PIF - Straight Razor Shave update

Garry357

Garry357

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2023
Location
Perth WA
The Morning Shave.

Making very good progress with the art of Straight razor shaving, still finished with the Gillette DE.

Managing a second pass – across the grain

2 x areas where I struggle,

  • under nose – top lip
  • Bottom of chin – top neck



SOTD

  • Razor Titan / King C Gillette
  • Pre-Shave Pears soap
  • Cream Palmolive
  • Post Shave Nivea Moisturizer
  • Aftershave Gillette Splash
  • Balm Nivea – Sensitive Balm


The Titan was a the recent PIF, many thanks to @rbscebu

The edge really is outstanding, exceptionally sharp.

@rbscebu a couple of questions,

I stropped after the shave using the Kid leather.

  • When should I use the denim side
  • What is the cerium oxide used for
  • Which side does the cerium oxide go on
 
@Garry357, the denim side can be used after your shave to clean the blade's bevel. When you have finished your shave, rinse the blade under running water to remove any visible lather. Then dry the blade with a towel being sure to not touch the blade's edge. To clean the blade's bevel, perform about 6 to 10 laps on the denim side of the strop.

The cerium oxide paste is used to refresh the blade's edge. It is applied to the demin side of the strop. Ten to twenty laps on the pasted denim strop should refresh the blade's edge. I will send you some instructions on how to apply the paste. Beware, once a strop is pasted, it is pasted for life. It is basically impossible to remove all effects of the paste from the strop.

Provided you are using a very acute shave angle and light pressure against the skin when SR shaving, the blade's edge should not need refreshing until about 50 to 100 full three-pass shaves. Just giving the blade 50 to 70 laps on the kid leather side before each shave should keep the edge shave-ready.
 
Garry357 said:
....
Managing a second pass – across the grain

2 x areas where I struggle,

  • under nose – top lip
  • Bottom of chin – top neck
....
Click to expand...
I never could master E-W or W-E on the upper lip and just stuck with N-S. After a (long) while, I developed the courage to perform a CdM (fool's pass) to get a BBS upper lip.

As for the chin area, that will come to you. It just takes practice and concentration.
 
I have the same denim strop that came with a Titan. I like it as a platform, but anticipate needing to replace the denim pretty frequently, so I duct taped a strip of old jeans over it and applied paste to that. Let's me experiment with different pastes too.
 
Speaking of when to strop ...

Dovo say in their FAQ to never strop after shaving. The razor needs time to self-heal. However, my understanding is @rbscebu strops on 0.1 micron pasted balsa after shaving as edge maintenance. What's the thinking here?
 
Dovo also says that a SR should be rested for at least 48 hours between shaves. I believe very little of what Dovo says, including what they say about the quality of their SRs.

I strop on kid-leather about 10 laps immediately after each shave to clean the bevel. I then strop about 60 laps, including short X strokes, on 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa (hanging). This works well for me as I like the crispest of edges on my blades when I shave. Others may not.

Just before each shave, a blade gets about 50 laps on clean leather.
 
Last edited:
sd_baker said:
Speaking of when to strop ...

Dovo say in their FAQ to never strop after shaving. The razor needs time to self-heal. However, my understanding is @rbscebu strops on 0.1 micron pasted balsa after shaving as edge maintenance. What's the thinking here?
Click to expand...
Your razor won't "heal itself". It's steel, not flesh. Likewise, keeping it under a miniature Pyramid of Cheops won't work either. (I've read that Russian soldiers used to be issued such things, but to my mind that might explain the popularity of full beards... :rolleyes: )
 
also from Boker:

You should strop the razor before, and not after shaving. Steel has a certain level of self-healing power, or “memory.” After stress, the burr slowly and partially stands itself up again. If you violently rip the burr up with the strop immediately after shaving, this stresses the material, which shortens the life expectancy of the burr and, in the long run, of the razor. The razor should rest for at least 24 hours after the shave – but 48 hours or more is ideal, so if you shave every day, you should own at least two straight razors. Our grandfathers therefore often had sets for the entire week, containing 7 razors.
 
@sd_baker, I agree with doing your normal full stropping just before a SR shave and not after the shave. As well as realigning the edge, stropping also removes the surface oxidation that develops on a bevel during shaved.

As for lightly stropping after a shave to clean the bevel, I suggest that you get two identical SRs and experiment over a say 100 shaves and see if you notice any difference.
 
I found some other threads on other forums and the consensus is that light stropping after shaving is fine. What I've been doing is hand stropping 10 laps and then hand stropping with towel on top of my hand for another 5 laps.

When I get my balsa strop setup, can I do the 0.1 micron balsa routine before shaving and then immediately do 50 laps on clean leather, would that be okay? Or is there a reason to do the balsa after shave?
 
sd_baker said:
I found some other threads on other forums and the consensus is that light stropping after shaving is fine. What I've been doing is hand stropping 10 laps and then hand stropping with towel on top of my hand for another 5 laps.

When I get my balsa strop setup, can I do the 0.1 micron balsa routine before shaving and then immediately do 50 laps on clean leather, would that be okay? Or is there a reason to do the balsa after shave?
Click to expand...
I can see no difference if you 0.1μm balsa strop before or after a shave. I cannot see a need to towel strop but if it works for you, that is the main thing.
 
By "hand strop", I meant palm strop. My intention to palm strop and then towel strop is to dry the blade and edge as much as possible to prevent corrosion.
 
rbscebu said:
Dovo also says that a SR should be rested for at least 48 hours between shaves. I believe very little of what Dovo says, including what they say about the quality of their SRs.

I strop on kid-leather about 10 laps immediately after each shave to clean the bevel. I then strop about 60 laps, including short X strokes, on 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa (hanging). This works well for me as I like the crispest of edges on my blades when I shave. Others may not.

Just before each shave, a blade gets about 50 laps on clean leather.
Click to expand...
I have heard of resting your razor also and it's not just Dovo. There is a video out there somewhere (i'll try and find a link) from an old guy who worked in the Cadman factory and he says the same thing. Rest your razor and the edge recuperates to some extent. My rotation of approx 12 razors means that they get a couple of weeks between shaves.

However, I only ever get about 15 shaves before the edge needs a refresh. Is it my technique? Stropping and shaving? Not sure - it's the old YMMV of course. It's a big factor in this game, and a few other games as well. Razor honing isn't the only black art out there!

cheers
Andrew
 
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