Thread: Good shave with disposable but not my Dovo?

" I strop it like I'm suppose to, I use short quick strokes in the direction everyone says to at a good angle."

In stropping the only "good angle" is no angle at all, where the spine and edge are both touching the strop.

Not long ago I did a trade and got a custom straight. The original owner didn't care for it. He specified that it was not shave ready. I received it in the mail and examined it. Stropped and shaved. Got a good shave. Could be that he has a tougher beard than I do, or that my shaving technique is more developed. Not sure of that but I know for a fact that experience has improved my shave technique dramatically in he past couple of years. Hang in there and don't get discouraged.

After reading Lynn's comments earlier in this thread I had my first really good shave with my newer razor.

I knew to use it at 30 degrees but when the going gets rough I tend to widen that angle. I remembered his comments about keeping the spine fairly close to the skin and I got a shave that was as close of a cartridge everywhere except the chin and upper lip (which is just a skill/lack of experience issue).

I thought my razor was sharp but since I honed it myself and had nothing to compare it to I wasn't sure.

Now I know that even a sharp razor isn't enough if your blade angle is wrong. Perhaps that's your issue as well?

Originally Posted by ace

" I strop it like I'm suppose to, I use short quick strokes in the direction everyone says to at a good angle."

In stropping the only "good angle" is no angle at all, where the spine and edge are both touching the strop.

I ran that sentence together, I didn't mean the angle and strokes on the strop that was referring to the strokes and angle on my shave. But a little update, I tried stropping a little longer this time. Usually I have a pretty narrow angle already when I shave, but I put it up pretty much right against my face this time as much as I could to shave and it seemed to work better. So I'm guessing it's more my technique than I thought.

The straight razor isn't as forgiving as I thought it would have been. (Plus it doesn't help I have a pretty big scar on my neck from childhood surgery) but I work around that. I'm pretty sure it's not the razor; I've been around blades long enough to know a good edge when I see one, plus like I said it was honed by a honemeister already.

And thank you for the video, it's a good watch. I'm seeing more and more people shave up to 3 times, I generally only shave once then go back over some of the spots I've missed; maybe that's something else I need to start doing. Also thank you for all the helpful comments I didn't realize this was going to be such a tight nit group.

Originally Posted by gcbryan

After reading Lynn's comments earlier in this thread I had my first really good shave with my newer razor.

I knew to use it at 30 degrees but when the going gets rough I tend to widen that angle. I remembered his comments about keeping the spine fairly close to the skin and I got a shave that was as close of a cartridge everywhere except the chin and upper lip (which is just a skill/lack of experience issue).

I thought my razor was sharp but since I honed it myself and had nothing to compare it to I wasn't sure.

Now I know that even a sharp razor isn't enough if your blade angle is wrong. Perhaps that's your issue as well?

For me, the hardest part about learning the straight was thinking about all the things I was supposed to do while trying to do them. Eventually, you instinctively know what to do and just let the hands do the shaving. Stick with it. Sounds like you're on the right track.

There have been a few different times in the year that I've been using a straight that I've noticed and changed one thing and it's immediately made a huge improvement.

Big ones for me were:

My grip, I noticed that the tighter I was holding the razor, the more pressure I was subconsciously using. Once I started making sure to keep a more relaxed grip, huge immediate improvement.

My wrist, I noticed that I was bending my wrist back as I shaved, which was changing the blades angle to my skin without me realizing it. Once I started consciously holding it neutral, huge immediate improvement.

Stretching. I'd watched videos, which helped for sure, but once I figured how to best stretch my own skin in the way my own face needed it, huge improvement.

What you'll find is that you'll hit a plateau and then figure something out and get better again until the next plateau.

Don't let the plateaus discourage you, you'll get better and better.

I'm a year in to this now and just this week I've discovered that I can get a really close comfortable shave with one pass. A better shave I might add, than I was getting out of three passes 6 months ago.

Keep at it, you'll get where you want to be.

One thing that made a huge difference for me was getting a canvas strop. Use it before the leather. After doing this my Dovo carbon steel razor started giving better shaves than the disposable I have.

I also suggest that you wait with the vintage razors until you get a very good shave with the new Dovo. The vintage blades often come with all sorts of problems, and will probably just add to the frustration, whereas later when you know what a good shave is like, you know what to look for or what to experiment with. Dovo makes very good blades, so that's unlikely to be the problem. Good luck!