Good Day, New to the forums and straight razors

Okay, so I have a beard and mustache. I am figuring if I am going to let them grow out I need to trim them up. I have been learning the old fashioned way of doing several things and when I went to the barber recently I was introduced to straight razor shaving and beard oils. I have been making beard oils and mustache was ever since. So I have been looking at straight razors to clean up my cheeks and possibly around my neck. My wife was a hair dresser and straight razors were part of her training. Though, what she learned on was a replaceable blade straight razor. Her great aunt was giving her some old stuff and some of it included a replaceable blade straight razor that is pretty old.

Anyway, long story short we are having to cut back a bit on Christmas this year so I am going to get a Gold Dollar #208 for Christmas and a decent strop. I fully expect that within the next year I will want to learn to hone and probably by next Christmas upgrade my razor though maybe not I really won't be covering a lot of area with it.

The main advantages that straight razors appear to have in my head is more cut control and better line control. Considering I haven't shaved at all in about a year and have only had a beard trim and cheek shave maybe twice in the last year I figure it is about time I do a little more to clean up my look a bit.

Other achievements for the end of the year were making gluten-free pumpkin pies starting with roasting pumpkin and making chocolate starting with roasting nibs.

I know some of you heat Gold Dollar and I know that it is not going to be top of the line but I can get one professionally honed for about 30 bucks and that will at least give me something to learn with. From what I have read most people seem to say that if you get a good hone and take care of it then it will get the job done, but there are certainly better blades out there. I figure that matches most everything I have so it should fit right in to my lifestyle.
I also have the replaceable blade one I will work with some to see how it goes.

Hi and welcome. I started by shaving just the neck and cheeks lines as I had a short beard at the time. Have a goatee now as needed more space for shaving and wofe wont let me get rid of it. Hopefully the gold dollars will be a decent one and hold an edge. For a little extra might be worth keeping your eye on the classifieds for a vintage. You would have no problems with a vintage for the rest of your life. Good luck and any questions feel free to ask

Welcome Fezzik, this place is great! I'm sure you will be more than stocked with knowledge after spending some time on the forums and talking to other members.

One of my favourite things about straights is that they will slice right through the beard, no pre-trimming or clogged shavers/razors. One pass, no beard anymore :)

I figure, from what I gather it is probably good to have a few around. The replaceable blade one is a Weck. The actual blade was a 3 Weck with tapered sides. Anyway, the way I see it the Gold Dollars by most counts get the job done. It seems most of the problems are with the 66 more than the 208s. I considered an 800 but don't see very many people talking about them one way or the other. I figure a restored vintage would probably be a good upgrade at a later date. Maybe by March or July or next year or something. Depending on finances and how it goes/keeps an edge. I got a little worried when I read a thread about how bad they were but it seemed that was all about the 66.

I hope it does work out, if not I am sure I will try again later with a higher end one or a vintage.

That was one of the things I noticed. If I can go from what I have to Goatee without a pre-trim that may be a massive advantage and I may do that sooner rather than later. I have a long beard but the sides have never been my favorite. The main reason I stopped cutting them off altogether is the barbers tend to go too far in and make my beard take up too little of my chin. If I can control it myself with a little more control than a 3 or 4 blade rake thing has then I might go for that.