Thread: About one month in...

So far, so good. I'm really getting the hang of it, haven't cut myself majorly yet, only an occasional nick and they are fewer and farther in between now, knock on wood but's been a few weeks. My stropping has come a long ways, and I am maintaining a sharp edge. I shave WTG, XTG and then ATG each morning, and getting a very close shave now. I'm learning the different angles of attack for my own individual features, and it's been a real learning curve. Now the bad... I've aquired 5 razors now, it's addictive! My main two everyday users that I rotate are Dovo's that I bought new when I started, a Dovo Special and a Dovo Perlex. Now I just picked up some flea market finds, a Joseph Rogers and Sons and a Wade & Butcher that I want to clean up and restore. I found a really cool strop too at an antique store that I started using and it's doing a better job than my hanging strop. It's a small belt of leather that is looped around an adjustable metal frame with a wooden handle that turns to tighten or loosen. One side is black and coarser and one side is light. It slides neatly into a box for storage. The box says it's made in Albany, NY and the original price printed on the box was 75 cents. The instructions for use are still clear on the box and I have followed them and my razor is actually being maintained quite nicely. The box says to rub some vaseline into the leather occasionally. All I have done with it is apply some strop dressing when I first bought it.

Dan

Dan, I am only a few months ahead of you, enough to tell that it doesnt stop! Hard to beleive so much pleasure can be taken from something we have to do anyway. Enjoy.

By the way, I see that you are a Civil War re-enactor. Get down to Gettsyburg last week? I live not too far from there? Shave with a straight at those events?

J

The strop is called a loom strop.

The addiction is called RAD and the enjoyment is forever.

Enjoy and keep up the practice.

Dodge Deluxe, welcome and congrats on your first month. Sounds like you are way ahead of the curve. Glad to have you aboard.

Mark

Thanks all. I didn't make it down to the Gettysburg event, and I've not been to any events yet since beginning straight razor shaving. I will indeed take along my razor and shave at Civil War reenacting events though in the future. I still have a great interest in the Civil War period and the 19th century, but as of late my attention has been focused on the 30's and 40's era. I bought a 1939 Dodge sedan a few years ago that I have been restoring and I've jumped knee deep into the time period. My straight razor interest sprang from both, but also from a long time urge to reconnect with the past, to a simpler time when things weren't so rushed. That and the fact that straight razor shaving was what I thought to be a dying art that needed to be preserved, and is much more economical when you consider the cost of the Mach 3's, to use and throw away. I guess I just got tired of the "throw away society" we tend to live in. I see here at the SRP I'm far from being alone in my thinking! Thanks for the info on the loom strop!

Dan

Dan,
Interesting entre to SR shaving. Your interest in Americana of several generations back reminds me of my grandfather. I can't remember him shaving but I do recall his strop that hung by the sink. I also remember that he had a small tablet on which he'd place a pencil stroke for each faceful of lather extacted from those new-fangle aerosol cans! He was bitching, not because of the lousy cream, but because he felt he wasn't getting his moneys worth!!

As for "throw away society", you've just joined a group of acquirers! Welcome.

Speaking of ACW reenacting, has anyone bought the shaving set or items from FC sutler?

Civil War Haversack Stuffers Sutler - Fall Creek Sutler - LDS (scroll down)

Is the razor as bad as the price suggests? What is the soap like? I like the look of the mug (but I reenact Union...yes we do it in Australia).

I would not recommend it. The price alone should be huge red flag. You get what you pay for. To think that a brand new $12.50 razor is going to be usable for anything other than a prop to show the public at a reenactment is very wishful thinking. The mug and soap are actually usable, and can be purchased direct from the maker, a company called Heavenly Harvest. Heavenly Harvest. Other than that, I'd run away!

Dan