Thread: My Story - a straight razor newb's journey

I know you've already made your own starter strop so this may or may not be of interest to you, but, if you do decide to order a Tony Miller, for an additional $7.50 he'll include a starter strop... and, it's actually REALLY nice. Very, very basic mind you, no handles, D-rings, swivel latches or anything of that nature... just nice piece of leather in a simple barber style with a leather loop with cinch bead attached at the top - but fantastic for learning on (just go mine about a week ago).

Might be worth it if your unsure about your homemade strop, or if you're looking for something to put paste on for an occassional touch up between honing periods.

Originally Posted by DPflaumer

Don't worry too much about the cuts.

The only real cut I have had so far was on one of my first shaves from setting the blade on my skin at too steep an angle. Hurt like hell but I definitely learned my lesson.

It hurt? That's exactly how I got my biggest cut. It was right as I put blade to face on an area that wasn't flat. I knew I had jsut cut myself, but it didn't hurt at all. I thought it was because I had just stropped the razor and it was extra sharp.

Originally Posted by avatar1999

Thanks for posting that! Always nice to read how other people do at the beginning

The Dovo you linked is real nice looking. Don't discount "old" or NOS razors as well. For the same money you could probably pick up a good strop and classic beauty of a razor

Look forward to reading more!

I'm planning to acquire more vintage razors. There is a strong appeal to shave with something really old, but I'd also like to have something made currently for variety

I posted that link because it's the one I like, based on the pictures. It's pretty

Originally Posted by Malacoda

I know you've already made your own starter strop so this may or may not be of interest to you, but, if you do decide to order a Tony Miller, for an additional $7.50 he'll include a starter strop... and, it's actually REALLY nice. Very, very basic mind you, no handles, D-rings, swivel latches or anything of that nature... just nice piece of leather in a simple barber style with a leather loop with cinch bead attached at the top - but fantastic for learning on (just go mine about a week ago).

Might be worth it if your unsure about your homemade strop, or if you're looking for something to put paste on for an occassional touch up between honing periods.

That's a good idea. I did see that Tony offers the practice strops with purchase. I was thinking Filly mostly to get a Gold Dollar while I was at it. We'll see what I end up ordering. This could get expensive quick, so I'm trying to restrain my purchases LOL


I can't wait to shave tomorrow morning

Shave #5

I think my stropping technique may be improving a bit, but I did finally nick my strop I'm glad I did the DIY thing for this one I don't think the nick makes it unusable, but it did make a sort of speed bump for a couple days

I'm getting better the the chin, but still not very good at it. So far only 2 WTG passes with the straight, then a single XTG pass with a DE.

So far, I'm not getting very close or comfortable shaves. The razor seems to be rough as it passes over the skin.

Shave #6

I reached a milestone. This was the first time I didn't have any bleeding

I actually started shaving less with the straight. I did 2 WTG passes again, but this time I didn't work too hard on the neck or mustache area. I find I'm cutting my neck most shaves when I try to get it close to DFS. Since I'm still using a DE as the last pass, I am being less picky with the straight. At least the blade felt like it was cutting better this time. Maybe I did a better job on the strop.

Shave #7

The chin area is no longer a problem at all!

I've decided to grow out the chin It's a goatee, versus a Van Dyke, as I will continue to shave the mustache.

My beard had been growing for 4 or 5 days this time. The first pass was definitely rough. It reminded me a lot of the way it tugged on shave #1. Second pass was fine. I had a couple spots to hit with the nick stick, but overall not a bad shave.



I don't want to blame the person I bought my razor from, but I think the roughness is the blade's sharpness. It is extremely likely that I dulled it, but I have no good way to sharpen it yet. Could the razor's sharpness (or lack thereof) be the cause of the "pulling"?

I'm going to buy a couple new razors from SRP before the end of the year to take advantage of the "Priceless Value" offer that is running (free honing for life). This is good because I won't have to worry about learning to hone a razor. It's also bad because I don't get to learn to hone a razor :P I'm sure I'll own some stones by the end of next year hehe. I'm also going to order a horsehide and linen strop from Tony. After a lot of reading here, it seems that this is the best combination.

Maybe I overlooked it, but you didn't mention which razor you're using now.

If you haven't done it yet, check out the shave videos by Lynn and Jockeys. You can probably pick up some ideas for the harder-to-shave areas there. As for the strop, I got the Filly from Ruprazor and it came with a letter that said you can use a pumice stone to smooth small nicks out of a strop. It's a good thing I bought a cheaper strop since I've already nicked it and it arrived just the other day...

Originally Posted by BingoBango

Maybe I overlooked it, but you didn't mention which razor you're using now.

If you haven't done it yet, check out the shave videos by Lynn and Jockeys. You can probably pick up some ideas for the harder-to-shave areas there. As for the strop, I got the Filly from Ruprazor and it came with a letter that said you can use a pumice stone to smooth small nicks out of a strop. It's a good thing I bought a cheaper strop since I've already nicked it and it arrived just the other day...

I'm using a Bengal razor bought on the classifieds. I tried to find the listing, but I guess it expired or something.

The nick on my DIY strop is near my hand, so it doesn't have a huge affect on the strop's use.

When I order my "good" strop from Tony, I'm planning to get his practice strop too.

I haven't updated this in awhile, but I have still been shaving!

I'm not going to try and list my thoughts on each shave anymore. and there was much rejoicing Instead, I'm going to post about those milestone or threshold moments where I feel like there has been a significant improvement in my ability to shave with a straight razor.

I've reached a couple of those milestones since my last post.

A couple weeks ago, I finally put the DE down and committed to shaving entirely with the straight. I finally realized that need to learn how to shave all the hard bits eventually. Using the DE to clean up the moustache area was not really helping me get better at it. It worked, I'm much better at all the areas of my face (including my upper lip).

I had an epiphany during one shave. I finally understood about holding the razor "just tight enough". I figured out that I was only cutting myself if I was trying to "force it" a little. It happened while I was trying to get a handle of that new Boker (honed by SRD). That thing is pretty sharp! Maybe my stropping technique is finally getting better and/or the 2" latigo I got with the Boker works better then my DIY job :P The lesson here was to learn to pay attention to holding the razor just tight enough.

I really don't know if others have had the same experience as me, but I was really happy last night when I had my first totally straight razor shave without cuting myself. It doesn't mean I haven't used the straight without cutting myself. When I only used the straights on the parts of the face I am good at (and cleaned up with a DE), I could get a nice shave without cuts. Each time I committed to a new area and learn how to shave there, I would get a few cuts. When I first used the Boker on my neck, someone at work asked if my cat had scratched me (I have no cats), but then they remembered I was on the lookout for "vintage razors" and chuckled. So the milestone was using the straight entirely without cutting myself. It wasn't BBS, but it felt nice

OK, this is long enough, but I have one more topic to talk about. Braces. I suspect there aren't a lot of men using straights with orthodontics in their mouth. In the event there is someone else living with that unpleasantness, I'll share my thoughts. They do make the upper lip harder ro shave, but it can be done. Part of my success in this area was tied to the just tight enough grip epiphany mention above. I also had to abandon stretching the skin in this area. I like the result of stretching in most other areas, it won't work on the upper lip with braces on They make little spped bumps under the skin hehe

Sounds like you are off to a pretty good start here. Keep it up.

As you may have noticed, they guys here are always good to give suggestions and tips, so don't be shy about asking questions. I've been here for about 6 or 7 months, I think, and I have never seen anyone ridiculed for asking a question, or making an observation.

Welcome and