First "straight" shave.

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The Durham Duplex and Persona "regular" blade are currently sitting in surgical spirit BP ("rubbing alcohol"). :)

I'll start with just the cheeks and just WTG and take it from there, finishing off with a DE or SE razor where necessary.

Now, a question - I noticed the blade's honed edge looked a bit discoloured in places and being new to this type of shaving, I wondered if it was normal and safe to use. What do you think?

(Apologies for the poor picture but I think it shows the edge well enough to see what I mean).

durdup2.jpg


Cheers.
 
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I really would not recommend this blade to start your straight razor journey. Just looking at that unmagnified edge tells me you will get a very harsh shave. The difference between a straight razor and shavettes type blade is that the bevel of a straight is set at about 18 degrees and what this means in practice is that it will not cut you as easily as a thinner blade.

The reasoning here is that a very thin piece of metal with a good bevel, cuts easier than a thicker piece of metal with a good bevel. Visualise this with an axe - if the axe is well honed and the bevel meets then it's sharp - but will it shave as easily as a DE blade? Obviously not.
 
UKRob said:
I really would not recommend this blade to start your straight razor journey. Just looking at that unmagnified edge tells me you will get a very harsh shave. The difference between a straight razor and shavettes type blade is that the bevel of a straight is set at about 18 degrees and what this means in practice is that it will not cut you as easily as a thinner blade.

The reasoning here is that a very thin piece of metal with a good bevel, cuts easier than a thicker piece of metal with a good bevel. Visualise this with an axe - if the axe is well honed and the bevel meets then it's sharp - but will it shave as easily as a DE blade? Obviously not.
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Thanks Rob, that's good info and I'll bear it in mind. The clean pathology blade I have appears to have a very similar edge to the rusty regular blade but is supposed to be a much smoother shave than the "regular" blades. I'm going to give it a go anyway, hopefully the Duplex's safety comb should stop me doing anything too catastropic.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong? :D

riverrun said:
The pathology blades are fine... (if you got them from Paul)
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Cheers Andreas, yes they're from Paul.
 
Whatever you do, don't use dog dresser blades in a DD. I did it once only :eek:
Durham Duplex razors are nothing like straight razors, by the way. Completely different handling, as they are double edged. Interesting though - you can do a down stroke and an up stroke in one go :)
 
riverrun said:
Whatever you do, don't use dog dresser blades in a DD. I did it once only :eek:
Durham Duplex razors are nothing like straight razors, by the way. Completely different handling, as they are double edged. Interesting though - you can do a down stroke and an up stroke in one go :)
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Opinions seem to vary on this. I've heard a few people say they began using a DD as a "nursery" straight before moving on to a straight razor. Isn't it double edged purely because otherwise the comb would prevent you doing one side of your boat?

It'll be fun anyway. :)

Edit: Wish me luck, I'm going in! :D
 
First pass done and apart from a few dexterity problems, so far so good!

Keeping the skin tight seems to be the order of the day - the "reach over the head cheek pull" position feels very Yoga-esque! :)

Love it!

Let's see if I can jump straight to ATG pass like I do normally, or failing that, if I can manage a XTG pass.
 
That was a very good shave. Slow, steady, but very enjoyable.

I found the angle quite easily (very nearly flat against the face) and the few times I strayed or "forgot", the comb reminded me and saved me a trip to A&E. :) The pathology blade didn't feel noticeably rough, but it didn't feel as sharp on my face as I was expecting either. Having said that, I didn't feel any tugging at all so it was obviously up to the task.

The WTG pass (strictly speaking I just do "North to South") was surprisingly quite straightforward apart from the aforementioned dexterity issues which I'm sure I'll get worked out with practice. "Rolling" the edge over the jawline came quite quickly too and overall I was very pleased.

The ATG pass also went quite well. I had a few issues on my neck but worked them out: ATG on my neck is sideways from under my ear towards the Adam's Apple and I found the best way to approach it was to hold the razor pointing upwards and do sweeping arcs with the blade. I have the same problem under my chin and approached it in the same way.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I reckon I ended up with a DFS (BBS on cheeks, jawline, moustache and most of the neck. DFS/CCS under bottom lip, on and under the chin.

Plenty of room for improvement but it was bloody good fun and it actually felt safer than a fresh Feather blade in my WS Classic! (where I seem to get a nick for just breathing :(). I have no nicks, cuts or irritation.

I can definitely see a proper straight razor appearing on my horizon sometime in the future. :cool:
 
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