I used a Tower Brand #126 razor I had aquired from Wiskers who was nice enough to have it sent out to be honed before making its way to me. I also aquired a strop from the classifieds here that I employed to make 20 passes prior to shaving on the leather side only after wiping off the oil from the blade.

For lather I used a Van Der Hagen set I purchased at a local walmart that included a boar hair brush, shave bowl, and soap. I had been practiing building lather with this using the Mach 3 to shave.

Sunday night I used the straight for the first time and I think it went rather well. Still working on how exactly to hold the blade. I made a pass with and against the grain but still had to touch up with the Mach 3.

I am sure I did not quite apply enough pressure or use the proper angle most of the time but twice I could tell I was using too much pressure at too high of an angle as I could feel the blade start to dig in, but slowly backing off seemed to ward off any cuts.

I can say my neck was feeling rather raw even with aftershave lotion on, the cheeks did not seem to be so bad. I will give it a go again this morning. Oh and pics of the razor below!



Closed and now for the money shot!