This was my first journal post in another forum that I posted on Dec. 9, 2014.
As it was suggested several times, I thought that I would start journaling my progress with the straight. I am not real good about thinking to do this type of thing, but always when I have taken the time in the past with other aspects of my life, journaling always proved to be revealing.
In recent history, I have had a fascination for all things sharp. I have gotten back into knives in a pretty big way, and probably own around 100 that I have acquired over the past 5 years. In the last year, all of my acquisitions were hand made. I am well set up with Japanese synthetic hones for my knife sharpening, and was glad to hear that the hones that I already own are often applied to straight razors very successfully.
I am 57 y.o., and I learned to shave on a DE razor as a hand me down back in the early 1970s. After going to Paris Island in 1976, I switched to cartridge razors as they were the only ones available due to recruits using DE blades to slit their wrists for a ticket off of the island. I had been shaving with cartridges ever since until about a month ago or more when I gat a bug up my but. I initially had decided that I wanted to learn to use a straight razor, as I have become a sharp freak when it comes to my knives. I have even shave with some of them, albeit not very well or comfortably. At around the same time I got into DE shaving as well. I spent a lot of time here researching razors, blades and straights. I decided to get a Dovo 5/8" round nose as I start to learn the straight. The DE shaves that I was getting were absolutely fabulous, and I had forgotten what a BBS shave felt like. I got the pre-shave, the soaps, the badger brush, the after shave balm, and I was a happy camper. I soon started to incorporate the straight into my daily shave after about a week and a half of getting the finest shaves of my adult life on a daily basis. My initial strategy was to spend the first week with the easy WTG cheek passes to build dexterity, then finish with the DE. On the weekends, I would use straight only. The subsequent weeks would gradually incorporate more into the daily shaves during the work week until a was completely converted over to straight. Now for incorporating the straight:
Week 1 through 3:
Week one:
I started to shave with the straight. Dovo 5/8" Round Point just as received from the factory. I broke the seal. I stropped nylon about 20 passes and put about 100 on leather as this is the first time out of the box. First week Mon. through Friday was WTG cheeks only with strong and weak hand. First shave, the edge sucked and pulled a great deal. Finished shave with a two pass DE. Finished the WTG with the DE then went to ATG with the DE to finish. That night I took the Dovo to the 10K Ninawa Super Stone. I checked the bevel with a hand held cheap microscope, and determined that the 10K stone was refining to the apex of the edge for a large part of the blade. A little funky at the toe and heal where I was only getting refinement near the flats of the bevel, but the Tuesday through Friday shaves were greatly improved. On Saturday, I re-set the bevel with a 1K King, then 6K King, 8K Ninawa SS and 10K Ninawa SS. Stropped with CrO on nylon 7 times, bare Nylon 25 times, leather 50 - 55 times. Saturday and Sunday shaves were entirely straight, and man was I ever slow. The edge is very sharp, very keen and very smooth. Will do HH4 across the blade. Not much crimson during the week. A small nick from Saturday when I did a full shave, and a small weeper on Sunday.
Week two: Thanksgiving Week
Since I did not kill myself over the weekend, I incorporated a full WTG straight razor pass on Monday through Friday, then an ATG finish with the DE. Short work week. This was a completely good two days of shaving. Focused on getting the best WTG first pass with the straight. Some small nicks along the way, but nothing that persisted past a cold water rinse. Trying to get under and around the nose better, and trying to stretch and get the jaw line better on the first pass.
Spent a lot of time in B&B, and saw several recommendations to learn the straight by using the straight only. I just do not have the time during the work week, and I enjoy the BBS too much to not leave for the office without one. I am sticking to my strategy of doing what I can with the straight, then DE finish. I added a day of vacation on either side of the Thanksgiving Holiday, so this is a short work week. I have Wednesday through Monday to try straight razor shave only. Man am I slow on the XTG and ATG passes. When using weak hand, I cannot see the sideburn to start the shave. I can see just fine with the strong side. Trying to replicate, only opposite. Still no luck. Left hand XTG (ear to nose) on the RH face is a disaster. RH XTG (ear to nose) on the left face went pretty well. ATG on the neck is ok until just under the jaw line, then skip and jump. Chin XTG not working at all. Wednesday shave sucked (felt stubble; took forever). Thursday shave slightly better, but I am still spending a lot of time problem solving my attack and getting the angles and dexterity down. Fast forward to Monday. Monday shave a lot better with respect to feel than the Wednesday through Sunday ones, but each day got a little better and a little faster. Two handed ATG on the chin caused a little rash- Watch Angle! Monday I did a third touch up pass in some under the jaw line problem areas that are problematic with the DE as well. Result: Closest straight razor shave yet!!!! Felt good for about half the day, then palpable stubble began appearing.
