Thread: the exaggerated art of straight razor shaving; begginner's adivce

What a pot stirrer this is
Yes it's trial and error and everyone has to find their own groove, but the best life lesson I have lived by and can give is
" Learn from others mistakes, as life is to short to learn them all yourself "
Hence the support and freedom of information from the experience members who have already been through the trial and error stage, to help all newbs get through the initial learning curve, so all can enjoy this wet shaving experience educated to avoid these common mistakes.
I know I am glad I found this forum sooner rather than later but a month or 2 earlier would have been a lot better, just my honest opinion and I thank everyone for their advice and inputs since this forum started

First
Attempt
In
Learning

He's gone, I tell you!

I often find it rather illuminating to read people's past posts.

The hardest part is exercising restraint in pressing the 'ban' button.

That's what makes this place great! A gentleman is allowed to have an opinion!

Originally Posted by gugi

I often find it rather illuminating to read people's past posts.

The hardest part is exercising restraint in pressing the 'ban' button.

This Ban button you speke of,Can it be rented for a few Hours

I'm sorry I offended so many people, that was never my intention.
Never once did I say that SRP is not a useful place or that the knowledge here is unneeded or wrong. Quite the contrary - I at least tried to stress that I probably wouldn't have started shaving without it.
It was not my intention to brag about my uberskills, nor am I confident that I have reached some kind of pinnacle. I'm sorry if I left that impression. I still get better every time and don't suspect I will stop learning any time soon. And most definately SRP will help me with it. Why I said anything is because I feel quite unremarkable in every way. My situation forced me to do things quite differently, and it worked out much easier than one would expect after reading some of the guides and advices.

To the one who tried to insult me on inventing a new wheel regarding stropping - absolutely uncalled for. I got the advice (holding the blade diogonal, not parallel to the strop during x-stroke) from an instruction in a very old magazine I found somewhere on SRP. So that might be the original way, although I don't insist on it. Unfortunately I can no longer find it, so I don't have any proof.

To the one who tried to imply my advice is to ruin shave ready blades on a hone - that is insane. Where have I said anything remotely similar to that? My firm belief is that a shave-ready razor is called so because it has no need for honing. However once it is no longer shave-ready, it's a different story. Personally I acquired a blade that was not shave ready. I live in a place where sending it to a honemeister would mean spending more than buying a Norton 4/8. I figured that since the two trades are almost completely unrelated, it makes absolutely no difference which one I learn first - shaving or honing, so I bought the Norton. Of course, I learned all about honing here. EXCEPT the fact that I should wait for some misterious time until I magically become ready to start learning to hone.

Some of you are deliberately misunderstanding and misinterpreting me. Please don't. If you really don't like what I'm saying, you should debate and attack my arguments, not what you think I might have wanted to imply or what my underlying motivations might be. (You might need to read List of fallacies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

This is a place where everyone shares their opinions. If my opinion differs from what is mainstream, am I neccessarily wrong? Is everyone faultless and flawless here? If I question the status quo, should I be burned on a stake?

I wrote with the best of intentions - to add to the pool of opinions here and maybe help someone with that. I also had the impression that any critique might be beneficial, if not for anything else, then to be dismissed with evidence to contrary while strengthening the original ideas.
I am glad to find out that it was unneccessary, as my thoughts and experiences apply to me only and are completely useless to any other individuals. On the other hand, I'm sad that some people think that their opinion is end all be all, and any others should be vehemently put down and preferrably banned.

Are you trolling? If you really want it I can give you a ban.

Nobody has objected to you having an opinion, rather to the ways you present your opinions in the context of everything else.

I would suggest that you take a step back and stop attacking people who are way more experienced than you not simply in shaving with and honing straight razors but in being successful with helping hundreds and sometimes thousands of beginners.

If you want to share your experience and help others please do, but putting down your betters does not transfer any credibility on you, just the opposite.

Dude, what you have done is not so remarkable, un-conventional, or offending.

It does seem by all your post that you are intentionally attempting to be controversial, in the name of asking for help.
Many are here to offer help to those that need it.

Unfortunately we have seen those that come to the site… just to be subversive… and you do fit the profile.

Hopefully you are not one of …those people… and your shaves continue to improve.

Which, you will find they will, with experience. You will also come to find, how little you know now and what you are experiencing now, is really not, that great a shave.

Good luck.