Thread: Writer doing research

Hi there and welcome. There's a lot of good info available here, a lot more than was available on the net when I first started out 9 years ago.

First, let me say that there is no other reliable place on the internet to get information on razor use and care. Seriously.

Having said that, I want to say that it's very esay to overthink this. It isn't rocket science. Shaving isn't some sort of skill that requires years of practice, scads of patience, or a guru to teach it. Men have been using razors to shave themselves for quite some time now and I have never heard of someone killing themselves doing it.

By way of analogy, look at the Coffee thread on "The Finer Things" forum. There are as many ways to make a cup of coffee as there are coffee drinkers. Some like the results they get from spending huge ammounts of money and time on everything from coffee bean roasters and burr grinders and elaborate espresso machines, and some people like what they get out of their Ibrik. Like coffee, shaving can be as complicated or as simple as you like. Some people like to spend time fiddling with things, others see it as a chore, many people are somewhere in the middle. I lean more towards "chore", but I like the group here, so I stick around for the conversation

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you may as well start out with a boar bristle brush from the drug store, some Williams or Van derHagen shaving soap, and an old coffee mug to make lather in before you start dumping a bunch of money into top shelf products. Why? Because you haven't ever done it before, and you can't really know what you are personally going to want. The cheap brush you buy can go in your travel bag when you get a really good badger brush. Or not. I personally like my boar brush and see no need to drop $40 or more for one (my boar brush cost me less than $6, and it's lasted for years).

As far as honing, I'd suggest you get yourself a decent barber hone to maintain the edge. I manage to keep an edge for years without having to put my blade on anything coarser than my barber hone and strop.

My advice is this, DON'T OVERTHINK IT! Just get a shave ready razor and shave with it. DO STROP CAREFULLY! The guys you saw on the movies doing it really fast are only acting like they're stropping. Start slowly untill you get the technique down, then take the speed up a little. It doesen't have to be so fast to be effective.

Have fun with it.