Newbie saying heyup and asking a few questions...
Heyup - my name's Dem and I'm a straights and SRP newbie currently living in Liverpool in North West England but originally from the People's Republic of Yorkshire to the north of England. For years I shaved with a very old safety razor inherited from my grandfather and palmolive (I think) brushless shave cream, one pass, no art to it, but always enjoyed doing it and was satisfied with the results. Then the thread went and I couldn't find a basic safety razor in any of the normal shops so I reluctantly and joylessly trolloped between different '10 blades shave you closer' systems and a philips electric until earlier this year. Then a hunt for moustache wax (my other recently acquired enthusiasm/obsession) led me various grooming and shaving shops and sites and I got hold of some decent shaving stuff and reintroduced both joy and satisfaction into my shaving. I kept seeing gorgeous straights on various websites and when I found myself lying in bed working out how I would manouvre a straight between sideburn and muzzy, I knew I would have to give it a go.
I finally got round to ordering various bits of kit over the last few days - a coticule/bbw combo from the classifieds here, a couple of vintage strops from ebay (an Osgar leather/canvas one which seems okay and a paddle jobbie made of calf and seal called The Olympic which seems like a tatty ornament) and a 'new Vintage' razor from The Gentleman's Shop website. Because I knew the Belgian stones would arrive later than the razor, I also got a small, cheap Canadian stone from TGS, expecting the razor not to be shave ready as it had been stored away since the 60s. The razor arrived yesterday and may have been a bit of a mistake for a first razor but I can't afford to get another so it's a mistake I'll have to live with for the time being.
The razor is a Timor blue 6/8 spike point from Cyril Salter. I think I must've got the last one because soon after my order it disappeared from TGS website. I wanted something relatively cheap and a bit different and this fitted the bill. However, I just read another thread where Lynn says he's had trouble getting and keeping a shave edge with one of these and wouldn't recommend them to newbies or experienced alike. Hey ho!
When I got the blade, I did a hair test using a hair from my partner's hairbrush. She has really fine hair. Needless to say, the blade failed the test out of the box. I used the stone for a bit, then the canvas and finally the leather and it still wouldn't cut. SO I repeated the process, with a much lighter touch at every stage and much longer with the stone. I'm beginning to think the stone isn't really suited to a razor though, it's very like the sort of thing I've always used for a penknife. Anyway, the blade still failed the hanging hair test with my partner's hair. I noticed a hair from my dog on my clothes and out of curiosity tried that and while it didn't exactly 'pop' it did cut pretty quickly so I tried it with hairs from my moustache and head and they too cut after sliding a milimeter or so along the blade. SO I thought maybe my partner's hair was too fine and the blade was ready and decided to give it a go.
The shave was by no means terrible, especially as the blade was woefully short of being sharp enough and technique-wise I'm on the other side of that moat you need to hop over before you start scrambling up the learning curve. I will persevere but I might wait until I can try the Belgian stones before trying it again. Ideally I'd like to get it honed professionally by somebody willing to show me what they do but I think I'll have to wait for the New Year before I do that. Which leads me to my questions.
1 - does anybody know of a straight honing specialist in or near Liverpool, or is there an experienced member of these forums in my neck of the woods, who knows their way around a coticule and is willing to spare a few hours showing me what to do?
2 - does anybody here have a handlebar moustache and some tips about shaving around it?
I'm sorry this turned into an essay and profoundest thanks to anyone who hacks through this far! My tendency is to lurk so I won't impose on your time much more than this!
