Thread: gaining confidence .. a shave at a time

hello all, really excited to be here. Had a tough time for some reason getting the confirmation email. But now it's all ok. I am in.

I really started shaving with straight razors around 6 months back, because the triple blades, 5 blades et al had left me with considerable problems on my skin in form of razor bumps and ingrown hair. So I decided to go straight razor shaving on the cheap and got me a ZY430+, a very curious blade from what I could gather. 2 weeks later got a leather strop, diamond paste & a gold dollar (heard it in forums) kit from China and decided to check my shaving and honing skills. In 6 months, I can say that I am addicted to this now. More than shaving, I am addicted to sharpening.

The ZY430+ it's a 6/8 #777 came as ready to shave, I didn't do HHT on it but it would really grip the skin on the thumb, so i guess it was nicely sharp. But there was a problem in that it had a prominent recurve behind the toe and that worried me as to how I could hone this well. So began to learn honing on what was a really sharp razor from factory. I feel now that this was a mistake. and I should have just left that razor alone. To top it my gold dollar (208) too was really beautiful and sharp. It has needed no sharpening, passes HHT and gives beautiful shaves every time.

I had started around with a shavette so, I didn't have much shaving anxiety during my first Straight shave. In fact, it felt much friendlier and solid than the shavette which would cut me if I did a small mistake, the straight razor on other hand was very forgiving. I hope to share my various experiences in various forums. Thanks for accepting me.