I've been wanting to start a journal for awhile now, but never knew what to say so I'm just going to ramble on about whatever and see where it takes us. I started out with a vintage Military Weck Sextoblade, I didn't have to strop and hone and maintain the razor, I could just swap the blade and continue on with my day. Seemed like a good gig, until I started watching @BarberDave and @thecajunblade on youtube. I started watching quite a few straight shavers on YouTube to learn tips, tricks and techniques From there the decent down the rabbit hole began. I held on for awhile but in the end I fell. I bought a straight off ebay, and some shapton rockstars to go with it. I'm also on a couple bids for shave ready straights from an ebay store that was recommended. As of right now the Weck is my only usable straight razor, but hopefully I can get one of the shave ready razors, at least then I'd have something better to compare my honing attempts to.
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Down the rabbit hole
- Thread starter DamascusSteel
- Start date
The Rabbit hole is deep, but never gets lonely. Welcome in, if I can help in any way shoot me a message.
Today's Weck shave was mediocre, I'm not going to take 100% of the blame though. I knew this blade was nearing the end of its usability but wanted to use it one last time. The with the grain pass left behind more than usual, and the across the grain pass had some areas where the blade would stop and skip. I made an attempt on an against the grain pass and decided against it. On my across the grain pass not sure how it happened i felt like I knew where the toe was and felt the angle was correct, but the toe got me a nice little cut on my cheek. 
supertrunker
Shave Member
I'd say that's about typical. My notes using a Personna in a sextoblade say 'shave 7 - feels sharp enough for a WTG', and then it was pitched before shave 8.
i only shave twice a week, so maybe they hold up better for daily shavers, but i have similar results with DE shavettes and the blades are on a downward trajectory at about shave 7. It's quite empowering the damage that a bit of tough old beard and my dodgy technique can inflict on steel!
T
i only shave twice a week, so maybe they hold up better for daily shavers, but i have similar results with DE shavettes and the blades are on a downward trajectory at about shave 7. It's quite empowering the damage that a bit of tough old beard and my dodgy technique can inflict on steel!
T
@supertrunker that seems to track with my experience as well, around shave 8 i really start to notice the blade is quite worn. My next blade I'll keep a track of in my notes, I've been using personnas, and I've used one Diane blade. I'm curious to see if one brand tends to last longer than others.
I learned something today; I have a stick of Arko that I use as a shave stick, and one that I mashed into a puck in an old soap container. For the last few months I've been using the Arko that I mashed into a puck, well today I decided to use the stick. What I realized was the stick gave me a very noticeably slicker shave. Arko is already a very slick soap and tends to get me in trouble because I start really going for that BBS which is almost impossible on my neck because my hair grows in every direction. A true against the grain pass is left and right across my Adam's apple, I haven't figured out how to do that without drawing blood. But everytime I use arko I feel like I can do it. It's like Arko gives me wings.
Arko is a staple
A little something made it's way to my house from Japan.
Used my Geneva Cutlery for the first time today. I honed it on my Shapton Rockstars 2k, 6k and finished on the 10k. I spent a few minutes on my Rosetta stone for the true finish. I think i could have spent a few more minutes on the bevel set, it shaved but it was a little pully. Especially around my chin where my hair grows the quickest. I did not attempt a second pass since it was pulling on the first. I call this a success for my first time honing. I will be honest with you all, it felt a lot easier shaving with this Geneva Cutlery over the Weck Sextoblade. I assume that with the Weck being stainless all around and heavier your technique needs to be more on point. I noticed with the weck it real easy to get heavy handed.
After another attempt at rehoning the geneva cutlery the shave was definitely better but not quite there yet, still some tugging around the chin area where my hair is the thickest. Will try again sometime this week and give it another test shave. 
I bought 2 razors recently and they came in yesterday. I had 1 razor honed on coticule and the other on Jnats. I used the coticule hone this morning and it was a great shave. Near BBS all 3 passes done, no nicks or cuts, my usual trouble spot beside my Adam's apple needed a touch up which I did with a DE.
It was nice to use a properly honed razor because now I have something to compare my own honing too. I got these razors from @thecajunblade and he put a wonderful edge on these razors, looking forward to using the Jnat edge next week, I'm going to use the coticule edge all this week.
Im terrible at keeping count of my straight shaves, Id say im around 20 - 30 shaves. So ill split the difference and set a hard number at 25. If you havent tried the Oud wild soap yet you need too its wonderful.
It was nice to use a properly honed razor because now I have something to compare my own honing too. I got these razors from @thecajunblade and he put a wonderful edge on these razors, looking forward to using the Jnat edge next week, I'm going to use the coticule edge all this week.
Im terrible at keeping count of my straight shaves, Id say im around 20 - 30 shaves. So ill split the difference and set a hard number at 25. If you havent tried the Oud wild soap yet you need too its wonderful.
I have forgotten to mention that I have been stropping my razors on a newspaper strop and a denim strop. They are clamped to my work bench
but it seems to work well. Can't beat a strop that only cost 50 cents, and a Sunday newspaper might last a person a whole lifetime
but it seems to work well. Can't beat a strop that only cost 50 cents, and a Sunday newspaper might last a person a whole lifetimeUsed the coticule honed razor again this morning and a DFS shave BBS on the cheeks. A good shave not as good as yesterday. Gave myself a small cut on my chin trying to do the against the grain pass, my chin seems to really be my trouble spot. Eventually I'll figure out how to do it. Shave #26 with an open blade. A traditional straight razor has been better and easier for me than the Weck was, I'll bring the Weck back out in a week or so and see if it's any easier.
Nurses always ask such important questions!
