Still not getting a close shave.

[Rick Sparks]

I've just gotten a couple of razors honed by two of our resident hone-meisters, so I know that the razor isn't to blame. I'm not cutting myself, and I'm pretty sure my angle is at least close to 30º. I've just read the shaving instructions (I always do things first and read the instructions afterward, doesn't everybody?) and maybe I'm not stretching my skin enough. But I'm feeling kind of discouraged. I know you're not supposed to go back and touch up with a DE if you don't get a good shave with a straight, but I can't call on clients looking scruffy. Well, can't isn't the right word. Won't.

If anybody has any advice or encouragement, I could use some.

 

[Chimensch]

Are you only shaving WTG? To get a close shave you will have to at least do a pass XTG and even ATG. Where are you with that?

 

[holiday]

Well I'm definitely in no way experienced enough to be giving advice, I'm only 5 shaves in but getting a good shave way better than with a DE, especially on the neck & chin area. Still getting a few nicks though. I found that holding the razor fairly flat against the skin helped me go from 3 rough as hell shaves to 2 great shaves with no irritation.
I think it being my first 2 shaves with Tabac may have helped

 

[BEAR DEN]

I've been str8 razor shaving between 8-9 months and I feel like I just begun. Like you I tried to not reach for the safety razor for touch up...if you do it will only take longer to learn how to get those seemingly impossible areas. Like you I did, pretty much when it was necessary. I now get much better shaves then with any safety razor. As of to date I am only confident in giving advice for 3 things for a better str8 razor shave that have helped me.
1. I now know what shave ready is for me. The more hollow ground the razor the less forgiving the razor was for me if my technique was off. (If my face or head has to be nick free for work or going out with my wife I would opt for less hollow razor.)
2. I am very confident of my stropping technique. It did take practice but it seems to have fallen in place. Now once the razor is shave ready for me it is very easy to maintain with stropping and at the very most a few passes on a finishing stone.
3. I never got a good shave until I maped my face and stretch accordingly. I stretch my skin so the whiskers are more exposed and lightly pass over them ATG. For me 1 pass is needed with touch up after. With a safety I almost always did 3 passes.
Other than these 3 things I feel like a total Newbie...don't give up it will eventually click and that's a great feeling

 

[Rick Sparks]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'm doing WTG, then XTG. A few tentative attempts at ATG let me know I'm not ready for that yet. I'm not confident about my stropping technique, so I haven't stropped either of the razors I'm using, but since I've shaved with each of them once now I guess I'll have to give that a go. I'm guessing that I need to be putting a lot more attention into stretching my skin taut. I'll see how it goes in the morning.

 

[AFDavis11]

Strop, strop, strop . . . and put a shaving edge on those sharp little bad boys.


after you get done with that . . . strop.

 

[alexo]

Today I test shaved my knees and arms with no problem so that told me my razors are fine but still, shaving my face didn't smooth enough until I found I looked at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrP2T8phbwM

It has lots of closeups and I found I was scraping my hair, partially out of fear, instead of having enough pressure that will cut the hair close enough to the skin. The last part of my face became much smoother afterwards so I guess I took "light touch" to the extreme.

I hope this video can help you too.

 

[Rick Sparks]

Strop, strop, strop . . . and put a shaving edge on those sharp little bad boys.


after you get done with that . . . strop.

So, let me get this straight; I should strop?

 

[ambrose]

You cant shave straight with out a strop, you will deteriorate your edge very fast with out one.

 

[Rick Sparks]

You cant shave straight with out a strop, you will deteriorate your edge very fast with out one.

I was just being funny. I have an Illinois leather/linen strop which I'm probably not really using properly, but I'm a-tryin'!

 

[Rick Sparks]

Today I test shaved my knees and arms with no problem so that told me my razors are fine but still, shaving my face didn't smooth enough until I found I looked at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrP2T8phbwM

It has lots of closeups and I found I was scraping my hair, partially out of fear, instead of having enough pressure that will cut the hair close enough to the skin. The last part of my face became much smoother afterwards so I guess I took "light touch" to the extreme.

I hope this video can help you too.

Just watched both videos. Man that is one heck of a lot of lathering! But I'm going to try and put what I think I learned into practice. Thanks for the pointer!

 

[ambrose]

I was just being funny. I have an Illinois leather/linen strop which I'm probably not really using properly, but I'm a-tryin'!

ahh ok then strop it up sir