I hone on film and I would recommend CrOx on balsa for minor touch ups. Just in case your not totally confused yet.
njt's shave journey v2
- Thread starter njtnjt
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #22
I'm not totally confused yet about sharpening. I have read a bit and seen that there are many avenues and approaches. Some people seem to try them all in the search for the perfect edge. I hope to ease into it somehow. I have the pasted balsa strop for minor touch ups now. I will try it when I need to get the edge back a bit. I plan to send my razors out to Doc for honing when they don't feel good anymore and I am not able to get them cutting well with just the pasted strop. In The meantime I will keep reading about these methods of honing. I will also ask Doc what he finishes on. It might be jnat. I'd like to use whatever the honemeister uses for finishing. I think my edges would stay better that way.
Thank you all for your thoughts and guidance.
Doc usually hones on a jnat. Once in a while, if you tick him off, he uses the sidewalk in front of his Fili tree.
Doc confirmed for me once when I asked him that unless a different method is specifically asked for, he uses his jnats to hone, period.
You certainly have your plate full now so I will not suggest that you go out and buy a bunch of things. To maintain an edge, you "could" go out and purchase either a good, used and vintage barber hone. 6-10 passes on one of those followed by a good strop session will bring an edge back. They were used by barbers for years and I found one for $10.00 on EBay, lapped it and it is on hot standby should I need it.
Another route would be a Naniwa Super Stone in 10K or 12K. As long as you have not damaged an edge, you could maintain a razor for a good year or so provided your strop methods are keen. And of course, other avenues like having Doc look at it is well in play too. I would recommend that avenue before you end up going down the same rabbit hole that I did (And I'm loving every minute of it).
Best of luck,
Frank
- Thread starter
- #26
Hey Frank, this is just what I was thinking. Maybe a 12k Naniwa Super Stone. I want to get through this first year of straight shaving concentrating on my shaving technique. One 12k stone seems like a good place to start. I will look into how these Naniwa stones work, what the techniques are, etc.
Thank you all for your input!
- Thread starter
- #27
Shave #5
The routine essentials;
60 passes on the leather strop
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Bengal (honed by Alfredo)
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; Creed Original Vetiver
25 passes on the leather strop
Another good shave this morning. If you are reading this for the first time, please know that I started last year, got a couple dozen shaves in and quit. I feel as if I have picked up right where I left off but a bit wiser, slower and more thoughtful. I am really pleased with the results so far. Having a very sharp razor is obviously important and I am feeling the benefit this time. I had Doc hone my Bengal right before I put it away. It is making my life easy in that it is mowing down the whiskers with little effort.
I applied pre-shave oil again today after 2 days off. My face had been so tight post-shave the past 2 days that I wondered if the oil was giving me a moisture boost. It takes me 45 minutes to shave. That is a long time to have soap sticking to ones face. It is very drying on mine! So the layer of oil underneath did give my skin a boost today. I will continue to use it till I get the shaves down to a reasonable 10 or 15 minutes.
I am still only doing N/S passes with a little XTG on my chin. I am not able to go strictly N/S on my chin yet. I'm just not comfortable with the feel of it. But going across is no problem and it's getting me great results.
The other problem area is under my nose. I'm just not sure how to approach it. I might have to do XTG there too. If I have time I will watch some videos over the weekend and see what others are doing for angles.
Thank you for reading!
The routine essentials;
60 passes on the leather strop
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Bengal (honed by Alfredo)
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; Creed Original Vetiver
25 passes on the leather strop
Another good shave this morning. If you are reading this for the first time, please know that I started last year, got a couple dozen shaves in and quit. I feel as if I have picked up right where I left off but a bit wiser, slower and more thoughtful. I am really pleased with the results so far. Having a very sharp razor is obviously important and I am feeling the benefit this time. I had Doc hone my Bengal right before I put it away. It is making my life easy in that it is mowing down the whiskers with little effort.
I applied pre-shave oil again today after 2 days off. My face had been so tight post-shave the past 2 days that I wondered if the oil was giving me a moisture boost. It takes me 45 minutes to shave. That is a long time to have soap sticking to ones face. It is very drying on mine! So the layer of oil underneath did give my skin a boost today. I will continue to use it till I get the shaves down to a reasonable 10 or 15 minutes.
I am still only doing N/S passes with a little XTG on my chin. I am not able to go strictly N/S on my chin yet. I'm just not comfortable with the feel of it. But going across is no problem and it's getting me great results.
The other problem area is under my nose. I'm just not sure how to approach it. I might have to do XTG there too. If I have time I will watch some videos over the weekend and see what others are doing for angles.
Thank you for reading!
I keep a mustache and small goatee beard, so I can't advise much on the lip/chin area. Watching vids is a good plan of attack though, for sure.
I did WTG only on my lip area for quite a while. Once I figured out how to do a XTG pass on my cheek area, without feeling like I would slip up and slice off my nose, I started to work the lip area with that same XTG motion.
I usually do 1 WTG and 2 XTG passes on the lip. I have tried an ATG pass on my lip like 3 times. Only once was good, and the other times it looked like my lip turned into hamburger. It was all sore and irritated and pimply. I just decided to stick with XTG.
Enjoying the read. I hope I can progress as well as you have. I'm trying films myself to try to hone old razors. Don't want to touch the edge of my shave ready razor as I'm afraid I'll mess it up and not have a razor to shave on! Good luck with the journey.
