Thread: What did I do?

I'd bet stropping was the cause of your problem, especially because additional stropping made the edge worse. A dulling edge is not always as apparent on a WTG pass as it is with an ATG (upstroke in your case) pass. That is because the WTG pass can run over the whiskers, giving you the sensation that the pass is going well and whiskers are being cut. On the ATG stroke the blade runs into the whiskers that are angled toward it, catches them instead of cutting them, and the result is the tugging and pulling we read of here. A dulling edge can seem fine on a WTG pass yet show its weakness on an ATG pass.

Quick Update:

Yesterday I gave a few passes on the CrOx just to see what would happen. Didn't try it because my face was just still too mangled. So tonight my coticule bout arrived (smaller than I pictured but usable for touch up purposes). I decided to give the razor a quick try to see if the CrOx did any good. It hadn't. It was just as bad as it was when it ripped me up.

So I grabbed the coticule and gave it a few passes to see if I could figure out how this honing works. After 15 or so passes I stropped it and gave it a quick try and it was definitely noticeably better. Not what I would call good, but better. So I went back to the stone and tried for a little more and got a little bit better even. It's still not as good as it was but at least I'm showing some improvement. I wanted to keep going but it's late and I'm quite tired. Don't think I should be waving a blade around my blood hoses like that so I'll try again tomorrow or over the weekend.

Thanks for the help folks. I'll have to try and make myself a denim strop too one of these days. Thanks for the tip.

Keep it up and you will get it right. Remember, less is more. If it takes 2-3 times to get it properly touched up, that's fine...you are learning. When it's right, it will be quite a smooth shaver as coti's leave a very smooth edge.

Finally got it to shaving quality last night. I spent about a half hour working on it trying to get the least amount of pressure I could. I ended up finishing with vertical strokes like is described here: thesuperiorshave's Channel - YouTube

I still think there's improvement to be made but I was really excited that I got it back to the point where I could do a down stroke and an upstroke with it and it only had some mild tugging in a few spots. No cuts and no burn except one spot where I used too much pressure and I knew it immediately.