Wet shaving!

Yes. I don't think I used a 15 degree angle with the straight razor, nor do I use the kitchen knife angle guide that came with my el-cheapo water stones.

At first I was using the spine. But that was not 100% correct for my particular GD 208. It is very close, but it needed a little larger angle. One can feel it as one is honing the blade. The blade puts a little resistance and with a very fine grit stone, it does the "singing" deal.

Honing with a very fine grit stone feels different than even a 6000 grit stone. The blade slides more than anything. The blade takes out almost no stone. But man, after a few passes I got great results. It feels more like polishing, but it is getting sharpened. The hair test and the shave test shows results. If the blade is damaged however, one has to use a much lower grit stone. A 1000 might actually be too high, but it will work.

The Tormek there will work to hone something almost from scratch. But for a straight razor in it's final sharpening stages, it will proly not do the trick. One may have to still do that by hand it a larger than 8000 grit stone (some folks say a Norton 8000 will do the trick, but dunno)

If one uses a stone, the guide works well for most things, like kitchen and hunting knives. A straight razor is a little different though. Believe it or not, for a straight razor, that Chinese (Anself) small stone did great. It is also very cheap. In most cases, the right angle to hone is very close to what you get by resting the blade against it's spine.

 

The problem with the Chinese (Anself) stone is that it is too small for something like a kitchen knife. It is perfect for a straight razor though.

 

Depends on the angle. The blade might take a small nail chunk and still be relatively happy. May need a little low grit honing after that though.

The main problem maybe accidentally dropping the knife. With kitchen knives, I think the sink it's the enemy. All those dishes pilling up tend to hit the blades hard in their sharp side. I did a light test on the sharp side of the blade of my dullest kitchen knives and they all failed miserably. They all had multiple small dents only visible when shining light and deflecting it a bit by moving the blade a little. This is the first test to do as you hone the blade. Once it's all smooth then one may proceed to slice some stuff.

For stropping I usually give the blade 20 something passes. So not that much. And it's done equally on both sides of the blade. My strop is a faiv-dola Chinese piece of awesomeness. The Tormek seems like an industrial piece of awesomeness with the right implements. But I still don't think it would do the trick for straight razors.

Here is some discussion about it: http://straightrazorplace.com/hones/81389-tormek-grinding-systems.html

I kind of agree with those guys after trying it myself. One needs relatively few passes with a very fine stone. I would be a bit worried of using the machine strop also TBH.

 

I could reprofile, but IME when one is going down the 8000 to 12000 grit stone path (which is needed for shave ready results), it's relatively straight forward to know the angle. I use my nail as a guide, just off the spine. With such high grit stones, if your angle is a little off, the blade just slides over the stone like nothing. Almost like two perfectly even stones. With the correct angle one feels a little bit of pull, as in some sort of suction between the blade and the stone. The blade starts to sing as well, just like with the strop. There is no debris, as when using even a 6000 or below grit stone. No pressure is needed. This is what makes honing to reprofile, and honing to fine tune so different. It is not subtle.

I agree with you though that for 6000 and below grit, a guide is kind of a must unless you reach sharpening skills level 56.

LOL! note that when reprofiling, one may reprofile the spine as well. It's cool. I know what to do at this point. It all sort of reminds me of Bruce Lee hitting that poor kid in the head and telling him that "it's like a finger pointing at the moon" when it comes to martial arts in "Enter the Dragon". Think of the blade/stone pull deal and blade singing as the finger pointing at the moon, or at a monkey's ass, or whatever.

I also know what you mean about 3 or 4 passes. Been there with a horrid POS shavette that hit the garbage can some years ago. With a DE I can do 3 and get absolutely no hair on the 4th, even against the grain. With a straight I can get very close. As in, I can't take no hair with the grain and across the grain in another pass, with just 2 passes. However, against the grain is a bitch with the straight in my the neck area, because my hair grows sideways there and all in one direction. I can do very good though. If I do another pass with a DE in most places I can't take anything even against the grain. Practice my friend

Having a sharp blade is a most in all cases.

I seldom use aftershave, but if I do, I have a Nivea deal or something. What brands have you tried?

BTW, the Gold Dollar is not shit. It really kicks some major ass. If I did it all over again, I would get a shave ready GD 800 instead of a 208. But a 208 is awesome. The 208 is like the KSC75 of straight razors. The 800 is like the Porta Pro. I cannot stress this enough. Time will say. But so far, again, this is an awesome razor.

The difference is that the 208 is carbon steel, and the 800 is stainless steel. Furthermore, the 800 blade may look a notch nicer. The 208 shave ready is about $35 to $40. I think the 800 shave ready is $55 to $60.

(Note I've only tried the 208 and I'm extrapolating my awesome results to the 800, so take my 800 recommends with a grain of salt. But not my 208 recommends. That one I do use.).

