[rtaylor61]

Rusty is quite handy with his Feather. You might also contact him about the issues you are having with the MWF. He is also a big fan of that soap as well.

RT

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Originally Posted by rtaylor61

Rusty is quite handy with his Feather. You might also contact him about the issues you are having with the MWF. He is also a big fan of that soap as well.

RT

Are you sure? Seriously it looked like he should have sliced himself up good and proper in parts but especially on the chin.

How can I get in touch with him? He's a member of B&B right? do you know his handle over there?

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Wow so much is missing from here now. Well I just wanted to update you all and say I haven't had a shave in 2 weeks. I don't remember the last time I shaved coz that part of this journal is missing. Its very irritating, I have never ever gone this long without a shave, I am just trying to see how long it will take before I get sick of it. My wife won't let me shave it just yet, and its not quite at the very irritating stage. Or maybe its past that now.

Well just to update any newbies that are reading this for the first time, my shaves have improved greatly, I get BBS always. I can't give Colleen enough compliments on her wonderful soaps. I haven't read this whole thread again so just to say, that MB's FO soaps are just not good for my skin. I have tried other FO soaps such as honeybee spa and some of Colleens are FO as well. MWF not so bad anymore, I got that sorted.

I still use my boar brush that cost $2 whenever I bought it. I was generously given a straight and a strop from Lynn and Tony, my thanks to them again.
Also in December I was sent another straight from Dave, for promptly getting him his Tosuke.

Dave heres an update, I honed her yesterday on the Japanese natural Honyama whetstone and it just passes the HHT, I will strop it soon and then put it to the test on my beard. Wow its weird to say beard, instead of goatee.

I can still get my hands on a few more Tosuke so will post a new thread for that.

I think thats enough updating for one morning. I'm off to bed. (its 0310 in case your wondering)

[dave5225]

I'm glad to hear you got'er honed . How many laps did you give it ? I'll be looking forward to your report on the shave .

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Well it has been a Looooong time eh Well finally after a month I finally got off my lazy arse and had a shave, but before hand I took pics so you can see what I mean by weird growth direction. I have edited out identifying features in the pics too. I prefer not to be plastered all over any website.

For the soap, I used a concoction of 2 Japanese soaps (I know) some glycerin and some TGQ soap. As usual the performance of the Jap soaps was **** poor, I thought mixing both might do something but no, not even Colleens soap could help. So it has been determined that the liquid soap will become a hand soap and the puck will become bath soap, but before that, I intend to whip up the lathers and take pix to hopefully give you a visual of what I mean by ****. These soaps give new meaning to the term Jap crap.

My razor of choice was the Clover brand 5/8 (?) notch tip from Dave, I refined the edge of her on my Maruichi hone, then gave her about 40 laps on my strop.

Brush, still my reliable old boar hair brush, soon to be retired

The result, not a bad performance from the razor, I did have to strop 2x mid shave, but with a month of growth and my first attempt at honing stropping you can't blame the razor. I thought it performed bloody well given the circumstances, BTW did I mention I was using Jap soap again? So my honing and stropping may have been fine. I had trouble with my goatee, but even my feather struggled through that so.... think I had a touch of razor burn.

Conclusion of this shave: retire the Jap soaps, practice stropping, shave more than once a month.

Now for the beard porn.


Left Cheek.

Right Cheek.

Chin. Notice the whiskers go sideways.

Pose. I had to hold the razor with 1 hand while taking the shot with the other hand and trying to see what I was doing. No easy task. Just look at the angle on that thing, if I had have slipped there would be a beautiful scar there now.

Thats just preview to show how nicely the razor was shaving, I didn't get an "after" photo.

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Heellloooooo Razor burn.

Yep I got some wicked razor burn today, but the good news is I got a decent 1 pass from the Clover. It had a break down when it got to my chin, but I do believe it was my best "real' straight shave yet. I did the final 2 passes with my feather.
Won't be long now and I will be able to get a full shave from a "real" straight

Didn't even get BBS. I wouldn't mind the razor burn as much if the end result was BBS skin.

[dave5225]

You ain't kidding , the hair does seem to grow in many directions ! My chin wiskers are tough , and will put any razor to the test . I've found the best way to shave my chin is at a very low angle using the center of the blade , and shaving with short strokes on the first pass .

[OLD_SCHOOL]

OK whats it been, 13 days since my last shave? Perhaps.

So I decided today I should have a shave before church, of course it needed to be a fast shave, thus I called upon my trusty feather.
Used sandalwood soap today, only the second time in 4mths that I have used it.
I am happily shaving away removing nearly 2 weeks of growth in seconds, and the n I felt it, that sudden paper cut feeling. I looked and there was no blood, no sign of a cut or anything, thought to myself 'could have swore I just sliced myself" So continued shaving merrily smiling to myself thinking "ha you didn't cut yourself" but all of a sudden I felt this warm feeling moving down my neck, low and behold, the area that I thought I had cut was flowing a nice crimson tide down my neck.

