Overdue Thank You!

So it all started one day when I was reading another website that was discussing the idea of "Shaving the way your Grandpa shaved" and elaborated on safety and straight razor shaving. Straight razors have long appealed to me and spark memories of sitting in the barber shop on Main Street in my hometown with my dad while he received a straight shave and the way the barber shaved the back of my neck - causing it to stay smooth for a week (not a day). Not to mention, watching my great grand-dad straight shave himself over the water well that was built into the back room of the home he built with his hands. I digress...

So this prompted me to mention to my bride that I think I would enjoy taking up the hobby - now known as an art in my home. Christmas day came and I found myself the proud owner of a 5/8" full hollow Dovo with pearl scales trimmed out in gold - a thing of beauty! She also set me up with a shave kit from AOS (brush, cream, oil, and lotion). At this point, I stressed a bit - I had always "watched" a straight shave happen - never had I thought to hold an exceptionally sharp blade to my throat and drag it across my skin! A quick search of Google turned up SRP, the gentlemen and ladies herein and the plethora of knowledge that is shared.

That said, I owe a lot of thanks and wanted to aggregate a few lessons learned in my first month of "Shaving the way my Grandpa shaved" which is thanks to all of you:
1) Either verify that your new blade is shave ready or go ahead and have it honed - I did not. While my first shave burned like h$%% I chalked that up to my inexperience. My second was better and very close and got a lot better for the next 20 or so shaves as I developed techniques for getting at the various areas of my beard. That said... you can shave with a factory edge but that's akin to taking skillet steak when filet mignon is available - Ill explain in a second!
2) Hot water in your shaving cup, soak the brush while you shower... then rinse again in hot water before prepping your shaving cream - feels like silk on the skin
3) Use the oils that are discussed throughout this site. Tried it once without just to experiment and wound up redoing my shave because I didn't feel it was close enough.
4) An element of straight shaving that appealed to me was caring for the razor. Thank you Thank you Thank you to all of those who regularly contribute to the honing forum - there is so much knowledge on that forum that SRP should charge admission. Honing truly is an art and you all make it approachable. That said, after watching many of the videos and reading more than my fair share of posts, I decided for myself to commit to learning to hone. Thank you all for providing all of the information necessary to to give me the confidence to take on this commitment with faith that I would be able to maintain my razor and not "kill" it.
5) Saturday night was the day I crossed the starting line on honing. After realizing that my razor actually failed EVERY sharpness test I realized this day was overdue. Lynn Abrams' videos on circular and pyramid technique are invaluable. I settled in on attempting the circular technique to start with a Norton 4k/8k stone - and failed miserably. I believe the blade was more dull than when I started and know that it was my inability to keep proper pressure (or lack thereof) on the blade across the complete edge. So, after a brief moment of panic and a punt, off to the pyramid technique. This one, for me, worked like a charm... Starting at 10 and working down, I had a blade that was easily shaving arm hair. I decided that it could get better so went to 25 and worked down. This was intense and I now know what is meant by the fellows in the honing forum about "popping" arm hair. I actually tried this on leg hair and think its best described as the sound of a static shock as the hair is clipped mid-air - oddly, you can hardly feel it. To finish up, I stropped (10 strokes) on a rock hard felt strop with 2 micron diamond spray from SRD and then my linen and leather strop (25 and 50 respectively). And the edge was mirror perfect and scary sharp - on to lesson #6.
6) I learned not to be afraid of a sharp blade - After honing my blade, I was a bit apprehensive of shaving with it considering the "butter knife" I had been shaving with.... Nonetheless, first shave was like finally realizing I could order filet mignon - My goodness! No drag, no popping...no sound to speak of really, just gliding across my face and "squeegeeing" the shaving cream off...only the hair was being removed as well and closer than anything I had felt yet! Such a pleasure!

All of this said, a heartfelt thank you to SRP, this forum, and all of the folks who contribute here. I look forward to continuing to grow in the realm of my new found art form and appreciate again all of your help!

Greetings from the southland!
Matt

That's a nice thank-you/information session Matt. I am glad things are working out, and I hope the hobby provides you a life-time of pleasure. More importantly - I am glad you have chosen to become a contributor as well.

As they say here on the forum - Welcome.

Nice post Matt and welcome to SRP. Getting past the fear is half the battle. Once you're relaxed the results get much better.