Thread: Greetings! Along with some questions.

Have you seen Jockeys' vids? His honing and stropping vids are here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...strations.html

His shaving vids are here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...ion-video.html

He has some good stretches and notice how he contorts his face to stretch the skin. I really like his Asian grip / diagonal strokes for getting my trouble spot just under the jaw line.

Originally Posted by Tonsor

Have you seen Jockeys' vids? His honing and stropping vids are here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...strations.html

His shaving vids are here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...ion-video.html

He has some good stretches and notice how he contorts his face to stretch the skin. I really like his Asian grip / diagonal strokes for getting my trouble spot just under the jaw line.

Yep! I have watched them about 5 times each. I will be watching them again though. I watch most shaving videos until I have them memorized

Todays shave was awesome. I feel smooth on my whole face still and that was twelve hours ago. Neck just needs the practice. Gotta try that asian grip thing.

Small nicks in your strop shouldn't matter.

As for the ATG pass it's probably the hardest thing to master when using a straight. What I find happening is as I start to move the razor it catches hair, digs in, and because I'm holding the razor loosly the angle of the blade increases slightly. If I continue to stroke it only gets worse from there.

Until you master keeping the exact angle necessary for one of those long sweeping ATG strokes like you see on some of the shaving videos what will work is to use short strokes and decrease the angle as you go. The way I do it is to make a scooping motion with the razor. I put the razor to skin and as I stroke I rotate my wrist to decrease the angle as I go. By making short (quarter to half inch) strokes I can comfortably get a BBS ATG pass on those hard parts of my face.

Don't give up...it will get better with practice!

Besides all the advice that you have already received, the key to a smooth, nick free shave is beard preparation. Some like to take a shower before they shave or at least use a hot towel. Others use some pre shave oils with good success. Finally, making good lather also enhances the experience in a number of ways: lather of the right consistency prevents cuts as the blade glides free of opposition. The warm lather is not only pleasant but also continues the process started during bear preparation. A lather produced with a good quality soap conditions the skin and restores its natural look after the shave. I see that you are using good quality soaps. With the proper technique, you should see your shaves improve day to day. In case that you have not already done so, here a few links from the wiki that deal with these:

Illustrated Guide to Making Basic Soap Lather - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Illustrated Guide to making Überlather - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Illustrated quide to making basic cream lather in three different ways - Straight Razor Place Wiki

How do you know if you have hard water

Opinions Please: Col. Conk vs. Other Brands

You can even improve the lather by combining it with glycerin and soap to form uberlather. I imagine that you have a dilution problem going on if it is not working right. When you build the lather, the key is to keep rubbing the brush against the bowl (see my post in the second to last link ) until you start getting large bubbles as you rub. At that point, you know you are done lathering for that amount ot soap. I usually only apply the lather to the section of the face that I am going to shave. I do this not only to prevent the lather from drying but because I want to minimize exposure to the soap as my skin is VERY sensitive.

Al raz.

There are a few things I do to keep the razor from catching on ATG passes on my jaw and chin. I use very small strokes, maybe 1/4" to 1/2". That way, instead of shaving the curves of my chin, I am shaving a flat portion of a curve on my chin.

I decrease the blade angle to 10 to 20 degrees for ATG, instead of 20 to 30 degrees for WTG.

I stretch the skin, either by contorting my face and / or using my fingers. As I understand it, stretching forces the whiskers to stand up, making them easier to shave. It's amazing how easily the whiskers cut with a good stretch.

Another angular-face guy here. I've been trying something lately that is helping with my chin and with the part of my neck below my chin and jawline.

After a north-south WTG pass covering pretty much everything, I normally begin an XTG pass going from ear to mouth on each side. I reach the off hand around the back of my head and pull back on my ear to get this started. As I move toward the mouth along my cheek and jawline, I pull back on the cheek near the ear. Pulling upward and back helps me get a lot of what's under the jawline.

So lately, on this pass, I'm getting as much of the jawline, the neck below the jawline, and the chin as I can get. With practice, I'm getting darned near the center of my chin and jawline. By holding my mouth open and doing some facial yoga along with the stretch, I get nice, flat planes of skin. This doesn't get all of that area, but it minimizes the additional work I have to do on these problem areas.

The pics look awkward, but that's mostly from trying to get a camera angle. In front of the mirror I just look at myself straight on.

Awesome. thank you so much for the pics. I will try this tomorrow morning. So far my biggest problem spot is right under the center of my chin about an inch and a half long.

I am starting to see what stretching is all about, it's extremely important.