My razor has only been honed by me from the factory. How good can an edge be????? Found a lightly restored Reynolds square point that was in excellent shape from a reputable restorer and honer. Ordered it and cannot wait for it to arrive.
Week three: Short work week of 4 days:
Back to my one pass WTG straight both hands with a second DE ATG finish, focus on making the single pass better. Able to achieve a good shave if I keep the skin tight with the one WTG pass. Cheeks BBS, chin and jaw line DFS, problem areas under jaw line/neck were not good but approaching what I can get with a single WTG. Overall, very good week. Wednesday, the Sheffield arrived, and it is SWEET!!!! Now I get to see how good my edge is in comparison. But look at that square Point! Thursday I used the Reynolds Sheffield. I never started a single stroke without my eye focused on the tip. Did one full WTG pass and slowed it down, always paying attention to where the tip was, and what angle it was. Great news, the entire shave was good, no crimson. The razor was only slightly better in smoothness to my Dovo, so I am confident in my honing and stropping. An I did not kill myself with the square point!!! Thinking that I will go to straight razor only during the work week starting Monday. I clearly learned a great deal during TG break doing straight only, and clearly this is the fastest and best way to learn.
Friday- Try again with the Reynolds a full WTG. RH, R cheek against the ear, no problem down to the Jaw Line. R cheek near the mouth corner, focusing on getting the corner of the mouth with the middle of the blade-OUCH!!!!!!! The looser skin on my cheek wrapped the point at the angle I was trying, and I got the deepest nick yet while shaving. Lessons learned! Put the Reynolds in the drawer and don't get it out until I have more skill and can focus on the tip, when the rest of the shave is more or less second nature!. Second, when using a square point, never loose focus on the tip. After the nick I immediately put down the Sheffield, and finished with the DE. This really set me back emotionally on straight razor shaving. Damn it hurt, was deep and I questioned my sanity. Not terribly large, about 1/8" or slightly larger.
All day Friday I was in B&B off an
d on looking for motivation, and found some, enough any ways. Questioning the sensibility of going to straight only on Monday. Saturday and Sunday I did full two pass straight razor shaves with no incident. Still pretty slow, but much faster from where I started. Focusing on a two pas with the first WTG and the second a combination of XTG and ATG on the neck and chin. Both shaves were DFS in total, with areas of BBS and acceptable problem areas. Not sure about straight only on Monday!
As it was suggested several times, I thought that I would start journaling my progress with the straight. I am not real good about thinking to do this type of thing, but always when I have taken the time in the past with other aspects of my life, journaling always proved to be revealing.
In recent history, I have had a fascination for all things sharp. I have gotten back into knives in a pretty big way, and probably own around 100 that I have acquired over the past 5 years. In the last year, all of my acquisitions were hand made. I am well set up with Japanese synthetic hones for my knife sharpening, and was glad to hear that the hones that I already own are often applied to straight razors very successfully.
I am 57 y.o., and I learned to shave on a DE razor as a hand me down back in the early 1970s. After going to Paris Island in 1976, I switched to cartridge razors as they were the only ones available due to recruits using DE blades to slit their wrists for a ticket off of the island. I had been shaving with cartridges ever since until about a month ago or more when I gat a bug up my but. I initially had decided that I wanted to learn to use a straight razor, as I have become a sharp freak when it comes to my knives. I have even shave with some of them, albeit not very well or comfortably. At around the same time I got into DE shaving as well. I spent a lot of time here researching razors, blades and straights. I decided to get a Dovo 5/8" round nose as I start to learn the straight. The DE shaves that I was getting were absolutely fabulous, and I had forgotten what a BBS shave felt like. I got the pre-shave, the soaps, the badger brush, the after shave balm, and I was a happy camper. I soon started to incorporate the straight into my daily shave after about a week and a half of getting the finest shaves of my adult life on a daily basis. My initial strategy was to spend the first week with the easy WTG cheek passes to build dexterity, then finish with the DE. On the weekends, I would use straight only. The subsequent weeks would gradually incorporate more into the daily shaves during the work week until a was completely converted over to straight. Now for incorporating the straight:
Week 1 through 3:
Week one:
I started to shave with the straight. Dovo 5/8" Round Point just as received from the factory. I broke the seal. I stropped nylon about 20 passes and put about 100 on leather as this is the first time out of the box. First week Mon. through Friday was WTG cheeks only with strong and weak hand. First shave, the edge sucked and pulled a great deal. Finished shave with a two pass DE. Finished the WTG with the DE then went to ATG with the DE to finish. That night I took the Dovo to the 10K Ninawa Super Stone. I checked the bevel with a hand held cheap microscope, and determined that the 10K stone was refining to the apex of the edge for a large part of the blade. A little funky at the toe and heal where I was only getting refinement near the flats of the bevel, but the Tuesday through Friday shaves were greatly improved. On Saturday, I re-set the bevel with a 1K King, then 6K King, 8K Ninawa SS and 10K Ninawa SS. Stropped with CrO on nylon 7 times, bare Nylon 25 times, leather 50 - 55 times. Saturday and Sunday shaves were entirely straight, and man was I ever slow. The edge is very sharp, very keen and very smooth. Will do HH4 across the blade. Not much crimson during the week. A small nick from Saturday when I did a full shave, and a small weeper on Sunday.
