Women.

You might have a point, but I'll take my chances.

 

You aren't using canned foam are you?

 

No, I ordered a bar of traditional shaving soap, and a badger hair brush as well. I can't understand how I survived without that brush...

 

The company I bought mine from, recommended the blade be sharpened no more than once a year.

 

Hone whenever it starts to fell like it needs it, I strop before each shave. I need to do less honing and stropping with my carbon steel razor (carbon steel holds a better edge than stainless steel) but I have to remember to keep it oiled when I'm not using it so it won't rust.

 

I can't seem to get a good result (or even a passable one), without shaving against the grain. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

 

Beard prep is essential, the softer you get the hair on your face the easier it is to cut, also its called wetshaving for a reason all lather does is hold water on your face, concentrate on making a nice slick lather rather than a foamy one.

Also did your razor come calssified as 'shave ready'? this is a term that means the razor has actually been honed by hand rather than just sharpened by a machine. Superior results will always be achieved when sharpening by hand and the sharper the better.

Aside from that its all about technique, know the grain of your hair and concentrate on both blade angle and letting the blade do the work, if you find yourself needing to apply pressure then your razor is not sharp enough, you should be able to let the weight of the razor do all the work.

Aside from that check out either Badger and Blade (great site, I bought my strop there) or Straight Razor Place (They have an awesome YouTube channel with videos on honing). Many members of both sites advocate sending your first razor to a 'honemeister' in order to get an understanding of how sharp it is actually supposed to be. Personally I didn't want to send my razors back to the US and Europe after importing them just to get them sharpened so I've gradually improved my sharpening by trial and error. (If you get yourself a hone and need a practice razor send me a PM)

And sometimes you may mess it up, using a straight razor is an acquired skill and will take time to master. Its not like using an electric which just anyone can do, thats the reason a lot men used to go to the barber for their shaves.

Also constantly aim to beat this guys time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuuuvuOzB7U

 

I find it an insult to my manliness that I'm still not using a straight razor.

 

Longevity is a bitch. Imagine having your kids living at home for 200 years!

Coming to think of it, I suppose a +3 Dagger of Sharpness will do the trick.

 

I'll give you a DE razor then (that stands for Double Edge not Dark Elf) its what I use when I'm low on time (more often than I'd like) the big advantage of them is the cheap price of blades, I just spent $50 and got enough DE blades to last me a year if I used them every day, that'd buy enough Mach3 or Fusion cartridges to last maybe a month and a half.

 

Shaving with a straight I shave less since its a closer shave it lasts longer. Longer hair is definitely easier to work with though.

Any barber you go to will use a disposable straight, it uses throw away blades (for health reasons they can't use real straights) they are shitty things to try and use and plenty of supposedly trained barbers can leave you with a raw, bleeding face after using those things. Some barbers can still shave people. but far to many have no idea.