A little bloody.

Not my best day shaving today but it was a positive day anyway. :)

I generally wet shave but with a DE. I have straights but I haven't used them for a while. They are all ebay cheap straights except for one from Larry at Whipped Dog.

I have a few hones but all of them are small with no rhyme nor reason. I don't really know how to shave well with a straight nor do I know how to hone really well. :)

I honed up four straights, stropped them, first with paste and then with plain leather. I wanted to try all four. The first just isn't good enough to shave with I found out. The other 3 are so that's the positive news. I know how to hone well enough to get ebay straights so that they can shave. :)

The minute I touched one of them in the vicinity of my nose I drew blood. I managed to slice where the nose and the rest of the face come together. It was a bleeder. :) I don't think I sliced incorrectly. I just touched my nose wrong and that was enough.

There were a couple of other small "weepers" on the neck and chin. I think that the green pasted paddle strop worked for sharpness but maybe isn't the smoothest finish.

Next time I'm going to shave with just one of the best 3 and rotate each time. I'm going to just strop next time and only with plain leather so hopefully it will be a little smoother. I have kind of a pointy chin and that's always to hard area to not cut myself in.

I'm remembering however to just use the end of the razor when I'm in close (or rounded) quarters. I had plenty of lather and the rest of the prep was OK as well. Maybe just a smoother stropping and a little more of the technique coming back to me will result in a better shave.

I'm also prepared to bring out the DE to finish up if necessary. I did that today as well but I was surprised that I actually had little to do with the DE. My intention isn't to straight shave everyday but I'd like to do it weekly at least. I just need to settle in with one straight and make sure I maintain that well.

It is good to know that I can get them from ebay to shaving my face. The one I picked a couple of days ago to try straights again was the wrong choice. It turns out that's the only one I haven't been able to bring back to shaving sharp.

I ordered a pocket microscope to check out the edges just for fun. I already have a small loupe however. Honing isn't really my interest so I'm trying not to end up with a lot of expensive hones. I just want to keep a couple of straights in shaving condition so that I can continue to get better at shaving with straights.

With less blood next time hopefully...

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A little bloody.