Thread: First Straight Razor Delivered!

Thanks for sharing.
Nicely documented.
Takes me back (not that long ago actually) to my first truly "great" shave.
A Ralf Aust 7/8 from Obie.
Enjoy the journey

Congrats and be safe. Oh and welcome also. I hope you have many more uneventful shaves.

sounds like you are off to a great start with some top notch equipment, keep at it

I wish all newcomers would read your post.
That would save them a lot of trouble.

You picked up some quality gear from a renowned vendor, did your homework and finally paced yourself instead of rushing straight out of the gate.
Well done!

Originally Posted by Birnando

I wish all newcomers would read your post.
That would save them a lot of trouble.

You picked up some quality gear from a renowned vendor, did your homework and finally paced yourself instead of rushing straight out of the gate.
Well done!

Thanks! I'm a bit of a geek . . . I study things before I do them, but then try to do them right. I have zero building experience, but finished my basement mostly by myself. Took longer than a pro, probably spent some extra money on books, equipment, time, but I got it done well. Decided I wanted a Siberian Husky, and took about 6 months researching the breed and talking to people, and found one of three core breeders in the country to get one from. (Racing stock, not just show/pretty pure bred). Not that money isn't an object, but I'd rather spend a bit extra for the right tools/right experience and then venture off on "oh, look at the deal I just got!" as opposed to get a great deal to start off and horrible experience.

Thanks everyone for making it a good transition so far!

Sounds like you got off to a great start considering! You did a good job even though you are right handed. It just goes to show that you tried or you. You never know unless you try. It's good to be ambidextrous in many cases for at least that reason......................it seemed to work in that way! Good going, you did a great job!

And first stropping today . . . not quite as easy, but seemed to work ok. I stropped before, did a WTG pass in my "comfortable areas" and called it a day. Not much in the way needing to shave, but decided to just see what the SR did without any help. Obviously not as close, but still comfortable and enjoyable.

After I cleaned up, I went with some practice stropping again, and actually found it a bit easier to glide with focus on just keeping the razor weight on the spine. Heard a nice draw on a few passes, something I didn't quite get on the pre-shave strop.

My guess - my pre-shave strop wasn't really a strop, but I didn't ding the blade nor the leather up, so it was still a good shave. Post-shave strop probably actually did some good, so we'll see how tomorrow feels.

Update for day 3 . . . stropping seemed to be a success! I have the premium fabric and leather, so I did about 15-20 passes on the fabric and about 40 on the leather. A few passes I never got the blade down on the strop very well, but I figure I did probably about 35-40 good passes between the two strops.

Used a mug to actually lather the soap instead of my face, and seemed to be a bit more consistent lather, especially for later shave passes.

I used the straight for actually 2 WTG passes. The second pass I tried a bit of an angle on some of the passes, so almost a XTG stroke, but not quite. On my cheeks I did a true XTG with no issues, but otherwise, second pass was still WTG. Did a third lather and played around with positioning for a ATG pass on the SR, but then grabbed the DE to finish the job. I didn't intend to actually go ATG with the SR, but mainly was trying to figure out hold/angle/position/etc. To me, the act of setting up for it a few times will probably make the job a bit easier when it comes to actually doing it.

DE did two passes - one X and one ATG. And the thing I loved is that with the earlier work of the SR, I felt like I didn't have a blade in the safety razor. Instead, it glided across the skin and cleaned up without a problem! Great shave, no nicks on either platform!

I'm quite pleased with progress thus far . . . my goal in the coming shaves is to get accurate enough to settle for one WTG SR pass. Right now, I'm still using a pretty light touch (sometimes keeping the blade weight off my face), and so some spots I miss a bit. But, again, I'd rather have two light, safe, easy runs than one messy one and a date with the styptic . . .

As for XTG and ATG passes . . . I think I'll keep playing with them on my cheek/sideburns as I get better with WTG elsewhere. No rush there, and really, my DE is getting so much less work to do . . .

It sounds like you are getting better. Even though you had to use the de a little bit, you are getting the job done more with the straight, even though you held it lighter but once you get the straight down right, you will always have a much better, closer shave & will feel better doing so. I have a de for when I'm in a hurry but since I've owned it for a couple months, I've only used it once. I had a doctors appt to go to & didn't have much time for a shave so I used it instead but it still felt like I didn't get quite as close a shave with it like I did with a straight razor. I can tell you are doing progressively better as time goes. Keep on like you have been & you will rely on your straight more & more as time goes on.Keep your de for when you are in a hurry & don't have the time enough for a shave with the straight. Also keep stropping before & after each shave to keep your straight sharp for the next use. Good luck my friend!

Thanks! And yeah, fun so far, and no real issues! I figure the ATG later will be the more challenging spot later on. Then again, I'm going for complete comfort with the blade WTG and not rushing into X/ATG until I'm comfortable with it - DE goes fine there!

In the meantime, the DE still gets to run a few laps, and I really do like the feel of that razor to, so options will abound.