Thread: First shave with SR after Shavette

I used a shavette for more than 7 months before purchasing my first shave ready straight razor. My experience was the opposite of yours and the first time I use a straight razor I found it to be all around superior to the shavette. There are a multitude of variables.....so many that they can support a Forum with a trillion members and a zillion answers to the same question asked a gazillion times......it is fun otherwise we would not be here. A door just opened with the purchase of a straight razor......good luck!

Good thread getting lots of good info

Did you say this was your experience:
- 30 shaves with a shavette?
- 1 (now 2) shaves with regular straight?


Before we start theorizing about stropping, heat treatment of the steel etc., let me point out the obvious: Your experience has not developed yet.


Firstly, I do not believe that a shavette is a good training tool for a straight shaver.
The lightweight shavette may have its uses, but does feel and handle differently from regular straight.

It may take up to 100 shaves to become proficient with a regular straight razor and expecting the first straight shave to be nearly as good as your last shavette shave is just not realistic.

You have not developed the muscle memory yet and you are unlikely to have found the best way to shave your problem areas (chin, yawline). This all takes time and patience (and the willingness to accept that some shaves in the beginning will fall far short of what you had hoped to achieve).

You also chose a 6/8 razor as your first straight.
While one can learn to shave with a 6/8 straight, this size is less maneuverable than the more customary 5/8 beginner's straight, and considerably less maneuverable than a lightweight shavette.

If you keep using the straight, you may eventually expect a shave that is smoother, closer, more comfortable and certainly more satisfying than a shavette shave.
While doing that expect to dull your blade, nick your strop, struggle with your first honing attempts and get frustrated by the lack of progress. It's all part of the learning experience.


So there are no surprises here, and what it takes most in your case is continued practice.
Consider straight shaving a journey and your train has barely left the platform - a platform BTW that we all left from at one time or another.




B.

Thank you feed back;

Actually my experience is even smaller than you state since I just got 10 shavette shaves before I went to the SR.

I realise that its a learning experience and that is one of the things I like about this.

I ll keep practicing and I am very thankful for all your advises.

Hi Icarus,
I haven't read each and every comment to this thread, but some advice is absolutly correct to my opinion: Practice, practice and more practice. If a good shave with a SR or shavette were easy, you wouldn't have your problems with it.

Don't ruin the sharpness by overstropping. I assume the razor was sharp when you got it. Not to strop the first time was right. Stropping a razor for 50+ times is far too much. Noone in our european forums recommends it. Maybe say 20 - 30 times is enough. You don't even have to strop on linen everytime.

The probs I've had between using my shavette and my SR are the same as yours. The unclean shaves do not result from a duller SR when it proves to be sharp enough otherwise. Honing and maintaining a razor is an art. Learning to strop it right is a must.

Just keep at it. Should you dull your razor, 10 passes on a chromiumoxid strop can bring the sharpness back. I do that about once a week and strop 25 passes on leather every day before shaving.

Don't forget: Practice, practice, practice and think about what you could do to improve.

Best wishes,
Joe

Thanks for the comment.

This raises a question. When you say passes are you talking one round trip on the strop or one pass is going up and another is going down?

I do 20 round trips on the linen and 50 round trips on the leather.

Thanks to all of you and you guys have a great week end

Originally Posted by Icarusflies

This raises a question. When you say passes are you talking one round trip on the strop or one pass is going up and another is going down?

Sorry, I probably expressed myself wrong. What I meant are "laps". That is once up and down on the strop. So do 20 - 30 times up and down. I believe 20 on linen and another 50 on leather is just too much. You dull the razor prematurely doing that.

Good Luck! :-)

No offense intended Old Salt, but that's only true if one is stropping incorrectly, in which case one lap will dull a razor. Most people on here routinely do the number of laps that Icarus is or many more on leather.

Originally Posted by OldSalt

Sorry, I probably expressed myself wrong. What I meant are "laps". That is once up and down on the strop. So do 20 - 30 times up and down. I believe 20 on linen and another 50 on leather is just too much. You dull the razor prematurely doing that.

Good Luck! :-)

I've been SR shaving for about 8 months. I recently picked up a shavette that uses half a DE blade. I too find it gives a closer shave with less effort. The shave is not as comfortable. It a little harsh. I'm more likely to cut my self. It takes 1-2 passes with the shavette and 3-4 with the SR to get that close shave and some SRs work better for me fewer passes needed)

This morning I shaved again after doing 10 passes on a chromium oxide treated balsa wood and the usual linen / leather strop. I am happy to say that after 3 passes my shave is as close as the one I got with my Shavette.

Thank you all for the great advise I got.