New to Straight Razors, need some help with getting close shave

[NJshaver]

I purchased a new Ralf Aust straight, 5/8 full-hollow, round point, over the Christmas holiday. It was purchased shave-ready, but it seems to have trouble getting through my face hairs. It sort of hangs up, and I need to almost force it through. I have been careful on how I have stropped it on the Horween leather strop before the few shaves after my first shave out-of-the-box, but all seem to lack sharpness. I try not to use a high angle against my face, keeping spine close to the skin surface. I have not cut myself, but have trouble getting hairs close to where I can get them with my DE razor. I have tried hot towels and shave oil before the lather thinking that maybe I need more hydration on by beard with the straight. I have used Feather DE blades in a slant razor for a few years now prior to trying the straight, and get a close 3 pass shave easily through my rough beard with it.

My question, is it possible that the straight was not really properly honed before I received it? My straight razor vendor is supposed to have a good reputation for honing, but maybe my blade got overlooked?
Would I have an easier time getting shave technique down if I had a half-hollow blade instead of full hollow? I get the feeling that the straight is sort of bouncing off the hairs instead of actually cutting them. Maybe I need more force against the skin? I do worry about cutting myself if I get too aggressive with the blade against my skin, so I try to keep the pressure light as I have read in other places online.

Any help is appreciated and welcome.

 

[Tomo]

That blade doesn’t sound sharp enough to me. It should cut hair easily with very little resistance. How does it go on a Hanging Hair Test or Tree Topping test?

I would get a set of lapping film and block of acrylic and hone it up. Ralf Aust makes some great razors.

 

[NJshaver]

That blade doesn’t sound sharp enough to me. It should cut hair easily with very little resistance. How does it go on a Hanging Hair Test or Tree Topping test?

I would get a set of lapping film and block of acrylic and hone it up. Ralf Aust makes some great razors.

Thank you for the feedback. I have not tried those tests as I did not want to do other things that might mess up the edge. I was thinking of trying honing, etc., but again I worry that I might be biting off too much too soon and perhaps should send it to someone with experience. I have done kitchen knives with Japanese waterstones, but I think razors may be in another league.

 

[sanookd]

I agree that blade doesn’t sound really shave ready to me. If I were you I would contact the vendor and let them know that blade was not really shave ready. They should pay the return shipping and hone it for you. It’s with a try anyway.
That happened to me once and the vendor sent me a post paid shipping label and put a great edge on it when he got our back. The unnamed vendor assumed it was shave ready when he sold it to me. He agreed it was not shave ready when he got it back.

 

[NJshaver]

Thank you for the advice. I will reach out to the vendor and explain the situation. I was thinking the same, but was reticent to complain since this was my first straight.

 

[sanookd]

Thank you for the advice. I will reach out to the vendor and explain the situation. I was thinking the same, but was reticent to complain since this was my first straight.

No problem. It happened to me when I purchased my first straight 6 years ago. I thought to myself if this is straight razor shaving it’s horrible. I did send it off to a well known honer and when I got it back I couldn’t believe the difference. You basically need to experience a truly shave ready blade to know the real feeling and what were all talking about. There should be no tugging AT ALL. Having said that just realize a straight razor will not feel like a razor blade in level of sharpness.

 

[rbscebu]

.... Having said that just realize a straight razor will not feel like a razor blade in level of sharpness.

I agree with all that you have said, except for the above. I and others get levels of sharpness that exceed most DE blades. Feather DE blades can be hard to match but it is doable - just, sometimes.

If the vendor cannot sort things out, give @Doc226 a try for honing to shave-ready.

 

[Tomo]

Contrary to popular advise, I honed my first Ralf Aust razor with lapping film and diamond pasted balsa with great success. If you follow the instructions, it’s not that hard. You will have to learn eventually so you might as well start straight away. Unlike some old beater, a new Ralf Aust razor is very easy to hone because it has a straight edge and perfect geometry out of the box. It’s also pretty close right out of the box so not much work is required.

For the cost of sending the razor away you will have a setup that will last you years. You will also have the tools you need to fix the edge if you ever stuff it up stropping or scraping. You can even build on that basic kit later with different natural finishing stones once you get the hang of honing.

Shaving, stropping and honing are all part of the deal with straight razors.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Is My Razor Sharp? The Treetopping Test | Badger & Blade

 

[trentr]

I may have an exceptionally tough beard, but I have never had a razor melt through my beard like smooth warm butter. Every razor I have ever used, to me, takes quite alot of effort to get moving. Once moving great care must be taken to keep it from skipping. My shavette is the same way. My double edge razors are the same way. The thing that makes the most difference to me is the scything motion. I have better results "rotating" the razor so to speak opposed to moving it in a straight line. As I prepare to make a pass, the toe moves more distance than the heel. Sort of like a windshield wiper maybe. When I started I was frustrated with my straight not being "sharp". I tried a shavette and I tried buying a shave ready from a reputable seller in the trade. When they performed similarly, I moved from honing and rehoning to focusing on prep and technique.

I am not saying this is your issue, but if you get it honed and still struggle, do not give up. Keep playing, and trying, and reading, and I bet you will get where you are enjoying it. I know I did. Hot butter...no. Close comfortable shave....absolutely.

 

[trentr]

Also, for me and others I have read post about it...the smooth does not come with the first shave. The general recommendation is shoot for comfortable, bloodless, lather removal and before you know it, after a few shaves under your belt, you will have the smooth to go with it.

 

[haggis]

Excellent advice above.

Another newbie here. There seem to be a lot of variables for straight shaving and at the beginning it feels like they can sort of add up (or multiply) in a way that I found (find?) confusing and occasionally discouraging.

