Thread: Hello

Hello, all. I am new and I just received all my initial items for straight shaving. After leaving the electric shaving world for the DE world four months ago, I have been hunting for the best shave ever since. I never knew a person could be so consumed about getting the best shave possible. Shaving is no longer a chore but a quest for me.

Anyhow, I received my Dovo pre-honed blade from classicshaving.com and I botched the stropping right off the get-go. Heck, I even lead with the spine and watched Lyn's DVD three times, but my eagerness for that great shave got in my way; I believe I had too much pressure on the strop. Oh well, the learning curve begins.

Take care for now, and look forward to your posts.

Welcome to SRP. Sorry to hear that you miscued with the strop. Here is a really good tutorial on stopping and here is another on beginning shaving with a straight by SRP founder Lynn Abrams. You may not have damaged the edge with the strop. If you did I'm afraid you'll have to get it rehoned. Take a look at our member services in the classifieds here for a honemiester to send it to if it is necessary. If you have any questions feel free to ask and let us know how you're making out.

Welcome to straight shaving. The effort will be rewarded!

I will bet your razor is fine, but just needs to be stropped correctly. Let the weight of the razor rest on the strop while stropping. More passes and less force always seems to win out. Learning straight shaving tests your patience and determination.

My first time stropping, my blade actually nicked the strop and that was due to my inexperience of stropping and learning the light touch. The blade was fine and continues to be a performer. I just increased the passes and let the weight of the razor make contact.

A key purchase for me was my 4 sided pasted strop. A few passes on this along with the leather always smoothes out the edge to be very sharp.

Great references on Wiki!

Good Luck

Pabster

Welcome to SRP and to the path that will lead to the sought after BBS shave. Spend a lot of time asking questions and learning from the WIKI both are great sources of information here. Being zealous can be dangerous with a str8 I've learned patience is the key that has allowed me learn and helps me continue to do so. Good luck in this endevor. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the experience.

Thank you for the welcome, the tips and the links. The information is great.

Yes, this shaving methods takes patience, but since getting married and having two kids, I no longer fly or skydive. So, I have more time-in-the-house on my hands.

I have a bragging rights bet with my brother set for next spring, so hopefully I can catch-on by then. He shaves in the shower with a Bick disposable; he has since his rushed militar days. He does not believe in wet shaving, so the guantlet has been dropped.

Anyway, take care for now.

Welcome to the forums and your newest quest. Just be patient and you will be rewarded. When we start something new we have a tendency to dive in with both feet. This is one of those things where less is better at the start. You will be rewarded at the end. Enjoy!!

With proper attention the skills necessary for a good straight shave advance pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by sarend

I have a bragging rights bet with my brother set for next spring, so hopefully I can catch-on by then. He shaves in the shower with a Bick disposable; he has since his rushed militar days. He does believe in wet shaving, so the guantlet has been dropped.

I'd like to hear the details of that bet.

X

Hi, take a look around the forums here and I think that all of us here are in presuit of the ultimate shave. I know I am, which is the reason why I left electrics way behind years ago and the journey landed me here in the world of straight razors.

Originally Posted by xman

With proper attention the skills necessary for a good straight shave advance pretty quickly.


I'd like to hear the details of that bet.

X

Xman, my brother and father keep kidding me on "going backwards" in reference to shaving. I told my brother straight shaving is a better, closer shave. He disagreed, so I challenged him, for bragging rights only, to a...shave-off next spring (I need time to get my straight shave to a decent level). He gets to use his Bick disposable razor and I get to use my straight razor. Then, that evening, our wives get to feel our faces to see who has the smoothest face, or we can use cotton balls to see whose fase is the smoothest. I know who will win, because I see his stubble showing by 1500 hrs.

Heck, they even tease me about making my bread and bar soapfrom scratch.

I may have made some progress tonight. I came home and used my bench hone with red paste and then my strop. I did the HHT and about 3/4 of the blade cut the hair. So...perhaps my new focus--every stroke on the hone was slow and measured--restored part of the new blade.

Who knows. I will see tomorrow morning.

Take care, all.