SMF

I'm unclear what you do between the first and second passes. Do you just pick the brush up and start lathering for the second pass, and the lather is getting watery just sitting there? Or do you wash the brush and build a new lather from scratch? Or do you dip the tips of the brush in the sink and r...

To me it both smells and shaves like Elmer's glue. But to each his own...

If I slide the razor flat on my face it seems to get stuck in the lather. Are you using a wedge or quarter hollow? This tends to happen with those grinds (and is sometimes touted as a feature by fans of those grinds). Hold the spine just off the skin and it won't stick. Don't worry too much about t...

Flat against the face (or nearly so) is how I do it. The sharper the blade is, the flatter you can use it without discomfort. This allows me to use the angle as an indicator for how sharp the blade is. If you use the same razor day after day it can be difficult to "feel" how sharp the blad...

They probably could, but you would need an appropriate holder that would maintain proper edge geometry while honing and stropping, similar to the Heljestrand holder.

There were a variety of safety razors that used permanent (or semi-permanent) blades, like the Rolls razor, the Heljestrand safety razor, and a few others. The Rolls razor had a strop and hone in a box that take most of the necessity for honing and stropping skill out of the equation, just run the r...

It's much easier to keep one razor shaving well than it is to keep many of them shaving well, easier than you would think from looking at the numbers. I don't think it's a coincidence that the stories we hear from more experienced members of honing a razor once a year or every other year all involve...

I've been using one of these strops exclusively for almost 2 months and while it has become shiny, it's as supple as the first day I got it. Same here. Actually mine was shiny when it arrived (being cordovan and all) and hasn't gotten any shinier nor lost any of its softness or suppleness. Really g...

Interesting. I love the way O1 shaves but my concern is it rusts easily.

I wonder what possessed Zowada to get into the low end market?

I really wish he would figure out how to do full hollows like Dovo, TI, and Wacker manage to make. Not even Livi does singing hollows.

The chinese is a decent little razor, but not a great one by any means but it will get the job done. At this stage of the game the biggest factor is your lack of experience rather than the tools. Stropping correctly before that first shave will improve it noticeably, however the key is *correctly*. ...

That first shave is a real puckerer for sure. Like Chris, I find I get fewer nicks and burn with a straight than a safety razor now that I've mastered the straight. I suspect the "safety" aspect was more important back when corrected vision and artificial illumination were less common than...

Smooth and sharp. The two are almost interchangeable once you get above about 4k grit anyway. The main exception would be 0.5 chrome oxide and 0.5 micron diamond where the diamond produces a somewhat sharper edge but less polished bevel. Longevity has far more to do with stropping than the hone; I'v...

I regularly clean my strops with a boar brush and shaving lather, which helps keep them conditioned and drawing smoothly.

I got a Maruka Nakayama Asagi with kamisori stamps from So about a year ago, and agree that it's in roughly the same ballpark as the S30k both performance and price wise. However, both of these hones are much more expensive than a pasted paddle, while not achieving the level of performance available...

I've got a pretty full set of shaptons (1k-30k) and they do a bang-up job; as Chris said the 15k, 16k, and 30k hones will put a much finer edge than a coticule, and if you get the 4k, 8k, 16k, and 30k you'll find that they seem to work well together - you need very few laps going from stone to stone...

Straights are like sex, in that you can read about it all you want but it doesn't really prepare you for actually doing it - the first time just tends to be awkward and fumbling and not particularly satisfying. But it gets better quickly.

shavedhead wrote:I ordered a custom made straight razor...

You plunked for a custom razor as your first straight razor???

shavedhead wrote:I was wondering if there is a considerable difference between a straight razor shave and a DE?

It's a little late to be worrying about it now...

The only reason I can think of to have a lock open feature on a razor is that it becomes more usable as a weapon. No thanks. Lock-open seems very useful when honing and stropping. Razors are pretty marginal as weapons, lock-open or not. Even with knives you don't need lock-open for slicing, only fo...

Are you using that on the linen, Michael? If so it is rather like the way I have used TI paste (but that has diamond in as well). Yes this is on the linen. The hardware store stick looks a bit like the TI stick, but it's much finer. I'm not really sure what the grit rating is, or even if it really ...

The "tugging" should be no more than you'd get just rubbing your hand against your face. But it may not be like that at first just because the technique is so different from a DE and a lot has to go right to get a great shave. Stropping is a big one, and hopefully this new experiment will ...