- Thread starter
- #31
Thank you. I thinks it's smart to do some practice on an old razor. I have a gold dollar I will use for practice even though I remember it as being a very good shaver. I just want to be able to bring the edge back rather than do the whole progression from setting the bevel on forward. I want to concentrate for a year on shaving, do more reading on honing so that I understand all the methods better, maybe buy a few more razors, and get some practice at bringing the edge back to life.
My best advise it to take everything very slowly, and go light, light, light and use very short strokes when you put the razor to your face. Also keep the blade angle very shallow with the spine of the razor almost touching your face. Those 3 things together have been making the second go around for me a success. Oh.... And make sure the razor is very sharp!
Best,
I think a big part of my problems have been too long of strokes. Going to try much shorter next time.
My plan was to use film just to keep the edge but I like buying things so figured I should learn to hone so I hopefully won't have to send off every single one. And it's something to do while growing hair back!
- Thread starter
- #33
YES - keep the strokes very short. One of the confusing things about looking at some of the videos is that these guys have been shaving for a long time. They take these long passes. Doesn't work for a beginner unless you are some kind of genius with a razor. I think the stokes I take might be a half inch to an inch or so.
- Thread starter
- #34
Shave #6
The routine essentials;
60 passes on the leather strop
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Bengal (honed by Doc)
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; none today
25 passes on the leather strop
Another brilliant shave - brilliant for a beginner. One WTG pass everywhere with a little XTG under the nose and across the chin. I am slowly building up a library of angles that I can use to reach all the areas of my face.
Funny how my left hand is sometimes doing better than my right. The right hand can be too bold and aggressive. I have an extremely light touch with the left. I think that is something the right can learn from
I am getting closer to making a decision to buy some 3 and 1um film for touch-ups. I will try my pasted strop first to see how it feels but I want the film on-hand in case I don't like the results.
I am hoping that a vintage "shave-ready" Le Grelot p. hospital arrives tomorrow. I will wait to shave until the mail arrives and use that razor if it is truly shave-ready. If not, the Bengal will be waiting in the brush ready to pounce!
The routine essentials;
60 passes on the leather strop
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Bengal (honed by Doc)
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; none today
25 passes on the leather strop
Another brilliant shave - brilliant for a beginner. One WTG pass everywhere with a little XTG under the nose and across the chin. I am slowly building up a library of angles that I can use to reach all the areas of my face.
Funny how my left hand is sometimes doing better than my right. The right hand can be too bold and aggressive. I have an extremely light touch with the left. I think that is something the right can learn from
I am getting closer to making a decision to buy some 3 and 1um film for touch-ups. I will try my pasted strop first to see how it feels but I want the film on-hand in case I don't like the results.
I am hoping that a vintage "shave-ready" Le Grelot p. hospital arrives tomorrow. I will wait to shave until the mail arrives and use that razor if it is truly shave-ready. If not, the Bengal will be waiting in the brush ready to pounce!
Another nice shave in the books! Looking forward to more shave reports!
- Thread starter
- #36
The Le Grelot arrived today As we like to say here on the East Coast, it's wicked shaaap. The person who sold it to me put quite an edge on it. I won't know if it's a comfortable edge till tomorrow morning. It passes the hht tests with flying colors. The condition is better than his cell phone pictures indicated so I am happy.
As we like to say here on the East Coast, it's wicked shaaap. The person who sold it to me put quite an edge on it. I won't know if it's a comfortable edge till tomorrow morning. It passes the hht tests with flying colors. The condition is better than his cell phone pictures indicated so I am happy.Excellent. The mailman was good to me today too. Looking forward to tomorrow's shave.
- Thread starter
- #38
Nothing like a long weekend and a new straight to play with!
- Thread starter
- #39
Shave #7
The routine essentials;
No stropping today - freshly honed vintage razor on deck
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Le Grelot
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; none today
25 passes on the leather strop
Well, I shaved with this today;
It was a delightful shave. I don't know enough about what kind of edge is what, or the different types of steel, etc.. but this was an amazingly smooth and effortless shave. It might be that the blade had just been honed. It's going to take a lot more experience than a couple dozen shaves to tell. But suffice to say it was great.
Everything else is coming along. The left hand is talking to the right and coordination using the left hand is progressing. The mantra of very light, light touch, short, short strokes and almost no angle on the blade continues to work for me. Zero irritation and a shave that is holding up well past my DE shaves.
Have a great, long weekend all, and thanks for reading.
The routine essentials;
No stropping today - freshly honed vintage razor on deck
Shower
Pre-shave oil - Taconic organic unscented oil
Brush - Saville Row silver tip
Cella shave soap
Razor - Le Grelot
Scuttle - Dirty Bird
post-shave
Moisturizer; Jason's vitamin E moisturizing cream
Cologne; none today
25 passes on the leather strop
Well, I shaved with this today;
It was a delightful shave. I don't know enough about what kind of edge is what, or the different types of steel, etc.. but this was an amazingly smooth and effortless shave. It might be that the blade had just been honed. It's going to take a lot more experience than a couple dozen shaves to tell. But suffice to say it was great.
Everything else is coming along. The left hand is talking to the right and coordination using the left hand is progressing. The mantra of very light, light touch, short, short strokes and almost no angle on the blade continues to work for me. Zero irritation and a shave that is holding up well past my DE shaves.
Have a great, long weekend all, and thanks for reading.
Dang good looking razor, sounds like dang great results as well!
