Question on Feel of Straight Shave

[WittyAg]

So I've been at this straight shaving thing now for about a week and have had mixed results that are strange. First off, my razor was honed by Lynn so I know I'm starting off with a good sharpness. I've tried shaving with it everyday for a week since I've gotten it, but have noticed that past the first two shaves, I get substantial tugging on the whiskers on my chin and mustache even though my cheeks and neck seem to shave fine WTG. For anything ATG it doesn't matter and tugs no matter where I try to cut.

Is it more likely that I'm getting tugging due to poor technique, or have I really dulled the blade that fast? The only thing I've done to the blade between shaves is about 20-25 passes on a leather strop before every shave day. When I ordered the razor, I went ahead and ordered and lapped a chinese 12k stone in anticipation of having to do a touch up hone when I eventually needed to, but didn't anticipate it would be this fast. So I guess now, I'm looking for a suggestion. Should I continue to work on my technique and just use the strop, or should I go ahead and bust out the chinese 12k and give the blade a good 200 or so passes?

 

[mdunn]

Methinks technique be to blame. Make sure your angles are good and you prep your beard properly before you shave.

 

[Seraphim]

Keep the razor very flat against your face. The back should be off of your skin by no more than the width of the spine.

 

[minstrel]

Just my 2 cents - bad stropping can dull the razor as well. Good stropping technique takes a while to learn, in my experience.

 

[WittyAg]

So I got home from the night shift a little early and decided screw it, its as good a time to learn how to use my 12k as any (its already lapped). Rinsed it with water and put a little lather on it and gave that bad boy about 300 passes back and forth really carefully and wow, what a tremendous difference that made. The razor actually felt sharper than the first time I had used it (granted that was after I stropped it the first time too).

I didn't even nick my face a single time this go around, so its not my fault technique wise on the shaving side, though it more than likely is my fault technique wise on the stropping side. I bet I dulled it out by putting too much pressure on the strop. At least I know I can fix it on my 12k while I'm learning the proper stropping technique.

 

[leighton]

edit: Maybe the razor wasn't as sharp as it could have been (bad stropping or whatever). You might have tried contacting Lynn about it.

Sounds like you figured out the problem. Btw, your doing very little stropping imo. I recommend 70-100 laps per day. Unless you like honing.

IME, good stropping fixes all the problems from bad stropping.