Thread: One might call this a back-alley shave

Finally got my first straight shave today. And the circumstances were as forced as I was eager to have a razor when I hit the road next week. It's a full story, check it out:

I was just carousing the local antique/junk shops the other day looking for a specific stone for my girlfriend, when I thought to ask if the woman had any strait razors (as always, hoping for a gem). She did, she had two and they were both chipped. One looked like stalactites hanging from a very ashamed spine, the other was a NON plus ultra from Germany with a really cool Shriner-eske decal on the blade. The interesting thing about this blade was that the chip was at the very end of the blade; theoretically I COULD hone this baby up and get a shaveable razor out of it. But I didn't buy it. I left.
The next day I ran into a metal-worker friend of mine whom I knew might have the right stones to hone up that old blade (it never really left my mind). He did. He had the whole schabang: Arkansas stones, treated strops, all of it. So I bought the razor.
Now this razor may have been thought inserviceable. So I talked the woman down to $5 and walked out happy, next door to the coffee shop where I met my friend who had the stones. A few minutes of honing and stropping and I went into the coffee shop bathroom to test it out.
Lather some soapy water, put it on my cheeks, try it out.
The first thing I noticed was how extremely natural it felt to me, like I already had the hang of it and had been doing it for years.
It worked!! My cheeks were BBS, and as soon as I went back out to the gazebo a young woman commented at how dashing I looked (but I think she has a little crush on me, so I'll take the credit- not the razor. And I went home.
Now, I had a pretty good little 3-week beard going on, so I didn't want to do it all at the coffee shop . I got home and my first shave began.
I had to strop, and having only invested said $5 so far I was completely equipment-less. But I grew up on MacGyver. I threw my leather belt over the towel rack, stropped it up, lathered my face with dial soap, and went to town. The beard WAS tough, and the razor no gem, but the hair all came off my face. I did lotsa left hand work, some atg too; only one (real)knick from carelessness, but not bad- they don't really hurt. One thing, though, is my face was NOT accustomed to it. There was a lot of small blood-lets all over my face, but those just came from a tender skin being scraped with the sharpest blade I've ever handled.
A SUCCESS!!!!! Not BBS, but as close as my norelco could ever get, and all in all it's a pretty cool thing; think of it like this: my grandfathers did this. Their grandfathers did as well. Their genes are now mine and I am doing it. If there is no other way for me to relate to my ancestors, with this small part of daily life I always will.

I'd just like to thank everyone in this community for not only being there with all your wisdom to help me and all these others, but simply for BEING a great community. Without what I've learned here I may have never had this pleasure. Bravo.

Originally Posted by Aberock

If there is no other way for me to relate to my ancestors, with this small part of daily life I always will.

Well said! Welcome to our world!!!

Congrats. Very cool. Talk about an econo shave. Good story.

Remember to keep a very light touch and watch your blade angles. Weepers may be inevitable for you and your face during this adjustment, but it's also easy to get the weepers in my experience with too much pressure.

Good luck.

Chris L

Very cool story, well done indeed!

- Scott

Great story!
Glad to hear it! It will only get better, then worse, then better again!!

You're either gifted or very lucky or both. Either way, I'm impressed. Welcome to the forum!

In a coffeeshop barhroom?? Wow.

Now just go back and talk to that girl.

Put in another dial-soap shave with my chipped razor today. No knicks, all's good. I never would've believed it until I tried it. Tomorrow I hit the road, so expect some interesting stories, there

good story, Hope it was fun, well put final comments.