Audiolab's Straight Shave Diary

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Thought I would make a little record of my experiences in straight shaving.

Day 1

I lathered up with some DR Harris Marlborough soap and then with slight trepidation I opened my new straight razor (in my avatar), and proceeded to hold in the previously well practised position. I seem to prefer the three finger approach, I lightly rested the backbone of the blade against my cheek and stretched the skin with my other hand.

I then brought the blade to a shallow angle (around 20 degrees) and moved it down my cheek. The first stroke was bumpy, the razor seemed to skip and that frightened the crap out of me. I think the blade is so sharp it is almost sticky, and I was too scared to apply even the slightest pressure. I worked my way slowly across the cheek, only skipping occasionally and it greatly improved as I went. On completion I found that the end result was very patchy, while some sections were unshaved other parts were nice and clean, clearly better towards the end, I guess I need some more practise but made it without incident.

At that point I relathered and did a normal three pass shave with my de then lathered up once more and got the straight back out. This worked really well, having a days growth I was a little scared to hold it firmly (no pressure just a nice grip on the razor). But on a clean shaved face it allowed me to just slide the blade across my face with no resistance, no skipping and much less fear. I was getting a little lost in the moment of it all, happy that it was not skipping and was concentrating the angle and the contact point on the cheek, I was happy.

I wasn’t watching the end of the blade and managed to nick my ear, which really stung. It wasn’t a bad cut but the blade just went through it like butter. In some way this is a testament to the honemeister (Neil Miller) who I bought the blade from. The razor is lovely to use and after the first use I am sure we will get along fine. I asked Neil for a good condition beginners razor and that is exactly what I got, at a great price. It is a little less than 5/8 but is nice and light and the rounded tip should minimise how often I cut my ears :lol:

My wife found it funny that I didn't get a shaving cut on my face but cut my ear, "You shave your face dear not your ears" but her first aid kit was wasted so I think this was a slight disappointment on her part.

To be continued.
 
strange about the blade feeling sticky, i thought the same, neil says that will go by about the 3rd shave and he was right.
As for the cut isnt it worring that it went through that easy? the dig outta my cheek was the same, took my eye of the blade for one second and it bit back.I found a bam good stropping helped the sticky blade.
However a couple of stellas last night and had an almost bbs shave no need for a clean up with the fatboy, a couple off stellas and a straight razor, not a good combiation but it worked. :mrgreen:
 
Audio

I think like most of the troops on these forums secretly, or like myself upfront about it, desperate to try a straight. What puts me off is learning to hone the thing, would quite enjoy the stropping though. Keep up the posts, find it fascinating.

Rangers62
Been stropping since 1974 :oops:
 
I really want to try a straight but TBH I know the novelty of maintenance would soon wear off. More importantly, the wife has told me in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to get one. :oops:
 
I use a straight on Sundays, and when I've got a late start to the day. I love the experience and I'm still learning. I was very intimidated by the whole honing thing, but I watched some tutorials on using diamond lapping film to hone and managed to get it straight away! A word of advice would be to try get your hands on a cheapie to practise on. I wouldn't try honing a brand new Dovo if I'd never done it before. :? I dont own a strop. An old thick belt of my wife's is doing the job just fine thanks! :mrgreen:
 
To be honest I am not even thinking about honing just now. This razor should be good for up to 6 months dependant on how well I pick up stropping. At that point I will know if I want to take it further, if I do I will examine the options at that time.

It is perfectly acceptable to own a few straights and send them away got get honed. £10-£20 every six months is not a huge expense but Neil has said he will help guide me if I decide to go down the route of learning honing. I like small intricate work and I would not mind spending an afternoon working on a blade.

It is learning the right products to use, knowing when to use them and probably more importantly how to recognise when enough has been done and stop. That is what I think I will struggle with. I sharpen my home knives with a stone so I have the basic principles and hopefully this would help a little.

