My (almost) first shave

So, Being the impatient guy that I am waiting around for those newbie kits just wasn't cutting it (heh, pun intended?), so I spent a few hours yesterday honing that Case pocketknife that looks suspiciously like a straight razor. Still not perfect but it was about 2am and I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl.

Results? Definitely better than this Zeepk thing I got.. I'd say I'm about 80-85% of what I got with a Norelco, not all that impressive for a razor... but I think pretty impressive for a garden variety pocket knife. enough to encourage me to keep honing it anyway lol!

Only minimal razor burn (not much more than what I get daily with a "Fusion")

One question I have for you experienced guys. All the "how to's" I read talk about the utter importance of "stretching" the skin. But for the life of me, I can't figure out how to do that, as when I'm lathered up my fingers just slip over the skin with no friction.

Grab sections that don't have lather on it with your dry fingers.

When doing your cheeks you can grab
up around your temple area and pull
upwards stretching the skin quite a bit. There
shouldn't be any lather there. As
for the neck area, I just generally
look up and the skin stretches itself
good enough. As you shave you'll
find your face starts drying and almost
becomes tacky which will also help.

John

Thanks for the tips, I'll give those a try. I also found that if I took a washcloth, I could get some traction...