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

If you feel confident in your stropping the Tony Miller is fine. OTOH, if you are unsure the Filly is cheap enough that if you nick it up it won't break your heart. Sounds like you've taken the bull by the horns with your shaving and dove right in. It gets better as you practice and the more shave ready the razor is.

Yeah you're going to have to get a strop. It is part and parcel for shaving with a straight razor

I made a strop, so technically I have one. How good is it? I have nothing to compare it too, but when I use it sounds the same as the what I hear in the videos I've seen. LOL

I'm thinking my homemade strop may just take the place of the Filly. I've used it several times now, and so far, have not nicked it once. I'm not trying to go real fast yet.

It's in my nature to do things well or not do them at all (I say I have attention to detail, my wife and others say I'm anal hehe), so I know I'm being very critical about my stop technique after reading all the warnings here. This doesn't mean I'm doing it "right", but I think my caution is keeping me from slipping and cutting the leather.

I was just reading another thread where someone was talking about being frustrated with the straight. He ended up using his DE again and was surprised how much more comfortable it was. That really resonated with me. I am finishing up with a DE still, and it always feels so much nicer then the straight. The straight, even at it's best so far, still feels "rough". I'm unsure if it's the blade or the newb holding it

P.S. Hi Hoglahoo. I don't know if you remember, but you were the one I was talking to in chat on Veteran's Day when I had straight shave #1

Originally Posted by Hayduke

P.S. Hi Hoglahoo. I don't know if you remember, but you were the one I was talking to in chat on Veteran's Day when I had straight shave #1

yep! Hayduke of B&B fame

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.

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 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...