During the shave I realized with the feather, my face is happy for 1 pass, 2 is pushing my luck and (if I did a) 3rd would be excruciating. Thats with a fresh blade anyway.

Stropping a razor seems to be too time consuming for me at the moment, The straight way of shaving just seems too slow.

Some how I need to slow my life down.

[sebell]

I would say that your stropping speed will increase in time.
I can strop a razor (30/30) in well under a minute, so that
doesn't really play a large part in my overall shave time. I
shave with a DE in about the same amount of time as a
traditional straight.

That being said, I always leave myself plenty of time in the
morning to have a nice relaxing shave, where I am able to
take my time and relax.

- Scott

[fiddler]

Just read this entire thread. What a saga. Are you in Japan, Old School? I'm always curious where people are from as I read their posts.

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Originally Posted by fiddler

Just read this entire thread. What a saga. Are you in Japan, Old School? I'm always curious where people are from as I read their posts.

Yes it was a great saga, it did improve and change, we unfortunately lost 2.5 months of posts in a server crash. Things are much better now with the occasional cut. it seems most of my issues were common mistakes with the combination if trying a complete different style of razor. The soaps that I first tried starting with are ****, no 2 ways about that. I use Colleens soaps almost exclusively, while trying out others. I whole heartedly recommend her soaps to everyone.

yes I am in Japan, good to add a bit of variety to the place.

[rtaylor61]

I don't view stropping the razor as time consuming. To me, shaving is something to be savored and enjoyed. While I don't use a straight every time I shave (no rude comments), when I do, I want to enjoy the process. The pageantry. The ceremony. Stropping is part of that. Now, maybe I enjoy the stropping process because I do apply lather before stropping, and get to enjoy the days scent for a couple of extra minutes. But I also consider that prep time. If I don't have time to enjoy the entire straight shaving process, I reach for a DE and get a good shave.

RT

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Wow its been a long time since I updated this.

Well since my last shave I have had all of around 4 shaves plus 1 barber shave.

I just finished my 2nd shave however and my razor was a sword and eagle restored by our very own Josh Earl. Thanks Josh.

It is by far my favourite shaver, I only did 1 pass the first time I used it then finished with a feather. This time I did a complete 3 pass shave and almost got BBS shave but not quite also have a touch of razor burn. It was somewhat relaxing and I was really surprised with the results the first time I used it and found out it was finished on a coticule. I had thought that coticules simply can't get a razor sharp enough for my whorey beard but I was mistaken. It was perhaps my inexperience with straights, particularly western ones that made me think previous coticule shave ready straights weren't good enough.

Anyhoo, I used a TOBS sandalwood cream, I'm still not fussed on creams, but what can ya do eh. I did like a mango and apricot soap by I don't remember now. Just hope that perhaps sometime in the near future, maybe Colleen could make one coz as I always say "Colleen's soaps kick arse".

Brush is still my $2 boar hair one. Someday I will get myself a nice thick silvertip badger brush. Plenty of time for that I guess, there is still plenty of life left in the boars hair brush.

I better stop using that razor though so it can be my benchmark. I have finished a pre honed razor on a natural Japanese hone but it may be real different doing the whole process myself.

[OLD_SCHOOL]

I did have a shave between this and the last post just didn't write anything about it here, but I remember coz I shaved off the goatee.

Anyway, I shaved today with my own restored and honed 6/8 round point W&B Special. Unfortunately the honing wasn't up to scratch, which is understandable considering I went straight from 2000grit sandpaper to more than 12K natural Japanese hone, you know....

The shave wasn't too shabby, got a little razor burn with just one pass so finished with my feather. I plan soon to invest in some hones to set bevels, then sharpen, before using my fine Japanese hones.

Soap was a sample of Colleen's rose and lavender, that another member sent me. Its as good as the rest except the scent, I think but am not certain, that there is patchouli in that soap. Whatever it is it clashes with the other scents, its not a bad smell because its unique, however it just don't smell very rose like.

Starting to get rather ****ed off with my feather, it hates me since I don't shave everyday and have been reaching for traditional western straights when I have decided to shave. Every time when I go to shave my upper lip, I barely get the blade near the skin and I get a cut right on the lip between the nostrils, and it bleeds quite a bit, even though its not very deep.

I give the shave with my 1st fully honed (not touched up) straight a generous 6/10. I believe that W&B special will give me the best shave ever once I acquire the correct hones.

[OLD_SCHOOL]

For our wedding anniversary just a few weeks ago, my wife bought me a Tosuke.
I was relatively happy, I mean finally I own one myself. So I decided to shave with it today, and man I was not impressed at all. I understand now why one or two people have said they touched theirs up on a finer stone. The damn thing went bouncing across my face, kind of a ****-er off-er since I was thinking of asking the guy to show me how to hone them. Explanations here are good, but I need to actually see like in Lynn's DVD.

