Don't do what I've done

[Alwill747]

Hi,

Just 4 weeks ago I walked into 'The Art of Shaving' shop in San Francisco, half an hour and nearly $400 later I walked out with a Thiers-Issard basic straight razor, a small Dovo strop, a travel kit and most importantly an Alum block. Since then, apart from discovering I could have bought the same kit at a much lower price, I have learned: it's not as easy as it looks; razors don't come 'shave ready' despite what it says on the box; like in so many things in life, size matters!

After about 10 shaves I am a little more confident with the razor and have managed to reduce blood loss to manageable levels. I still find the chin area to be virtually impossible! I think I will have re-contoured my chin before I get the hang of it.

i have watched Lynn Abraham's excellent video of shaving technique - thank you for that sir - but I think this ham fisted Sexagenarian will be unable to replicate his dexterity.

Stropping is a problem, I have managed to strop my brand new razor to a state where I get more pulling and tugging than a shunter in a marshalling yard. No matter how carefully I try to replicate the 'X' patten I only manage to put more nicks in the strop.

In my enthusiasm, I have bought a four sided strop and a travel strop, but I find I should have bought much larger equipment to avoid the problem of a 1.5" wide strop and a 3" wide blade.

So please, if you are thinking of trying straight razor shaving, look carefully at some if the posts on here, I wish I had, I could have save much money, if not much skin.