Thread: I bought me some straight razors!

Yay, it arrived!! They're so shiny...

Anyways, a few questions... I got strop maintenance paste- is that the paste you can use is a type of 'mini hone'? Or is it for something else?

The alum block- it confused me at first! For some reason I thought a styptic pencil was in the kit, but I was mistaken. So it's a matter of holding it against any nicks I might have?

Hmm, it's all looking mighty interesting! The soap smells really nice too

Cheers,
Dave

OK, first shave!

OK, to start with, I've had a beard for some time, so that posed certain problems of itself. So I started by using my beard trimming scizzors to cut it down quite a bit. I got it down to about four days' growth (approx) before starting.

So I filled the basin with hot water, splashed some water on my face a few times to get it wet, and soaped my face up a little. I started stropping. It wasn't a perfect endeavour- I haven't perfected the 'flip' you do at the end of each stroke, and I nicked the strop a couple times- oh noes! But I did my strokes and got to it.

Overall it was a relatively successful first shave. For this one, I did WTG only, to get into the rhythm of things. I didn't expect anything spectacular the first time- I was taking a lot of hair off, and I ended up with about half a days' growth at the end on my face- on average. My chin has a bit more hair on it, for instance. I cut myself a couple times- the first time was due to inattentiveness- I wanted to get a bit on the left of my upper lip, and virtually turned the blade to 90 degrees! Two little nicks from that. I also got a small one on my chin, at the bottom of my lip.

But, overall a good start, and I know I'll get better as I get to know my beard better!

Congrats on getting your first shave under your belt. Cool!

I too have dealt with Steve at The Invisible Edge and can vouch for the quality of his service and the edge he can put on a blade.

The alum block can be used like a styptic for little nicks and for after your shave to tighten the skin - just rub it round lightly. The razors didn't need stropping before use (I did that!) but no matter - I know how keen those Wapi edge are!

Keep it up!

Cheers for the encouragement, guys! I used the alum block with my first shave- stings a little, but it heals the bleeding up great! I remember when I was younger I did the whole 'hold a tissue against it' method and there were times when I bled for 10-20 minutes! This got it all nice after a few seconds, which is great.

My second shave was a little bit better. I shaved with the second of my razors, and I stropped that one as well- mainly because I want to get the practice in. My method is getting a little better with each stroke, and I'm sure that I'll get into a rhythm soon enough. The shave was obviously closer this time- much less hair to get out of the way! I did WTG again and a little bit of S-N stuff on my neck where it was a little longer. It is a reasonably close shave- not BBS but certainly enough to keep me happy for the time being!

Hmm, not onto looking into expanding my etup to include a hone eventually...