Thread: hello!

hello everyone i thought i would introduce myself,i,m from kent the garden of england and i,m new to the art of "real shaving" and heres why.
i started shaving many moons ago i didnt like doin it then and i dont like doin now, i,ve tried electric razors but they just grab handfuls of whiskers and rip em out! bics disposables ouch!! they just dispose of your face,mach 1,2,3 but all i get is a sore face, i even grew a beard but er no thanks so in the end just accepted that it was a chore that had to be done, then a eureka moment, when on holiday in turkey i had a shave in a barbers hot towels, shaving foam put on with a brush,a lighted cotton bud round my ears and up my nose, and the closest shave i ever had! and it was a pleasant experience!. so when i got home i decided to get myself a str8 razor and turn a chore into something i would look forward to.
so i got a razor and strop from ebay, 1st mistake should have done research, razor arrived but had,nt been sharpened at all,so checked the internet and lo and behold loads of info,so i,ve ordered a new one from the gentlemans shop which should arrive tommorrow which they told me is shave ready,also a sharpening stone,also ordered the dvd from the real shaving co.so when new razor arrives can i use it after stropping or will it need to be sharpened on the stone? i dont want to ruin it,anyway i,ve been practising lathering up and shaving with a blunt razor and then shaving with the mach3 for now, i think it will take a while to get the hang of it but i,m determined i will,sorry for the long winded post and look forward to learning from you all

Welcome!

No need to apologize to this crowd for long winded posts. If we all did that there'd be too many long winded apologies.

Keep us posted on your progress and most of all, enjoy yourself. You're in for some great shaves.

X

Depends. Tell us what you have bought.

If the razor is good quality and shave ready, it will just want stropping before shaving. Be careful, because you can blunt a sharp edge with poor stropping, so go very slowly.

If it isn't shave ready, then it will need honing; depending on what you have bought and your skills, it may take 10 minutes to get ready, or you may need three months.

And welcome.

Originally Posted by paul_lynch

Depends. Tell us what you have bought.

If the razor is good quality and shave ready, it will just want stropping before shaving. Be careful, because you can blunt a sharp edge with poor stropping, so go very slowly.

If it isn't shave ready, then it will need honing; depending on what you have bought and your skills, it may take 10 minutes to get ready, or you may need three months.

And welcome.

thanks, i bought a cryil r salter entry model,along with the hand held honing stone/strop,any advice would be most welcome thanks again

it is hard to tell if you will still need to hone the new razor a bit. unless the store offers a honing service it is very likely in need of a little attention. very rarely do you find a new razor that is actually shaving sharp right out of the box. oh, you can, most likely, shave with it but it will not be as smooth and enjoyable as a properly honed razor. which could make you want to quit in about a week as it could pull that much.

As for the hone/strop hard to tell without more details and pictures.

there are a number of members in the UK and europe who could help you get you blades shaving sharp. just start a thread about honing services in the UK.

Hi Tony and welcome. Always good to see another Brit on the forum. And it won't take much effort to put up with the Spurs thing either as my missus is a Spurs fan!

Whereabouts in Kent are you? I spent a couple of years in Sittingbourne, 10 years in Canterbury, and I still have family who live on the Isle of Sheppey (!).

My advice for your blade is to have it honed by an experienced honer. I'm just about confident enough to do my own, but it's still somewhat early for me to be offering my services to other newbs! I think Iwan Currie (Steelforge) has offered honing in the UK so you could PM him.

Keep us posted on how you do.

Originally Posted by majurey

Hi Tony and welcome. Always good to see another Brit on the forum. And it won't take much effort to put up with the Spurs thing either as my missus is a Spurs fan!

Whereabouts in Kent are you? I spent a couple of years in Sittingbourne, 10 years in Canterbury, and I still have family who live on the Isle of Sheppey (!).

My advice for your blade is to have it honed by an experienced honer. I'm just about confident enough to do my own, but it's still somewhat early for me to be offering my services to other newbs! I think Iwan Currie (Steelforge) has offered honing in the UK so you could PM him.

Keep us posted on how you do.

hi majurey, funny enough i live on the isle of sheppey! small world eh!
thanks for the advice maybe i,ll pm mr currie i,ve just ordered some of them polish jobbies after reading 54 pages on another thread so will wait for them to arrive first thanks

Originally Posted by tonyspurs

thanks, i bought a cryil r salter entry model,along with the hand held honing stone/strop,any advice would be most welcome thanks again

In my experience, a Cyril Salter will need honing - I bought one as my first straight, and I still don't have it honed right. I also have a Wapienica that I bought right after it (as soon as I found this place), which took 15 minutes of fumbling on a Norton 4/8k to reach good enough, and an ebay 6/8 that is now much better than these.

I don't know what strop/hone you have, could be anything. I'll just second the suggestions to get an expert sharpen the blade to eliminate that as a possible issue when learning.

hi just an update i,m still waiting for the cryil to arrive so in the meantime i have been having a go at honing the blunt ebay razor on a japanese waterstone i got with a expensive set of sushi knives last christmas, been spending an hour or so a day on it and this morning attempted to shave with it, i only done both cheeks and very carefully,well it did shave but still needs more work but considering i could run it across my thumb without leaving a mark a few days back an improvement,i finished off with a m3.
what i have discovered over the last week is there is something theraputic about preparing for a shave.hot towel on face, lathering up, stropping the blade (even tho i was,nt using it)prosaro pre shave cream before and after and a closer shave than before using the same razor!
so no more dreading the morning shave for me i,m gonna enjoy the morning ritual as well as hopefully learning a new skill