Week two: Thanksgiving Week
Since I did not kill myself over the weekend, I incorporated a full WTG straight razor pass on Monday through Friday, then an ATG finish with the DE. Short work week. This was a completely good two days of shaving. Focused on getting the best WTG first pass with the straight. Some small nicks along the way, but nothing that persisted past a cold water rinse. Trying to get under and around the nose better, and trying to stretch and get the jaw line better on the first pass.
Spent a lot of time in B&B, and saw several recommendations to learn the straight by using the straight only. I just do not have the time during the work week, and I enjoy the BBS too much to not leave for the office without one. I am sticking to my strategy of doing what I can with the straight, then DE finish. I added a day of vacation on either side of the Thanksgiving Holiday, so this is a short work week. I have Wednesday through Monday to try straight razor shave only. Man am I slow on the XTG and ATG passes. When using weak hand, I cannot see the sideburn to start the shave. I can see just fine with the strong side. Trying to replicate, only opposite. Still no luck. Left hand XTG (ear to nose) on the RH face is a disaster. RH XTG (ear to nose) on the left face went pretty well. ATG on the neck is ok until just under the jaw line, then skip and jump. Chin XTG not working at all. Wednesday shave sucked (felt stubble; took forever). Thursday shave slightly better, but I am still spending a lot of time problem solving my attack and getting the angles and dexterity down. Fast forward to Monday. Monday shave a lot better with respect to feel than the Wednesday through Sunday ones, but each day got a little better and a little faster. Two handed ATG on the chin caused a little rash- Watch Angle! Monday I did a third touch up pass in some under the jaw line problem areas that are problematic with the DE as well. Result: Closest straight razor shave yet!!!! Felt good for about half the day, then palpable stubble began appearing.
My razor has only been honed by me from the factory. How good can an edge be????? Found a lightly restored Reynolds square point that was in excellent shape from a reputable restorer and honer. Ordered it and cannot wait for it to arrive.
Week three: Short work week of 4 days:
Back to my one pass WTG straight both hands with a second DE ATG finish, focus on making the single pass better. Able to achieve a good shave if I keep the skin tight with the one WTG pass. Cheeks BBS, chin and jaw line DFS, problem areas under jaw line/neck were not good but approaching what I can get with a single WTG. Overall, very good week. Wednesday, the Sheffield arrived, and it is SWEET!!!! Now I get to see how good my edge is in comparison. But look at that square Point! Thursday I used the Reynolds Sheffield. I never started a single stroke without my eye focused on the tip. Did one full WTG pass and slowed it down, always paying attention to where the tip was, and what angle it was. Great news, the entire shave was good, no crimson. The razor was only slightly better in smoothness to my Dovo, so I am confident in my honing and stropping. An I did not kill myself with the square point!!! Thinking that I will go to straight razor only during the work week starting Monday. I clearly learned a great deal during TG break doing straight only, and clearly this is the fastest and best way to learn.
Friday- Try again with the Reynolds a full WTG. RH, R cheek against the ear, no problem down to the Jaw Line. R cheek near the mouth corner, focusing on getting the corner of the mouth with the middle of the blade-OUCH!!!!!!! The looser skin on my cheek wrapped the point at the angle I was trying, and I got the deepest nick yet while shaving. Lessons learned! Put the Reynolds in the drawer and don't get it out until I have more skill and can focus on the tip, when the rest of the shave is more or less second nature!. Second, when using a square point, never loose focus on the tip. After the nick I immediately put down the Sheffield, and finished with the DE. This really set me back emotionally on straight razor shaving. Damn it hurt, was deep and I questioned my sanity. Not terribly large, about 1/8" or slightly larger.
All day Friday I was in B&B off an
d on looking for motivation, and found some, enough any ways. Questioning the sensibility of going to straight only on Monday. Saturday and Sunday I did full two pass straight razor shaves with no incident. Still pretty slow, but much faster from where I started. Focusing on a two pas with the first WTG and the second a combination of XTG and ATG on the neck and chin. Both shaves were DFS in total, with areas of BBS and acceptable problem areas. Not sure about straight only on Monday!
