My start with straights, a few questions..

FrenchBlade

FrenchBlade

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South of France
A fine gentleman from Sweden has sent me a shave ready straight (honed by Neil) and a strop, so no more excuses..

Just a few questions (I sent him a PM, but since he's not "online" I thought I'd post the gist of it here)

1.) The razor is well oiled, to preserve the blade, do I wipe it all off before I strop it?
2.) What side of the strop do I use, it's got a linnen, and a leather side?
3.) Strop before and after, I presume? How many passes?
4.) Strop paste, do I need it?
5.) When I finish with it, do I oil it again? If so, with what? (Olive oil, sunflower, baby oil..)
6.) When shaving, I've seen people wipe the blade on a sponge between passes, is this the way to do it?

Just want to make sure I do it right :D

Thanks guys, just want to make sure I bleed to death doing it right!

Max
 
Unfortunatly i cannot answer any of those questions but good luck!

I would love to have the nerve to try, but i start shaking just thinking about it. :lol:
 
When I was in your position Max I found the top three stickies in this section answered the majority of my questions. That combined with a search on you tube, and a browse of Straight Razor Place etc where there's some great FAQ's will set you off in the right direction.

My main advice would be keep the skin nice and tight and don't press too hard, and just try one bit of your face each day and don't try and run before you can walk.

Good luck!
 
Hello mate

Forget 1-6.

Only one rule;

1. Don't do this
images

;)
 
Might be worth checking with Mikeal first but I imagine the blade is probably shave ready meaning you can shave without stropping first. Idea being that you can feel how nice the edge of a real straight can be before you shit all over it with crappy stropping. I'd just wipe off the oil and shave.

I don't have a linen side to my strop and get on just fine. If you are using it go for linen first then leather, people tend to do more strokes on the leather - maybe 20 on the linen and 30-50 on the leather. The linen is just a little rougher than the leather. Yeah, strop before and after. Strop paste - no you don't need it. If Neil's honed it you should be able to get loads of shaves before needing a touch up, if you're careful with the stropping.
I don't oil mine, just dry it well and a few quick strops after each shave.
I use either a sponge or a facecloth to wipe the balde when shaving, others hold it under a running tap.

I've found alum really helpful, rub your fingers on it and slippery, soapy fingers suddenly gain traction.
 
I´m happy it arrived safetly! :D What th eother has said + I answeared your PM now. You should be fine. Take it slow, stretch the skin and be _light_ on hand. Everyone used them a couple of years ago, you´ll be fine.
 
My answers to your questions:
First off...try to go for 30-40 CORRECT blade stropping's...linen and canvas or which ever side...youtube.com has ALOT of ways to do everything with a straight razor
1. NO..dont wipe off the oil..rinse under hot water..you will see the shine in the blade and know its clean to use by wiping it after hot rinsing
2. It's a little mixed..depends on the personal opinion..some say with linen removing the debre first before aligning the edge and making it a bit sharper is preferred..but eitherway..in the long run..doesnt matter
3. YES..strop before your razor is used and after..ALWAYS keep in mind..to keep your razor as sharp as often as you can will lead to NO nicks n cuts when the razor is "wielded" properly

4. I have strop paste..green in fact..liquid..if your razor starts to pull and get dull even after stropping..Green Chromium Oxide paste can re sharpen the edge but if it still doesnt work...then hone/send out for a re hone by a professional you trust

5. When finished stropping the blade after use..I personally rinse under water and wipe VERY WELL with a towel and in between the scales with as Q-Tip...then....just put it away in its proper box/razor stand..etc..
6. There is NO 1 way to wipe the creme off your blade..I use a Sham Wow towel that absorbs the water well..some people use a big round sponge..up to you ..no science degree is needed to figure out :lol:
BTW: A straight razor is about allowing the blade to match the curves of your face while keep the skin "straight"
Keep the angle at 30 dergees on your cheeks and under your neck area...and about 15 degrees on your upper/lower lips..try to keep the skin as "taught" as possible and YES you can over stretch and cut yourself good as one guy did...slow n steady..ALWAYS wins the race!

Blades

FrenchBlade said:
A fine gentleman from Sweden has sent me a shave ready straight (honed by Neil) and a strop, so no more excuses..

Just a few questions (I sent him a PM, but since he's not "online" I thought I'd post the gist of it here)

1.) The razor is well oiled, to preserve the blade, do I wipe it all off before I strop it?
2.) What side of the strop do I use, it's got a linnen, and a leather side?
3.) Strop before and after, I presume? How many passes?
4.) Strop paste, do I need it?
5.) When I finish with it, do I oil it again? If so, with what? (Olive oil, sunflower, baby oil..)
6.) When shaving, I've seen people wipe the blade on a sponge between passes, is this the way to do it?

Just want to make sure I do it right :D

Thanks guys, just want to make sure I bleed to death doing it right!

Max
Click to expand...
 
Hi Max,

You'll get loads of good advice from the lads here. I tried straights, and despite a wealth of encouragement and advice, I couldn't get it right and threw in the (hot) towel.

Even after 2 abortive sessions, I still get the urge to try again when I see pictures on here of some of the beautiful straight razors.