Will I want to? I don't know but as Rangers62 said I have been dying to try this for ages and I NEED to know if it is for me. If I like it that much and struggle with honing I might consider seeking out someone to give me a half day or day instruction to get me off the ground. But as I said that is all in the future for me and if at that point I can't be bothered with the effort I will probably sell it or keep it for occasional use and get it honed every six months or so.

Today’s shave is an evening shave so not done it yet. Update to follow.
 
:shave mine too audio, a late shave around 9 ish, after top gear :cool: as for honing at £11.0 a go eavery 6 to 12 month is what neil recones deppending on stop tech, i will just drop mine into him.Have you sent neil an invite audio?
 
Day 2

Decided to go for an evening shave, after Top Gear in fact, I performed my usual prep this time with some Proraso pre shave before Top Gear started. Then when I went to shave I had a good rinse with lots of hot water.

I lathered up with DR Harris Marlborough and this time instead of pussyfooting about I just put the blade to my face and ran it down my face slowly bringing the angle down till I got the cutting noise and continued down my cheek. This time instead of being patchy it was just a crap shave, but evenly crap. This is an improvement because this means I am becoming more consistent in my use of the blade, I am cutting wider areas and learning a little about the different way you need to stretch the skin as opposed to DE shaving. I am using a mush shallower angle at this point (around 20 degrees) so an even but crap shave is expected and in fact is just what I hoped for at this point.

I did shave both cheeks right down to the jawbone and my chin. What I have noted is that I need to do some work in my grip. I shave with the one hand, my left hand, and that works OK with DE shaving. I am struggling shaving the right side of my face using my left hand, the grip is all wrong and I think the only way round this is learn to shave the right hand side of my face with my right hand. I have started DE shaving the right hand side of my face with my right hand but it is weird for me and is going to take time to gain the agility in my less dominant hand to complete this easily but I will get there.

So much improved, I am learning where I need to work and did not slice my ear so I felt I accomplished something. I may stick to evening shaves while I practise this. One obvious tip here is do not try to learn to straight shave against a clock in the morning.

To be continued....
 
That's it Audio - take your time! You have to feel relaxed or else skip it altogether. A good time is after a shower - the hot water and steam help soften your beard. And the skin stretching is all important, especially when you go against the grain. You will find that the most satisfying finish is going with the grain, relathering and going against the grain, then lathering again and going against the grain. The against the grain bit takes a long time to master - best to refrain from it altogether for a while or you might put yourself off. At first just concentrate on the cheeks - finish the rest with a DE or whatever.

The razor should reach optimal after about three good shaves - good stropping technique permitting. The "grabbiness" or "stickiness" will go away and lead to a smoother shave. There are ways to get it to that condition first - a whole lot of stropping will do it, as will a stropping on a strop or paddle coated with chrome oxide - but that involves the additional expense of another strop or paddle - you don't want to put pastes or powders on your regular strop. Also, if you are just atarting out with a shave-ready razor, you don't really want to risk rolling the edge by stropping - best to suffer the grabbiness and shave before stropping, then you have a benchmark.

The diamond lapping film gives good results, but in my opinion (and its only my opinion) it increases the harshness of the edge - like it is almost too sharp. Too sharp an edge means an incredibly thin, delicate edge, and with some steels prone to micro-chipping that can prove uncomfortable and lead to alot of weepers and red bumps. Again, a good stropping or chrome oxide is the remedy. Even the choice of honing stone can drastically change the results. For instance, a lot of people use a yellow belgian coticule - it doesn't always give a good result on the hanging-hair test (HHT) but gives a smooth shave. You have to work out what is best for your own skin.

The angle is a deciding factor, too. A good way to start is just to lay the blade flat against your cheek, then lift it slightly (like Audio has found, 15 - 20 degrees is good) - if the angle isn't spot on the blade will either dig in or skip. I guess skipping is better! Like anything else, it just takes time. Then all of a sudden its second nature. You just can't expect the whole deal straight away - I bet even JImi Hendrix played a few bum notes on that stratocaster (and yes, I do know that 1. that ages me, and that 2. some people think he only played bum notes on that strat!).
 
