leaning towards the possibility the razor might be dull. I have stropped between every use, and this is another possibility I’m willing to explore, that I’m not stropping correctly.
So, I guess at the end of my lengthy introduction, I am soliciting a little advice here. Does it sound like my razor needs to be honed, or do you think I still need to work on my technique? If you think it probably needs to be honed, do you have any suggestions on where I should send the razor to get that service?
I have to say that this forum is fantastic, I have learned more about shaving in the past few weeks by lurking that I ever imagined possible.
Thanks in advance!
.