Good luck.

Ian
 
Well, I'm no straight shaver virgin no more!

Only a few minor nicks, no more than I would get with a DE, a pretty good shave, just the round part of the chin is far from perfect. (but that part usually troubles me with a DE too)
I decided not to touch up with the DE, since it's good enough for me :D

I did find myself at a few moments not knowing how to hold the bugger!, but I managed.

This experiment will be repeated tomorrow!

Thanks for all the advice guys :D

Max
 
Well, that's all of your questions answered, Max, but I thought I'd expand on the sponge a bit. A while ago a chap known as Chimensch on the forums produced a very good shaving video to celebrate 30 years of using a straight. (I recommend that one highly ...) In it he wipes his razor on a small round pink sponge, and inevitably any number of people picked up on that, myself included, and there was a fair bit of comment about it over on SRP including, and I kid you not, someone wanting to know where he could get a sponge just like the one in the video. It's a good way of clearing the lather off the blade, and my little fragment of wisdom on this matter is that natural sponges seem to be better, because for some reason they don't get hacked to pieces as easily as the man made ones.
 
In the beginning use a DE/whatever to touch up til your face "adjusts" to the new blade and you can figure how to maneuver your straight how you want to

B
 
Well done Max sounds like an excellent start, it took me about 20 shaves to get to a point where I felt I was starting to get the hand of it.

Learning how to hold the razor and angle of attack takes some getting used to, you will build muscle memory and what feels alien will become natural.

Stropping is a matter of finding what works best, I do at least 30 linen then 60 leather before a shave then 20 linen after a shave, one stroke is of course both sides of the razor i.e. up and down.

Just to add to Blades response abrasive pastes should never be applied to your everyday strop a separate strop should be used for that.
 
Welcome to the club my friend. Considering there's 2 pages already I'm sure it's been answered but I'll provide what I do with mine:

FrenchBlade said:
A fine gentleman from Sweden has sent me a shave ready straight (honed by Neil) and a strop, so no more excuses..

Just a few questions (I sent him a PM, but since he's not "online" I thought I'd post the gist of it here)

1.) The razor is well oiled, to preserve the blade, do I wipe it all off before I strop it?
Preference. Either wipe with toilet paper or go for straight shave
2.) What side of the strop do I use, it's got a linnen, and a leather side?
Leather is for general up keep and linen, fabric etc... are used before the strop-with much less strokes ie 20 linen and 40 on strop. Some have expensive strops used after generic strop for finishing touches.
3.) Strop before and after, I presume? How many passes?
Preference but 30-40 passes. I strop before and after but that's just out of habit.
4.) Strop paste, do I need it?
Preference. Some use chrome oxide. Noobs who don't know how to use it can easily destroy a shaveready straight within seconds. I've seen others post "I shaved yesterday I got BBS skin now it doesn't perform what happened?" I stick to plain strop. Have no plans to using paste, chrome or any other films. But that's just me
5.) When I finish with it, do I oil it again? If so, with what? (Olive oil, sunflower, baby oil..)
I use Camellia Oil. The Japanese use this to moisturise skin. So you can probably get away with using baby oil. Mineral oil, tsukuba oil ( pricey ) but works. If you plan to store it, yes oil it. But if you use it every other day it's not necessary. So long as you properly wipe it down so that there's no moisture buildup you're ok. You don't want blade to oxidise.
6.) When shaving, I've seen people wipe the blade on a sponge between passes, is this the way to do it?
Matter of preference. My bro uses paper towel. I rinse under hot water and go for another pass.
Just want to make sure I do it right :D

Thanks guys, just want to make sure I bleed to death doing it right!

Max
Click to expand...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIM0Coix6Gg[/youtube]
 
IanM said:
Hi Max,

You'll get loads of good advice from the lads here. I tried straights, and despite a wealth of encouragement and advice, I couldn't get it right and threw in the (hot) towel.

Even after 2 abortive sessions, I still get the urge to try again when I see pictures on here of some of the beautiful straight razors.

Good luck.

Ian
Click to expand...

You are missing out Ian. Might want to give it a try a third time. See how that goes.
 
SiR-ed8 said:
IanM said:
Hi Max,

You'll get loads of good advice from the lads here. I tried straights, and despite a wealth of encouragement and advice, I couldn't get it right and threw in the (hot) towel.

Even after 2 abortive sessions, I still get the urge to try again when I see pictures on here of some of the beautiful straight razors.

Good luck.

Ian
Click to expand...

You are missing out Ian. Might want to give it a try a third time. See how that goes.
Click to expand...

I don't thimk we even need to encourage Ian, he'll snap. It's just a question of time.
 
It's funny though, going from cartridge to DE was really learning to shave again, and now on to straights, it's a new learning curve. It's good fun though ;)

SiR-ed8 & Arrowhead, I saw that video a while ago, I think on the UK importers site for Theirs, no?
He makes it look so easy... :roll: One day I can be just like him, I by then I haven't developped parkinsons, or someone else shaves me while I'm in nappies (I'll be 84 in 50 years time)..
I hope to get that proficient before then though..

Max
 
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