Unnecessary purchase conundrum...

[KW Driver]

well, with a straight, they require a very shallow angle, almost flat on the skin, with about a spine's width of angle. you weren't shaving, you were scraping and ruining your edge in the process. I made the same mistake when I transitioned, by starting with a 30 degree angle.

 

[Esox]

you weren't shaving, you were scraping and ruining your edge in the process.

Thats exactly what I was doing. At a shallower angle the tugging only increased.

I think of my Grande as a straight with a training wheel, the cap. I use it far shallower than many seem to think you can, which works out to about the same angle of blade to skin as with the MMOC or I assume, a properly honed straight. The red line in the picture below being the level of my skin with the cap pushed into it.

Using the Boker at that angle it was like using a manual epilator and plucking the hairs out. It was honed to 8k on a natural stone then stropped on leather.

See this post for that shave. Scroll up two posts to see the razors.

Well..

Boker Straight.

Midnight & Two The Coast

Maggard synthetic.

50 hours since last shave.

I loaded my brush and face lathered. This soap is going to take some dialing in so I wont go into it too deeply yet.

Three swipes over my right cheek WTG with the Boker and all was well. No blood, very slight tugging. Repeat left side and no issues. My confidence was rising lol. As soon as I got to my jawline and trying to shave under it XTG the razor stopped. Line up again and shave with a bit more confidence and tugging. A, lot, of, tugging.

I played with angles and the only time it wouldnt tug was with the blade nearly 90° to my skin. It shaved though, smoothly and loudly if not closely.

I did all of the first pass with it except around my chin and upper lip, mostly steep to limit the tugging and had a mediocre first pass. Just by chance, my Single Ring happened to have a fresh Yellow loaded in it so thats what I finished with.

Damn nice shave too I might add.

This Boker may treetop my arm hair but my whiskers and arm hair are apparently very different lol.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

My Grande is, by far, my best DE. My razor quest has ended at the MMOC and PTFE blades. I generally shave with both directly ATG first pass every 48 hours. My Grande and a Polsilver gives me a 12 hour BBS. My MMOC gives me, typically, a 14 hour BBS but as long as almost 19.

I've tried an old Boker straight that would easily tree top my arm hair 1/4" or so off my skin, but I could barely shave with it. It was very tuggy and I had to use it at a near 90° angle, but I did finish one pass.

Straights are in a rabbit hole I'd rather not dive into. If I was 20 or so years younger and had the desire to hone, strop and maintain them, I'd have an Ed Brice ...or two.

I'm learning vicariously through Jim @Chan Eil Whiskers as he's learning and becoming quite adept at the entire process. I do find it very interesting, I like blades.

One SR shave (and maybe a dozen or three) isn't enough to assess the straight, but I get it that SR shaving is a huge rabbit hole.

Only fools and crazy people and those for who nothing else works should even consider the straight razor.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Esox]

One SR shave (and maybe a dozen or three) isn't enough to assess the straight, but I get it that SR shaving is a huge rabbit hole.

Far too deep for me, but I enjoy peering over the edge of yours lol.

 

[SrpkDeKhin]

No one would like to sell their vintage razors in cheap prices for ASEAN countries?? If you can then PM me.