Thread: Success!

Sorry if this is another post about a first shave, but I am feeling pretty happy about now!

Note: I always jump in feet-first when I approach something new, so if it seems as though I have bought maybe more than I should as a newbie, that's because I can't stop myself and have to try my hand at everything!

Anyway, on with the evenings events!

I bought a shave-ready wapi, but without my strop that I was waiting for (it takes a while for a package to come from poland to the UK!), I wasn't going to try and shave with it.

I bought a couple of old straights on for cheap to practice honing on, and tonight (my norton flattening stone arrived as well) I went and started on the Bismarck I picked up. It had rust along the edge, but with no nicks, I thought it might be the easiest I could start with.

Went straight in with the 4000 grit. Looking back, maybe the 1000 would've been quicker, but I persevered until I was cutting arm hair, then moved to a coticule, then to the chinese 12000 to finish.

Feeling pretty excited with my success (well, as far as I can judge at the moment, having no real experience with straights), I thought "Well, people always say that shaving is the best test of a blade", so I lathered up my left cheek (from dry, which might have been a mistake), and proceeded to go WTG. This didn't seem to do much (maybe because I didn't give the hair enough time to soften), so I though "Gah, sod it" and went straight to ATG.

It felt like it was pulling a little, but wow! This is the smoothest shave I have ever had! I was so bouyed up by this, I did the other side as well!

Scared myself a little when I felt steel on earlobe, but no cuts, and the alum block just gave me a tingle on a couple of spots on each cheek.

Summary: I love it! I am so glad I started down the path of the straight razor. If I had given any more money to Mr. Gillette, whose blades seem to go up in price but down in the number of cartridges you get in a box, I would probably do something silly.

Thanks for listening! Just need to take the scales off, de-rust the rest of the blade (I have tuf-glided it to keep it stable for now), polish the scratched-in initials from the back of the scales and re-pin. How hard can it be?

congratulations!

BTW, the price per blade that Mr. Gillette sells actually goes down - I think you now get 6 per cartridge - have to be factual

congrats.

Great feeling aint it !

There's something very satisfying with taking something that was made 50+ years ago and "bringing it back to life", doing the job it was made to do.

Still feeling pretty smooth this morning as well

No need to apologise for your post on first shave. This is the place to do just that. Welcome to our world of straights and get ready to start buying everything in sight. Sound like you are off to a good start there and are proceeding down a good path w/ shave ready and practice blades.