Lessons Learned...

Part of my intent with my Tsuyu cutdown was to focus on my technique, as well as keep my razors clean. Now that Tsuyu is coming to a close, it's time to review the results.



All in all, I'd say that this has been a success on all fronts.

First off, of course, I've been keeping my razors free of rust, keeping the edges all nice and sharp. So yeah, that's been good. But best of all, my shaves bad been getting better and better. You might have noticed in "My Daily Shave", but I've been getting 9s (and even a 10!), so that's good.

The things I've been working on are the basics, but basics can always use some polishing up.

First off, pressure. 0. Absolutely none--meaning, of course, for a massive blade like the 8/8 Friodur, NEGATIVE pressure. This really cleaned up a lot of my irritation, and helped with nics (not eliminating, but reducing them a lot). This is something I have to keep reminding myself of, but the more I focus, the more natural it becomes.

Second, angle. Not only blade angle on the skin, but the angle of approach to the hair--tweaking the WTG/XTG/ATG angles a touch here and there, finding places where a little different approach leads to a smoother cut. For example, along the line of my jaw, which has always been difficult to get totally smooth no matter how I stretch, slightly angling the blade about 10 degrees from totally vertical will get it just right. In addition, instead of trying to stretch the skin too much, I use the blade in a much more precise manner to catch a very thin line of whiskers. It take more time, but it is much more effective than trying to rearrange my face to make more planes.

The angle of the blade to the skin is something that is much harder to explain clearly, but this page on the SRP WIKI helped me TONS, and practicing it has made a real difference in my shaves. Great stuff.

And third is stropping. This is something I'm still experimenting with, but I'm trying to find the difference made by changing the number of strokes and and pressure. It's slow, but I'm thinking I might be coming to something. I've been increasing the linen/pasted strop passes, and lightening the pressure on my leather passes and the edge seems to be a bit...smoother. Maybe? It's hard to tell, really, with with all the technique changes...but we'll keep at it and see what happens.

Then, of course, there is the lather. I've got some good things to say about that, as well, but that's a post for another day.