It's not the size of the blade, but...

You get the picture.




So I've jumped back to the Henckels. I've decided that the Genco shaves, while in the end very good, weren't in fact comfortable enough and I wanted to work on some techniques that need a much sharper razor, so I'm back to the Henckels (I used it yesterday, too, but I forgot to post...sorry). I'll be taking the Genco back to the stones soon, Steve, don't worry. I'm not giving up on her!

I am happy to say, I think my new technique practice is paying off. I got a much more comfortable shave from the monster today, though still not without it's stings (sharper than a serpent's tooth, this bad boy...), and I might even be able to deal with the size in a better way soon.

My first technique improvement is a growing mastery of "negative pressure". With most of my blades, I found that the weight of the razor was just enough--no pressure was needed. But with this one, I think that's TOO MUCH pressure. Using the same technique as my smaller razors with a very big, very stiff, very sharp blade was leading to irritation and unpleasant shaves. But remembering some comments I had read about actually using negative pressure--taking the weight of the blade off the skin and just sort of moving the edge in a pattern that accidentally conforms to your face, thereby taking the whiskers off, removed a whole lot of that irritation. I haven't mastered it yet, of course, but I have gotten two shaves that are much improved with it...so my focus on technique here is really a good idea.

Yay me!

Technique #2 is stropping. I've been doing ok with stropping--ok meaning I haven't rolled my edge and they haven't been deteriorating because of bad stropping--but I want to be able to use stropping to actually improve my edges, maybe even use it to control the shave a bit more. I've read some threads on SRP that discuss stropping in more depth, and I'm going to try some of the different techniques--experimenting with pressure, taughtness, and passes to see if I can spot the results. But first, I think I need to work on the negative-pressure thing a bit more, so my shaves are more reliably comfortable with the Henckels.

Some things I still need to work on are a couple of tough spots on my neck and the right side of my chin...still some stubborn stubble there. Oh, and not cutting myself. That's pretty high on the list right now...

I also need to talk some more about this Florena cream...it really is something special...