Out of some sense of pointless stubbornness I resisted making up a set of balsa strops for months. I was about ready to go back to my Feather DX because I was just not having success with an assortment of straights … wildly variable results across them, a 12k naniwa seeming to do nothing for my results, etc. Of course I really don't know what I'm doing, so there's that. But I simply could not get AGT on my upper lip — the acid test for me — whereas with AC blades it's trivial to achieve my goal there. So with a sigh I made up some balsa strops, ordered in some paste, and after a couple of days through the strop progressions my "garbage" blades were doing the job and are now maintaining on minor daily upkeep. The comfort of the straight on the rest of my face is easily worth the wee bit of extra care and effort I needed to get my AGT fool's pass(es) accomplished. Suddenly, straights were working for me.

As important as I believe the strops were for pushing probably adequate edges closer to what worked for me, I have NO DOUBT that a large portion of the advancement was, is, and will be continue to be evolution of skill and technique. But the balsa took what were probably perfectly fine, if nominal, edges to a place significantly more comfortable and useful for me, personally. I've bought a couple of new mid-range razors that were shave-ready from reliable vendors and I believe they were shave-ready (or would be for a more experienced straight user) and while I definitely could shave off them, my personal experience was that each of them gradually improved with each successive pass through the rotation until they quickly level out a place where I no longer have to wonder if my morning shave is going to be a success or a nightmare. And if it IS a nightmare, it's always self-inflicted

On a tangent, I have noticed that for me (again, a newbie) that I am personally finding 6/8 blades easier to use than 5/8. I have a 6/8 Aust with the Bismark style blank and it's somehow much more enjoyable and successful for me than the Aust 5/8 that I acquired.

On last thing that has taken a long time to accept and which I'm still working on calibrating, is that I had *extreme* hesitancy while learning and nearly quit over lather "stiction." I just could not move that blade smoothly and I would grind to a stop, unable to figure out how to move on. Over time, my lathering might have been improving, but probably more likely is that I am *slowly* acquiring more confidence to use more confident strokes, "pushing" harder than I was in difficult areas as my ability to monitor and back off before I push myself into a nick improves. As the number of shaves begins to accumulate it seems like the ability to recover from a potential mishap increases; with an AC blade I'm usually cut before I knew it happened — with a straight I frequently think "I just cut myself" and find that I managed to back off before actually cutting myself. However a moment of inattention will still bite, so I definitely work on keeping my focus 100% on task.

Just some random thoughts from the novice side.

 

[haggis]

Another thought just popped into mind: when people talk about a shallow angle, they are not kidding. When I am having trouble I can usually improve what's going on by virtually honing my face — I can feel the blade laying on my skin, it's that shallow.

 

[Aidah]

I purchased a new Ralf Aust straight, 5/8 full-hollow, round point, over the Christmas holiday. It was purchased shave-ready, but it seems to have trouble getting through my face hairs. It sort of hangs up, and I need to almost force it through. I have been careful on how I have stropped it on the Horween leather strop before the few shaves after my first shave out-of-the-box, but all seem to lack sharpness. I try not to use a high angle against my face, keeping spine close to the skin surface. I have not cut myself, but have trouble getting hairs close to where I can get them with my DE razor. I have tried hot towels and shave oil before the lather thinking that maybe I need more hydration on by beard with the straight. I have used Feather DE blades in a slant razor for a few years now prior to trying the straight, and get a close 3 pass shave easily through my rough beard with it.

My question, is it possible that the straight was not really properly honed before I received it? My straight razor vendor is supposed to have a good reputation for honing, but maybe my blade got overlooked?
Would I have an easier time getting shave technique down if I had a half-hollow blade instead of full hollow? I get the feeling that the straight is sort of bouncing off the hairs instead of actually cutting them. Maybe I need more force against the skin? I do worry about cutting myself if I get too aggressive with the blade against my skin, so I try to keep the pressure light as I have read in other places online.

Any help is appreciated and welcome.

Any chance you bought this from Razer emporium? I got my first SR which was the same Ralf aust you described. It arrived and I had trouble shaving as well due to it not being very sharp and me being inexperienced. That vendor does not hone Ralf aust razors you buy from them since they believe they come shave ready. You're experiencing what most new comers to straight razor shaving experience. Vendor shave ready and shave ready for you are usually not the same thing.

 

[Kyle89]

Also a novice straight razor user. Almost a month worth of shaves under my belt but have not broke 30 yet.

Honestly, my first few shaves I had the same feeling you had, but over time, as my technique has improved, so has the closeness of the shaves. I thought my blade was too dull but it got better over time, which tells me it was technique related.

It will come in due time. Get it re-honed if you feel the need, it may fix your issue. Wouldn't bet on that being the problem though.

*edit

Nice, someone else from NJ! Grew up in Morris County. Cheers dude, happy shaving.

 

[NJshaver]

Any chance you bought this from Razer emporium? I got my first SR which was the same Ralf aust you described. It arrived and I had trouble shaving as well due to it not being very sharp and me being inexperienced. That vendor does not hone Ralf aust razors you buy from them since they believe they come shave ready. You're experiencing what most new comers to straight razor shaving experience. Vendor shave ready and shave ready for you are usually not the same thing.

No, it was a different vendor. He indicated he will look at it, but I will work on technique for a few more shaves. It took many passes but I got a bit closer today.

 

[NJshaver]

Also a novice straight razor user. Almost a month worth of shaves under my belt but have not broke 30 yet.

Honestly, my first few shaves I had the same feeling you had, but over time, as my technique has improved, so has the closeness of the shaves. I thought my blade was too dull but it got better over time, which tells me it was technique related.

It will come in due time. Get it re-honed if you feel the need, it may fix your issue. Wouldn't bet on that being the problem though.

*edit

Nice, someone else from NJ! Grew up in Morris County. Cheers dude, happy shaving.

I work with it some more.