Sponge is the go. Works great. Fast, convenient and gentle on the blade. No banged faucets for me.
Save the sink for hot water and you lather bowl.
Save the sink for hot water and you lather bowl.
Ralf Bites; Mappin Doesn't
- Thread starter Dominic
- Start date
I have been using a cellulose sponge as I don't like the texture of polyester sponges
and natural sponges are really expensive. I have been standing mine up vertical in the sink
recently, which keeps them further from the hard surfaces and makes wiping the blade easier.
BTW, my first SR was a Ralf Aust so maybe after getting used to the weight and grind of my
6/8" round point, everything else seemed a little easier.
Herr Aust makes a excellent blade. Nicely finished, great geometry, quality materials and always take a wicked edge. Put a diamond edge on it and be prepared to be amazed. Great product at a fair price. In time you will start to find that not only are sharp blades better at shaving, they are also safer.
If you think back to high school trigonometry, you can resolve any angle into two perpendicular vectors. The two we're interested in here are the direction of motion (parallel to the skin) and the direction at right angles to this pointing straight down at the skin (the normal in maths). Let's call that horizontal and vertical.
The more the blade is aligned with one of these directions, the more likely it is to cut in that direction, and vice versa.
Higher angles mean it's easier to get a "vertical" cut if you don't use very light pressure or if you touch the blade on the skin when it's not moving. On the other hand a higher angle should skip over bumps a little more easily. You might want to raise the angle a bit when you pass over a mole for example.
Shallow angles are less likely to give you a "vertical" cut and so they're more forgiving of clumsy handling. On the other hand they're much more dangerous in the horizontal direction. Anything sticking up in the way of the blade is at risk of being sliced.
The more the blade is aligned with one of these directions, the more likely it is to cut in that direction, and vice versa.
Higher angles mean it's easier to get a "vertical" cut if you don't use very light pressure or if you touch the blade on the skin when it's not moving. On the other hand a higher angle should skip over bumps a little more easily. You might want to raise the angle a bit when you pass over a mole for example.
Shallow angles are less likely to give you a "vertical" cut and so they're more forgiving of clumsy handling. On the other hand they're much more dangerous in the horizontal direction. Anything sticking up in the way of the blade is at risk of being sliced.
A common newbie mistake. A stationary blade invites problems.
I’m not sure what mine is but I don’t think it’s natural. After a while they get a bit cut up. A multipack is only a few buck at the grocery store so it’s no big deal to replace them. I then cut them to size for the sink. Sponge works well to wipe the blade as it moulds into the contours.
Close to zero pressure! Try to only remove the lather and you will be amazed at how much hair you remove.
For me the litmus test is shaving over moles. Took me a few months, but I can now shave over my moles without attracting any sharks.
For me the litmus test is shaving over moles. Took me a few months, but I can now shave over my moles without attracting any sharks.
1000+ shaves in and I do still get bit, every once in a while.
Very specific areas, usually the ones that you get complacent with like the side of my jaw with the XTG stroke from my ear to my mouth. The right way for me is to start and go halfway there, just puffing my cheeks, then I have to stretch with my free hand for the last bit to my mouth. If I go too far the skin folds and I end up with the famous red line that takes about four days to disappear. Always on my right side.
Chins are always tricky, going down, and going up ATG.
Rarely cut myself around the mouth and nose. It really hurts, so I am always careful.
Then there are moles and bumps, always risky.
Always use the smallest angle possible, flat on your face is the best whenever possible. The larger the angle the greater the aggressiveness. It's easy to cross the line between stubble cutting and skin removing
- Thread starter
- #31
That stroke under the nose at 7:55-56, that would have sliced right into my nose. I can go N-S under the nose. I wouldn't even try other directions, at least not yet. But I've only done a couple weeks of SR shaving, not 30 years.
- Thread starter
- #32
As sharp as it is right now, I think I'd be afraid to make it sharper. If this were DE, I think I'd like to go from a Feather to a Personna.
The suicide pass isn't something I would try personally. I don't even shave up with a DE.
- Thread starter
- #34
Oh, I have no problem with a DE: up, down, all around. An SR, though?
I move very carefully. The cuts I've had have been almost exclusively the instant the razor touches the skin when I bring it in for the down stroke and with the Ralf Aust.Whenever I shave under the nose ATG, I use both hands on the razor like Chimensch does for the "fool's pass" at 8:05. I would focus on WTG and XTG for a few 100 shaves if I were you. I only started attempting ATG after a year of shaving with a SR and I only tried ATG in the mustache area another 100 shaves after that. Of course, everyone has their own learning curve but you only learn from experience. Remember that not only does Chimensch have thirty years of SR daily shaving under his belt when he made this video (over ten years ago!) but that he is 100% self-taught. He had no internet, no forums, no books to guide him. He put in his time, made his mistakes and has probably seen his share of nicks and cuts. This is all part of the journey...
You will probably notice that the cuts being as clean as they are will heal faster than any other cuts that you have made before. The straight razor is good at producing clean cuts. Whenever I make a mistake and draw blood it is only regrettable that I did not achieve the shave that I was looking for, but not the actual cutting myself, as it will be a memory in one week as they heal quickly.
My only advice is to go slow and when you sense that you have cut yourself STOP. Going slow allows you the time to minimize the severity of the cut and you will most definitely learn from it. This is something that keeps teaching me new things and I have found that experience is the best teacher. I rarely make the same mistake twice, but I had to make the first mistake to know what not to do.
I think that it is far better to cut yourself with an insanely sharp Ralf Aust than to risk a duller razor. The cuts are clean but they heal nicely. You will learn from them and they will become much less common. Don't give up, the world class shaves with a straight razor cannot be matched.
My only advice is to go slow and when you sense that you have cut yourself STOP. Going slow allows you the time to minimize the severity of the cut and you will most definitely learn from it. This is something that keeps teaching me new things and I have found that experience is the best teacher. I rarely make the same mistake twice, but I had to make the first mistake to know what not to do.
I think that it is far better to cut yourself with an insanely sharp Ralf Aust than to risk a duller razor. The cuts are clean but they heal nicely. You will learn from them and they will become much less common. Don't give up, the world class shaves with a straight razor cannot be matched.
- Thread starter
- #37
Oh, I do. The moment the razor hits my face in the wrong way, well, it's like the moment you lock your keys in your car. The instant the door shuts, you know it. The instant the edge touches my face wrong, I know it and just lift it back up and say, "dad gum it!" (Or something to that effect.)
I am roughly 200 shaves in and still get cuts pretty regularly. But as others say, they heal super fast. The vast majority have stopped bleeding by the time I finish the shave. Only about once a month is the cut bad enough that I have to think about being careful in that spot the next morning.
Are they nicks or are they cuts? A nick being a small area that bleeds whereas a cut is a longer thin line that bleeds, basically a slice. I think most of us get nicks even after several hundred shaves. Cuts probably shouldn't be a regularly thing, unless your technique is particularly lacking.
There seem to many dimensions to skill or experience when it comes to SR. One of them seems to be reaction time or error recovery. As time goes by there are still many times where I catch myself about to make a consequential error of some kind and am able to catch myself and stop before I break through skin. "Ah, no" is now part of my shaving vocabulary, hopefully taking the place of "oh crap!"