I got out my feather to do the job rather than a real straight, and you know what? I've had enough of it, yep I am fed up with the feather and I am retiring it today.

I made an interesting soap today, I melted the little scraps of Colleen's wonderful soaps, which included desert ironwood, margarita lime and orange patchouli. Common man its all about recycling, I can get a few extra shaves out of that concoction, not to mention thats how much I love Colleen's soaps, that I will melt and reuse the scraps until there is no more soap left.
It actually formed one hell of an amazing lather too, possible the best I have ever made, and mine are usually very good.

[dave5225]

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

For our wedding anniversary just a few weeks ago, my wife bought me a Tosuke.
I was relatively happy, I mean finally I own one myself. So I decided to shave with it today, and man I was not impressed at all. I understand now why one or two people have said they touched theirs up on a finer stone. The damn thing went bouncing across my face, kind of a ****-er off-er since I was thinking of asking the guy to show me how to hone them. Explanations here are good, but I need to actually see like in Lynn's DVD.

.

I think you have the right hone to do the job . 3 strokes on the concave side , 2 strokes on the convex side , repeat until the razor is sharp . I don't use the back and forth motion when honing my Tosuke . I hone with the edge leading , and this works perfectly fine for me . I also strop my Tosuke the same way I strop my other razors , and all I can say is , it works for me .

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Originally Posted by dave5225

I think you have the right hone to do the job . 3 strokes on the concave side , 2 strokes on the convex side , repeat until the razor is sharp . I don't use the back and forth motion when honing my Tosuke . I hone with the edge leading , and this works perfectly fine for me . I also strop my Tosuke the same way I strop my other razors , and all I can say is , it works for me .

Oh I don't know about that..... I have never had a razor do that, might need a bit of work. But we will see.

Since I am moving into real straights, I think I will wait until I have got more experience. I don't think its good to chop and change from one style to the other.

[dave5225]

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

Oh I don't know about that..... I have never had a razor do that, might need a bit of work. But we will see.

Since I am moving into real straights, I think I will wait until I have got more experience. I don't think its good to chop and change from one style to the other.

Yes , I do think your razor needs to be honed , and I think that with the hones you have , you should be able to hone it up , just fine . Once you get it sharp , and start learning to shave with it , you'll see how awesome it is . I just finished shaving with mine this evening

[OLD_SCHOOL]

Well its been another long time before I post here LOL, but don't worry folk, this will be active again once I start honing the couple of eBay specials that I am finishing up.

I have come to the conclusion my stropping simply sucks arse. The first shave ready straight I got which was a Wapi from Lynn that time, I didn't strop before trying it, shave was bad, stropped it next time no improvement and so on. The next one was the Clover from Dave5225 I stropped that when I got it, but it didn't shave to well. Then I bought an eBay special which I sent to Josh to restore, got it back and stropped it, had the best shave ever, then second shave good, 3rd a little uncomfortable, fourth was not good at all and I figured I didn't spend enough time stropping as I was in a hurry.........

So yesterday I gave it a good stropping and put it to my face only to find that it grabbed my whiskers and tried to pull them out by the roots. Also thinking back on it, I touched up the clover and wapi, on a natural stone and got an excellent shave just once or twice.

This does **** me off quite a bit, because hell I could get 4 shaves from a mock3 which doesn't require any stropping or prep, so straight shaving ATM is more time consuming and perhaps costly than the M3. Hey but don't panic, I ain't ever going to use the M3 again, believe me. But I am wondering is my beard really that coarse that its ruining my straights or is it just poor technique. Stropping is hard, because I need to see it being done in real time, you know actually being there so I can watch a dozen different angles, ask a dozen questions and so on. Same with honing.


Anyway had to pull the feather out of retirement, coz I was pressed for time so couldn't give any razor a quick pass on a hone. Gave myself a good cut too, felt it go into the skin good and proper, its not bad though, cut opened during the night and made my pillow nice and bloody, so the wife was like .

Perhaps at the end of the day, its just that I am only shaving once every 1 or 2 weeks thats doing it, you know like technique deteriorating, not that I really had any technique to begin with.

Feather will be re-retired on the weekend, once I get my straights back to shave ready.

As for soap, still Colleen's soap. Orange Patchouli I think I used.

Still my trusty $2 boar hair brush.

[dave5225]

Hey O_S , maybe you're not stropping enough . I have a Jemico strop with linen on one side , and leather on the other . Before each shave I give the razors 40-50 laps on the linen , and 80-100 on the leather . I hold the strop taught , use a heel to toe " X " pattern , and only use enough pressure on the blade to keep the edge and spine in contact with the strop .