 

BTW, I bought my 208 from these guys:

https://straightrazors.com/gold-dollar-208-high-carbon-straight-razor-shave-ready/

But these guys seem to carry both the 800 and the 208:

https://wetshavingproducts.com/products/shave-ready-stainless-steel-straight-razor-6-8-gd-800-w-box

https://wetshavingproducts.com/coll...e-ready-carbon-steel-straight-razor-6-8-w-box

 

LOL! maybe my shilling and over-enthusiasm about the 208 is not going to work. It's honest though. It's a really good razor. And it is really nice to shave with it if shave ready.

Haven't tried the Dovo, but it seems that one, along with the Norton stones are the baseline and workhorse of many folks.

As far as DE, it remains IMO one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to shave. If one has difficulty with it, but not with a simple cartridge, IMO one cannot go wrong with an old Trac II or Atra. If not, all other options should work fine, but are probably not as cost effective and have probably a kool factor reduction.

One further note on reprofiling:

I cannot recommend this. One of the possible reasons I had to learn to fine tune my 208 with out full use of the spine is probably because I practiced sharpening with it on a 1000 grit stone. This likely resulted in a little reprofiling of the spine itself. Furthermore, reprofiling may take too much metal. Unnecessarily so. I recommend to skip 1000 and even 6000 grit stones and go directly to 8000. Preferably 10000 or above. This avoids reprofiling of the spine. One will benefit in learning to "feel" that honing is taking place indeed. Particularly with high grit stones. It's just part of the experience. Like I said, this is more of a "art of shaving" kind of deal. A DE will get one there as well and there is no need of this honing and strop stuff. From an shaving experience perspective DE is definitively superior to cartridge. But it's not more practical if one is on the go. I do keep all of my razors around for the occasion: Track II, Weishi, and GD 208. I also tend to prefer shaving cream to soap or foam, but not by much. Depends on mood I guess.

 

Have you tried the green Proraso stuff? The lather on that one is really refreshing on the skin. Most of the soaps and creams don't leave scent the way an aftershave does (usually the scent fades away). But man, it's a whole awesome experience to shave with it (green Proraso).

 

So, as I was doing some bathroom organizing and I found these Schick blades that have been in storage for proly years. They seemed brand new, so I gave them a go with my DE.

Ouh. Mie. Gwad. WTF! Straight to the garbage can they went. Relative to the blades that came with my Walmart Van Der Hagen (Weishi clone) razor, these Schick blades were blunt as a butter knife. Painful to go even WTG. Quickly replaced the blade with the Van Der Hagen and all the goodness came back.

Cannot stress this enough. The difference between a fast, satisfying, pain free, nick free shaving, and torture is in the sharpness of the blade (assuming one did the appropriate prep, i.e. hair is fat with water and lather is rich and well done).

@Stapsy, experiment with different blades. That can make a world of a difference.

 

IME a sharp blade needs little pressure, pulls your hair less, is prone to less nick accidents, and scratches your face less.

I can't tell you how quickly I put those very old Schick blades in the trash can. It is possible that Schick in general are not that bad and these were just old or something. Whatever it was, I cannot recommend a blunt, or "non-aggressive" blade. IMO they are shit and don't belong anywhere near your face.

 

BTW, I read a little more about the GD 208 (and derivatives), and why they don't get a 5-star recommendation from all shaving sites. They have good points. It seems that a GD needs a lot of work to be ready for shaving because the geometry of the blade is not consistent (right out of the factory). Seems, it's plagued with QA issues. This is in agreement with what I saw in my GD 208 after it was made "shave ready".

For one, they removed the stabilizer of the blade. The spine is not symmetrical, so it seems the person that worked the blade removed steel to make it easier to hone. The razor is not a looker either. The steel is relatively good quality though. But if one bought a GD right out of the factory and tried to make it "shave ready" I can see a lot of frustration in getting the blade ready for a shave. If someone is willing to do all that work and deliver the end product for $35 or so dollars, that's IMO a good deal for a beginner. But a more advance costumer, wanting to see a well build product might want to go for an entry level Dovo @ $80 or $90 dollars, which comes out relatively sharp right out of the factory.

At this point I'm happy with the GD. But maybe later I will consider a Dovo.

 

I've been fairly successful with cartridges of all kinds. The > 2 blade easily available ones are IMO indeed pricey and somewhat overkill. They can be a bit boring too. It's just too easy to get a half decent shave w/o even knowing what one is doing (IME).

A DE requires a bit more skill, and the benefit of learning how to use a DE is that by extension one learns to use a cartridge properly, efficiently, and effectively. Which makes the cartridge extremely practical. But even more boring. To the point I was shaving every other day.

The DE is way more inviting.

Move up to straight razor, and we are talking art and skill. Not crazy skill stuff. But certainly not boring.

BTW. Got my Dovo Best Quality (6/8") today. I have my reasons. The GD 208 works. But the more I'm familiar with it, the more I understand why an entry level Dovo is really the way to go. Got it on special ($70).

I will post the differences between an entry level Dovo and a GD 208 (professionally modified to actually work), and it will be pretty apparent that even when a GD 208 is fairly functional and gets the job done well, it's got some issues and you get what you pay for @ $35.

Got 100 Personna Blades. I have good experience with Personna. I got the blue non-Lab ones. I've been told that the difference is some extra sterilization for hospitals or something like that.