[PhogAllen]

Good evening chaps. I have finally gotten around to registering and posting my first comments. I am no stranger to the shave forums. I have been hanging around at one or another for nearly six years. Mostly over at B&B under the same handle. Thank you for the chance to join the forum and for sharing a vast amount of great knowledge with the shaving world. I am amazed(or should I say NOT amazed?) at the fountain of information here. I have only recently taken up the straight but I suspect it will not be a passing thing. I truly enjoy it. Yes, the first couple of weeks were...challenging. I am slowly getting the hang of things and even dared to touch up the razor with a Carborundum barber's hone. The wife bought me the hone a long time ago and then she pops up with a strop just a few weeks ago. I have to keep her, right? You bet. As with most newbs, the mustache and chin area are the biggest issue spots. Particularly the upper lip. No matter what I do, I cannot get it clean. I simply wind up with a dose of razor rash. I have used the razor for about five weeks and hardly nick myself at all anymore. While I certainly won't try to offer some sort of sage advice for other newbs, I do feel it is appropriate to pass along the biggest discovery I have made so far. Don' fear the reap...uhm, the straight razor. i was so concerned about the tip of the danged thing I would cut myself with other parts of the blade. Don't fear it. Just respect it as a somewhat unforgiving teacher. The other thing I quickly learned is that these old hands with the straight are dead on about just giving it time. Within two weeks I could not imagine ever giving up on straight razors. I am certainly not getting as clean a shave as I was with the DE but again, time and patience is in order. The biggest factor for me is having no reference as to what is 'shaving sharp'. I do think my 5/8" near wedge is probably due for some honing or at least some pasted strop work. Okay, enough prattling on. Again, thanks for the forum and the chance to participate.

Regards, Todd

[RayG]

Welcome to SRP, Todd.

[cassady]

Welcome!

And regarding the moustache area, do a search on coup de la maitre (forgive me if I misspelled -- I speak several languages, none of them French) which may help.

Cheers,

cass

[PhogAllen]

Hello Ray and Cass. Thank you for the replies. I have tried the coup de maitre (in fact I was doing it before I knew what it was called) but still get so so results. I will chalk it up to my lack of real experience. I did have sort of epiphany this morning. I had skipped shaving Saturday morning and so had a full two days stubble to get rid of. I put on a lot of stubble in two days so figured it would be a good challenge. I gave the razor about twenty laps on linen and then about thirty on leather. Really smooth. When I went ATG, I noticed some dragging so went back to the leather. What a difference. It really smoothed up the shave. Is this a normal thing to do? I should think it wouldn't cause a problem but just wondered if it was a no no. I do have a very tough stranded beard and if this works out, I will be doing it between every pass.

Regards, Todd

[thebigspendur]

Welcome aboard. You'll get plenty of straight talk here.

Some do strop between shaves and seem to like it. Personally I think if you have to strop between strokes you should check the overall performance of your razor.

[AusTexShaver]

Originally Posted by PhogAllen

Hello Ray and Cass. Thank you for the replies. I have tried the coup de maitre (in fact I was doing it before I knew what it was called) but still get so so results. I will chalk it up to my lack of real experience. I did have sort of epiphany this morning. I had skipped shaving Saturday morning and so had a full two days stubble to get rid of. I put on a lot of stubble in two days so figured it would be a good challenge. I gave the razor about twenty laps on linen and then about thirty on leather. Really smooth. When I went ATG, I noticed some dragging so went back to the leather. What a difference. It really smoothed up the shave. Is this a normal thing to do? I should think it wouldn't cause a problem but just wondered if it was a no no. I do have a very tough stranded beard and if this works out, I will be doing it between every pass.

Regards, Todd

My beard is so tough on the upper lip and chin that I should probably be using a wire cutter rather than a razor on those areas.

My shave ritual as far as stropping goes like this...pre-shave 20 laps linen & 60 leather, 30 laps leather between passes, 30 laps leather post shave. When my razor won't do a full pass before needing more stropping I know it's time to hit the hones...but as far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with stropping as much as it takes to get a comfortable shave. You might try increasing your pre-shave laps on the leather and see what happens...most razors like 50-80 laps and you have to experiment to find the least amount that will work well with your razor.

Most razors also have a sharpness sweet spot and I try to use that spot if possible on problem areas.

[Sharp&Shiny]

I have found that if I use a very shallow angle on the blade when going against the grain I get less pulling & visibly better results. This has come about by trial & error. Paul

[PhogAllen]

Hi Paul. Yeah, I noticed this too. It has helped a bit. That is one thing about a straight. It is the ultimate adjustable razor. I have really shallowed up that angle on the upper lip as well. Big difference. I have started getting the upper lip cleaner by going at sort of a 45 angle in a combination wtg/xtg pass. You just have to be real careful about the edge of the blade hanging below your lip.

Regards, Todd

[netsurfr]

I find that while I struggled to perform an ATG pass when I was learning, now that I have some skills, I almost never use an ATG pass. I may use another XTG pass but ATG just does not seem necessary.