Thread: Am I putting too much pressure on the blade?

Originally Posted by igitur55

Not to be flip, but what "whiskers"? It's a nice video (I love the razor), but it looks like he was already clean-shaven when he made it! Unless my poor old eyes are too dim ... .

I agree. It's a pretty effortless shave if you're just wiping lather off your face with an edge.

+1 on Alraz.

The razor has been designed to shave and will do so very well if you let it. On my ATG pass I like to use the "Buffing Technique" Advanced shaving techniques for the straight razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki I use this technique daily. If you focus on the sound you will always get BBS.

I learned the importance of pressure the hard way like you. You'd think it would be evident, I mean you are holding a blade that is the standard for sharpness that all things are compared to and yet I pressed that thing on my skin like it was made of plastic. So bad, lots of redness lots of itch and irritation. It's hard to remember to keep light.

Sign me up for "Glenn Logic" too. There are other reasons that you're not getting good shaves. Perhaps you've got a wired edge. Perhaps there's some kind of bacterial issues. Try shaving with the least amount of pressure possible and see how that goes.

X

Originally Posted by theworldover

As far as pressure is concerned, I think of it like this: I'm only using enough pressure to wipe off the lather. I sort of picture straight shaving as using the blade to wipe off the lather, and so that's all the pressure I put on it, i.e. little to none. Its kinda hard to describe, but I hope that helps.

totally helped

I think I might have some burn from my shave last night. Now I'm currently using a disposable blade ST8 and it's a little awkward with the disposable gripped in the wedge of the "blade". My first real ST8 is in the mail, and I keep reading little to no pressure, so now I know how go go at it :-)

Thanks
M0nk3y

I'm still new this and I found that less pressure is a good thing. Keep that blade at the 30 degree angle (you'll know it when it cuts like butter) and let the weight of the blade do the work. That's what I have learned by reading posts and so far so good. I have been trying pre-shave oil the last few shaves and found that for me it helps. I still get that sunburned feeling you mentioned and I think its because my skin is still not used to the close shave of a straight.

im going to have to say you are using too steep of an angle. if your angle is to great you will be pulling the whiskers and scraping the skin this would cause your face to be red more than the pressure re-attack with a milder blade angle and re-wet your face as needed