Hello all,

Brand new to the site and to the whole idea of straight razor shaving. I enjoy shaving in general; it's my little zen ritual every day. I started reading up on straight razor shaving and thought it would take my little ritual to a whole new level.

Regrettably I didn't find this site until after I'd already purchased a few things. Either way, I now have an "intro" set of stuff from classicshaving: dovo razor, badger shave brush, some shaving soap, a double-sided linen-an-leather strop, and a 4000/8000 water stone.

So I finally got the stuff and wanted to use it, of course! Long story short, I tried taking a few passes with the thing out of the box after some stropping (don't scold me yet, I only took a few strokes and didn't cut myself) and it was pretty apparent that it was not shave-ready (not a surprise, from what I've read on these forumns today).

So here's the question:

Do I get the razor professionally honed by Lynn or one of the other honemasters, or take chances and give it a shot myself? I am not underestimating the task...I have read it can take years to learn to hone well.

But is there anything to lose? Can I really mess it up? Why not take a shot at it and then send it in if it doesn't go well?

Maybe that's just major naivete, which is why I'm putting the question up to the group of much wiser shavers than myself. Either way I want to get shaving, but will be patient if it's a really bad idea to try honing out of the box.

Advice?

Thanks!

-Andy

P.s. I'll check back here of course, but my email address is akmathys@gmail.com