What Did You Learn From Your Straight Razor Shave Today?

Stumbled across this video a few weeks ago and have tried his back handed method a few times.
Requires a wide blade 6/8 or wider if you have big ears but the ears also double as good handles for XTG skin stretching
Takes a bit of getting used and harder to get sideburns with ears in the way
I find the XTG stroke very intuitive and better view of the blade because razor is in front of the hand
 
Holiday said:
Stumbled across this video a few weeks ago and have tried his back handed method a few times.
Requires a wide blade 6/8 or wider if you have big ears but the ears also double as good handles for XTG skin stretching
Takes a bit of getting used and harder to get sideburns with ears in the way
I find the XTG stroke very intuitive and better view of the blade because razor is in front of the hand
Click to expand...
What shocked me when watching this YouTube, when he shaves ATG right under his nose with a straight razor.

IF you guys aren’t good enough against him going ATG right under your own bloody nose with your straight razor, be prepared to become brother of the Dark Lord club, don’t forget to smile.

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SpeedyPC said:
What shocked me when watching this YouTube, when he shaves ATG right under his nose with a straight razor.

IF you guys aren’t good enough against him going ATG right under your own bloody nose with your straight razor, be prepared to become brother of the Dark Lord club, don’t forget to smile.

giphy.gif
Click to expand...
It's an acquired skill that takes time to master and a wickedly sharp edge. Not for the inexperienced or faint of heart. I shave my upper lip against the grain (fool's pass) daily.

Although a fool's pass gives me a BBS upper lip, I do it more so so as to test the quality of the blade's edge.
 
Holiday said:
Stumbled across this video a few weeks ago and have tried his back handed method a few times.
Requires a wide blade 6/8 or wider if you have big ears but the ears also double as good handles for XTG skin stretching
Takes a bit of getting used and harder to get sideburns with ears in the way
I find the XTG stroke very intuitive and better view of the blade because razor is in front of the hand
Click to expand...
Chimensch is well experienced with over 10,000 SR shaves. He still greatly enjoys each and every one of his shaves and is an exponent of the gentlemanly art.

One of the things that I noticed in his anniversary video was his stropping. He uses more pressure or holds the strop less tight than I do. It may be because he doesn't use diamond pasted balsa strops so a slight convexity of the bevel is not such a great concern to him.

Another thing to note in the video is the use of a sponge to wipe the lather off the blade during his shave. A very good idea that I have also adopted.
 
Holiday said:
Stumbled across this video a few weeks ago and have tried his back handed method a few times.
Requires a wide blade 6/8 or wider if you have big ears but the ears also double as good handles for XTG skin stretching
Takes a bit of getting used and harder to get sideburns with ears in the way
I find the XTG stroke very intuitive and better view of the blade because razor is in front of the hand
Click to expand...
That's a nice looking scuttle he has there. Interesting though, the backhand approach always seemed obvious to me, since I approached it without anyone to show me how (long before YouTube came into existence). It was only later I realised the "forehand" grip appears to be more common.
 
Gargravarr said:
That's a nice looking scuttle he has there.
Click to expand...
The scuttle is present in a few straight shaving videos with different shavers and they all use the scuttle differently
This one submerges lather bowl in scuttle for 5 minutes and then pours lather into scuttle and upends lather bowl in the brush vestibule
 
Holiday said:
The scuttle is present in a few straight shaving videos with different shavers and they all use the scuttle differently
This one submerges lather bowl in scuttle for 5 minutes and then pours lather into scuttle and upends lather bowl in the brush vestibule
Click to expand...
I'm not a scuttle user but there were two things I noticed in this video. He uses a rather steep blade angle when shaving his neck. I prefer a much flatter angle there than what he is using.

My second observation was his re-lathering routine. He shaves half his face, then re-lathers that half before starting to shave the other half. I like this routine. It keeps the whiskers moist.
 
A faucet can harm your edge.

For hundreds of SR shaves I use to rinse the blade under running water during my shave, alway careful to ensure it never came near the faucet. A few months ago, I started cleaning the lather off the blade using a moist spunge.

This morning after finishing my SR shave, without thinking, I rinsed the blade under running water. The edge just ever so lighty touched the faucet spout. I looked at the edge and saw no damage.

After stropping the blade on 0.1μm balsa, I was applying Ren wax to the bevel when I felt the faintest of a burr on about 5mm of the edge towards the heel. Using a loupé, I saw the burr.

20 light laps on 1μm film and a full diamond pasted balsa strop progression get the edge back.

I was lucky. Lesson learnt.
 
@rbscebu are you rinsing edge up or down? Rinsing edge down/spine up is the only way that makes sense to me, risk doing what you did and also pushing lather up the blade rather than straight off
 
I was rinsing edge down. I wasn't paying much attention but I think the edge came in contact with the faucet's spout as I was finishing the rinse. Not sure how, I just remembered that they gently came in contact.

Again, it's a concentration thing.
 
Worse lapse in concentration for me is when I drop a straight or any razor/brush for that matter, but straights are so fragile and oh so sharp
 
MrPeanut said:
Yeah and love how they reckon it was "notched out" by previous owner, also meaning they were stupid enough to buy it in that condition in the first place
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The scales might be useful to someone who does restorations, they might come up very nicely. That blade looks like it's come off second-best in a fight with a hammer-mill.
 
This morning I learnt that more passes just means cutting more whiskers.

A few months ago I switched to cleaning my SR on a wet sponge while shaving. This has the added benefit that I could then observe the whiskers in the lather.

I normally do WTG, XTG with fool's pass and another XTG. This morning I did six passes, WTG x 2, XTG with fool's pass and a further 2 x XTG.

I found that I was cutting whiskers with each and every pass. By the last XTG pass very few whiskers were being cut and what we're cut were very short.

One day I might do even more passes to see what happens.
 
Every SR shaver should have a shortie SR in their stable. They are just so much fun to shave with!

My 6/8 Bengall shortie will probably become my permanent Sunday SR (except when working through a M7DS).
 
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