joining the straight razor club - razor maintenance

Mredsnapper

Hi All,
I've never shaved with a straight or even a DE before. I've been shaving with a Gillette everyday for nearly 30 years. A couple of weeks ago I started researching requirements for straight razor setup. The original appeal was the idea of the simplicity of a single blade and not much else. I really thought it would involve less gear, not more! I have spent more than I want to admit ordering the following.

A Dovo Best Quality from Theinvisibleedge
A Linen backed theInvisibleedge strop
A Semogue 1250 & TOB soap
A 150*40 Select coticule

The idea of having to send a razor off for honing every 20-100 shaves doesn't appeal to me at all and I want to be self sufficient with my set-up. Plus, honing looks like a very satisfying skill to learn. I think this approach looks good: http://www.coticule.be/edge-maintenance.html ? Anyone else doing edge maintenance like this? Am I being too ambitious/mad?

Mredsnapper

In case anyone is interested...Straight Razor arrived on Tuesday and Coticule arrived on Thursday. I’ve shaved everyday since and I’m finally getting the hang of shaving the difficult bits - upper lip, chin, Adam’s apple. But I don’t think the razor is shaving well at all. It’s very uncomfortable and has problems with tuff stubble in a couple of areas. Ran it over my coticule tonight to see if that would make a difference for tomorrow’s shave. Started with a slurry and hardly any pressure, Diluted, then used plain water, then linen and then leather. Edge looks smooth under a microscope. Problem is that I have nothing to compare it with. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Mredsnapper

Today’s shave cut better but was scratchy. Any one have any honing advice? Is it worth looking into lapping film?

RocketRaccoon

I would love some input on an issue also. I got a reasonably expensive straight razor a few months back with the intentions of using it on my head which I always wet shave, I have tried everything but it just won't shave the hair. It "drags" and "pulls" at the hair rather than shaving it off.

Any tips?

Mredsnapper

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

I would love some input on an issue also. I got a reasonably expensive straight razor a few months back with the intentions of using it on my head which I always wet shave, I have tried everything but it just won't shave the hair. It "drags" and "pulls" at the hair rather than shaving it off.

Any tips?

Hi RR, what type of razor did you buy? Was it sold as shave ready?

hitemfrank

It's always worth looking into lapping film. It's cheap as chips and really easy to use.

I always found coticule edges to be somewhat scratchy. Once I got the hang of honing on the coticule they still felt a bit scratchy but there wasn't irritation. The scratchiness was one of the reasons I went to lapping film.

hitemfrank

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

I would love some input on an issue also. I got a reasonably expensive straight razor a few months back with the intentions of using it on my head which I always wet shave, I have tried everything but it just won't shave the hair. It "drags" and "pulls" at the hair rather than shaving it off.

Any tips?

Mredsnapper wrote: »

Hi RR, what type of razor did you buy? Was it sold as shave ready?

Yeah, more info will be needed on the razor you got.

Mredsnapper

hitemfrank wrote: »

It's always worth looking into lapping film. It's cheap as chips and really easy to use.

I always found coticule edges to be somewhat scratchy. Once I got the hang of honing on the coticule they still felt a bit scratchy but there wasn't irritation. The scratchiness was one of the reasons I went to lapping film.

Would love to learn more. Do use use diamond or aluminium film? Any pointers on best place to get it? I’ve seen thorlabs mentioned in some posts on another forum..

Merry Christmas btw

hitemfrank

Mredsnapper wrote: »

Would love to learn more. Do use use diamond or aluminium film? Any pointers on best place to get it? I’ve seen thorlabs mentioned in some posts on another forum..

Merry Christmas btw

The aluminium film works great. The advantage of the diamond is that it lasts longer. Unless you are planning to hone razors as a business the extra cost of the diamond just isn't worth it.

However, once you get a sheet of film (sheets are A4 size normally), cut it into 3 even strips and it will be wide enough for most razors. Also each strip will last for a number of razors.

I've bought mine from cablemonkey.ie as the shipping from thorlabs was always really expensive. You just have to ask them to indicate which colour of film is which micron level.

Here is are links to a YouTube video of someone honing from start to finish on lapping film.

https://youtu.be/dsp2u7L_WuY
https://youtu.be/Qec_QpMEX5c
https://youtu.be/Vbacxy8cn2g

Merry Christmas to you as well.

Mredsnapper

hitemfrank wrote: »

The aluminium film works great. The advantage of the diamond is that it lasts longer. Unless you are planning to hone razors as a business the extra cost of the diamond just isn't worth it.

However, once you get a sheet of film (sheets are A4 size normally), cut it into 3 even strips and it will be wide enough for most razors. Also each strip will last for a number of razors.

I've bought mine from cablemonkey.ie as the shipping from thorlabs was always really expensive. You just have to ask them to indicate which colour of film is which micron level.

Here is are links to a YouTube video of someone honing from start to finish on lapping film.

https://youtu.be/dsp2u7L_WuY
https://youtu.be/Qec_QpMEX5c
https://youtu.be/Vbacxy8cn2g

Merry Christmas to you as well.

Thanks hmf, ordered those today. Until then I’ll work on my coticule unicot honing. What’s your strategy for edge maintenance using the lapping films?

hitemfrank

I would just do a few passes on 0.3 micron when I felt the edge start to pull.

Have you a found a rough comparison of lapping film to its equivalent grit?

If not I'll try dig out the chart I have saved somewhere.

Mredsnapper

Hi HMF,

Found the table below online. I'm wondering if the .3 will be overkill! I order the full range anyway so I'll experiment and find out. Do you use ChomeOx also?

Had my 9th Straight shave today and it was great. I think my coticle is very hard and just requires a lot more laps than normal. This is probably makes for a better finish eventually. My stropping and shaving method has also improved. Angleing the blade correctly really is key as the razor only wants to cut at a very low angle.


American Standard (Grit) Mesh Micron
200,000 100,000 0-0.25 0-0.5 .125 .25
60,000 0-1 .50
14,000 0-2 1
13,000 1-2 1.5
9,000 2-3 2.5
8,000 2-4 3
5,000 2-6 4
4,500 4-6 5
2,800 5-10 7
1,800 6-12 9
1,400 8-20 14
1,200 10-20 15
1,050 12-25 18
800 20-30 25
600 20-40 30
500 30-40 35
325 40-50 45
285 50-60 55
240 60-80 70
225 80-100 90
160 100-120 110
100 120-160 150

hitemfrank

Yeah it might be a bit of overkill but there's no harm in trying it out.