Thread: Newbie doing it wrong, getting it right

Hello all!

I just finished my fourth straight razor shave yesterday, and I'm hooked.

So far, I've done nearly everything wrong too. I went to an antiques store last week and picked up a George Butler and Co spike point with just a bit of black staining on it. A few days later, I went to a Woodcraft store and picked up the Norton 4/8, a double-sided paddle strop, and a big green crayon of CrO2. When I got home, started honing. Keep in mind, I'd never honed anything in my life, except my pocketknife on concrete. I used a bit of the CrO2 on a cotton swab to try to polish off some of the black stains, largely unsuccessfully, but there was some improvement, and I'm not interesting in winning any beauty contests, just a good shave.

I'd read the horror stories, and I'd read the warnings, but more importantly, I read everything I could find about straight razors, shaving, honing and stropping. Within about 2 hours of work, that old antique went from letter opener to wicked sharp.

When I felt I'd fooled around with that thing long enough, I went upstairs, took a shower, and prepared for my first straight razor shave. Boy was I surprised! I had been expecting absolute murder. I've had bad shaves before, and was anticipating the worst. I'd had about a week's worth of growth, and a single, with the grain pass just wiped away all visible traces of my beard. It was as if the blade itself was happy, nay, eager to be shaving again.

I won't pretend I got the closest shave I ever had. I did the standard three passes, and when I ran my hand against the grain, there were still plenty of sandpaper spots in the usual places. But there were still other spots that were as close as I've ever gotten. I did manage to nick and cut myself a few times, but I've done worse with disposable razors, and there was some pretty good razor burn on my third shave, which I attribute to too much pressure, bad angles and still learning the proper approach.

I'm about to go upstairs for my fifth shave and I'm psyched. For the first time in my life, I look forward to shaving; nicks, cuts, razor burn and all, because I know now that all those things depend on me and me alone, not some stupid cartridge design. Even better, I don't have to buy those damned expensive disposable razors or cartridges anymore.

Great job!

Jordan

Congratulations man. Im on shave 2, and can't wait for it to get easier every time. My second shave was closer, but had razor burn I didnt have the first time. We'll get it

It's fun! and I'm not too sussed about razor burn. On the fourth shave, I almost entirely eliminated it, except for the places that were still irritated from the last time. I'm not trying for the BBS yet, just working my my angles, approach and using as little pressure as possible. The supershave will come in time.

Congrats on restoring a razor! I'm working on one right now, but it's definitely not going that well!