Thread: Beginner Needs Some Advice

Hi, I'm new to straight razor shaving. I've always been interested in straight razors and really anything that can hold an edge. I've had a sordid past with shaving (i.e. I have a rather coarse and fast growing beard and a notoriously sensitive skin underneath) so needless to say I had completely given up on shaving with razors for at least 10-15 years now and have been using electric shavers just to trim my face. I still maintained my fascination with sharp objects, though, and apparently my Girlfriend picked up on this and bought me a cheap Shavette and a starter kit for Christmas this year. I tried the Shavette the next morning thinking, what the heck, and all be darned if I didn't get the closest, cleanest, least irritating shave (sans a few nicks) of my entire life! Instant convert!

I have been shaving with that little bugger every single day since then and been loving every minute of it (seriously, I can't wait to hop out of the shower and shave in the morning and it used to be so much of a chore for me I would only trim once a week, tops). My problem comes with my new found eagerness to dive right into this new hobby.

I just purchased a beautiful blade (Dovo "Silver Steel" 5/8 full hollow ground ebonywood scales) last week from vintagebladesllc.com after doing a lot of research on this and other sites. I read on a forum post somewhere on this sight (I can't seem to find it anymore) that this was one of the recommended sites because the razors are shipped ready to shave and honed by a hone master for a true out of the box shave ready blade. Sure enough, I read the description on the site and that is what they advertised, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger.

I received the blade along with the upgraded English Bridle Strope set a few days ago. So far I've shaved with it twice and unfortunately I have had horrible experiences with it. I've read a lot of literature on stroping and so on and so forth, I strop on the linen side 30 times with light pressure spine first and 40 times on the leather side, same technique. I haven't touched the edge of this blade against anything improper. Yet, I still get terrible irritation from this blade along with several small nicks and scratches that I have not experienced with my shavette. And after fighting through this terrible shave, I feel my face, and it's as rough as sandpaper still. I've had to do follow-up shaves with my shavette both times just to get something close to a smooth feeling face (although it feels like its on fire).

What could I be doing wrong? Should I contact the website in hopes to get it re-honed properly? Should I trust this business with honing my blade? Is it just me being a silly beginner? From the research I've done, a real straight razor should be giving me closer, better shaves than my shavette, but that's not my experience so far. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I just dropped a lot of cash on a pretty new paperweight I'm afraid.