First "straight" solo flight

Been wet-shaving for a long, long, long time, but shaved with a straight razor for the first time today. Not bad--no nicks, no runs, no errors.

Admittedly, I didn't shave as close as I normally do with my Gellette Tech or Merkur DE, but my goal was to have a bloodless face afterward, which, I accomplished.

I used a cheap (advertised as shave-ready) Gold Dollar, stropped it as per directions, and proceeded slowly. I did, however, clean up the ruff spots with the Tech.

I sent a vintage Genco Gold Seal Jr. to SRD to be made shave-ready, and I assume that will be a noticeable improvement to the Gold Dollar.

I think once you get the genco back the gd may go unused. Congrats on the shave success.

Hello BJV and welcome to SRP.
Congrats on your first SR shave. No looking back now.:beer1:

Congrats on a successful straight shave! You may enjoy your shave more with the Genco, however I've gotten some pretty nice shaves off of gold dollars as well. They certainly have their issues and aren't quality blades, but with some work they can shave pretty well. That said, I can't remember the last time I shaved with a GD and I got them to practice grinding, honing, and rescaling. :)