Neil & Audio
I am finding this fascinating. Neil, it has suddenly struck me, before Mr Gillette came up with his product, (marketing genius, buy or get the razor for just about free ,but, it only works with his blades) did every callow youth have to learn this? No wonder beards were popular ;)

Russell
 
I read a book a while ago that was supposed to be a true history of shaving, but some of the things in it had me rolling about laughing. The author reckoned that early man was annoyed about getting food in beard, etc, but didn't know what to do about about - until one unfortunate chap leant too close to the cooking fire and his beard went up in flames. That allegedly started a craze of setting fire to one's face. Talk about razor burn - this was the real thing. An improvement was nice sharp sea-shells. f you were prepared to go without the luxury of an epidermis, scraping with shells replaced the old-fangled method of beard burning. I bet they would have died for a nice sharp bit of sheffield steel! The next advancement was tweezers, rudely fashioned from the cleft of a small tree branch. Grab facial hair with tweezers and pull. Preparation was all important - a good stiff draught of home-brew was called for, but as this luxury was far off in the future gritting the teeth had to suffice. They were real men in those days, and they had it hard.

In Monty Python's words - you try telling that to the young people of today, and they won't believe you!
 
I make neil right from the 5th shave the razor felt smooth, last night was shave number 11,
Still struggling a little under nose. But chin and kneck almost perfect once again no need for a
Clean up with the fatboy, at actually gathering dust lol. Oh and only one little weeper from the dig outta
My cheek that I did last week,opps.
 
Interesting reading guys, I am sure this will prove very useful to the straight users.
 
Thanks Neil and everyone for the comments.

It is funny how the things you don't even consider are the things that present the challenges. I really thought I would find the "feel of the steel" worrying. I thought knowing there is a very sharp blade on my cheek with no safety guard would be the thing that I would panic about, I have found that this not the case, I actually find the feel of the blade comforting, it's pull across the face is very smooth, this is contradicted in your head because your ears hear the cutting but if you could not hear the scratching noise of hair getting sliced and just felt what was coming back along the blade to your hand it is very silky.

Really hard to explain, closest thing I can think of is the Futur DE, it makes a good cutting noise because of the cap design (I think) but take away the almost amplified noise and your hand does not feel the noise it is a smooth pull through the stroke. Your head hears the noise and you think you feel it but you dont. It is exactly like that with the straight, sounds like drawing something slowly across sandpaper but the reality is that is is noise just that .

I tried to take the time to explain that to get across one point. The senses are all screwed up, if you smell stuff you sometimes taste it even though none of it has been in your mouth, if you hear something you will sometimes think you feel it. That first swipe with the straight may have you thinking "holy crap" but disconnect your feeling from your hearing if you can and just try to feel the resistance in your hand.

Neil, I totally agree with you, I am not going to try to loose the sticky edge, it is happening on its own, another shave or two and I believe the blade will be optimal. This will leave me with a good benchmark for what I want to return to when stropping. I have heard that over sharpening at the wrong angle can leave the edge too thin, almost like like tin foil and therefore very prone to nicking leaving a rough edge.

It is exactly that part that of honing that makes the difference of someone who can use a sharpening stone to sharpen a knife to cut fruit and veg (like me). And someone who knows what edge they want to get and what combinations of materials and methods to use in achieving that edge. The biggest point I imagine for would be how to recognise it when you have done enough and should stop. I am very much a "another few strokes" kind of person when sharpening kitchen knives. thankfully I do not need to worry about that for now.

It is an interesting and enjoyable journey,

Todays conclusion - I had watched lots of you tube videos before starting. I am no expert but as with the DE videos some are total bollocks and other are realistic. It is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff and again as with DE do not always take what you see (even if correct) to mean that it will be correct for you. You will need to adapt to your own needs and routine. That is what I like, it is not a one size fits all this is true for both DE or straight shaving.you need to find what works for you and only you can discover that.

Onwards, to be updated after tonights shave.
 
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