Thread: What pearl of wisdom can you give a beginner?

If you ever feel uncomfortable during a shave, stop before you cut something important off.

Always look at the razor. Always.

When in doubt, check out SRP! This is the best place to find answers on straight razor shaving.

Heres one that I never got, that caused me a lot of cramping and rolled edges...

A strop should be tight. A strop should NOT be stiff as a board. A little flex doesn't hurt... sometimes it helps. Do not leave slack, leave flex. That way, you aren't wrenching your arm and making your razor hand tense as the rest of you is.

Live it, learn it, get a styptic.

Don't worry about BBS for a while.... Shave WTG, with the grain, till you are very comfortable with the razor in your hand.. To shave xtg or atg you'll have to change your grip.. again....No pressure.... none! if you feel you need to add pressure your razor is dull.... when your razor is sharp you automatically will not want to add pressure.... for fear of being cut.....Shave with no pressure... then check your face.... you'll be surprised!! Maq

Just thought I'd add a couple more advices...

- When first starting, your shaves are likely to take a good amount of time. As such, your brush and cream/soap are going to get a little chilly and uncomfortable by the end of your shave. You may want to consider either buying a dedicated shaving scuttle or rigging one of your own. Your lathering bowl simply placed inside of a larger vessel full of hot water should work fine.

- Ensure that you THOROUGHLY dry your razor after shaving. You'd be amazed how fast some of them can rust.

Do not expect to get perfect shaves from the start.
Shaving with SR has some similarities than using the hand tools: It is is matter of time, practise and patience.

Sanitation.... keep all the bits tidy, clean and sanitary.
The first seven day set to get is a short pile of clean face towels (even kitchen towels will do).

A wet wash cloth or hand towel in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds works great if you don't have hot water.

A small bowl in a larger bowl of hot hot water works as a scuttle and keeps your lather warm to hot!

Maq

Never give up!

Anyway you have to get your razor sharp.. Guranteed way... send it to a reputable honemeister for honing...

Practice your stroping with anything else but your new sharp razor ... then.. strop lightly and evenly with good technique so as not to dull your reazor ...15 strokes each way before each shave..

Light touch... 20 degrees.... let the razor do its job.....

better to do 2 to 3 passes then one bad pass..

pre shave prep is the most important.... shower... or hot towels then some sort of pre shave lotion, cream or oil... nice thick lather ... then have fun!!!

after shave balm... let your face rest if its sore before shaving again.. so you don't cut the same areas over and over....

your face will continue to get smoother and smoother as the blade exfoliates the accumulated dead skin... untill then... you may nick your face a little more!! patience!! Light touch!!

Maq

Don't get yourself too worked up. Yes people stopped doing this. However for centuries before that, a massive chunk of the population did do it. I'd guess more than change their own oil now. There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's really not too bad. A couple nicks on your face or strop perhaps. A close inspection of a few honing demos, and a good choice of razors at the start will make it go much smoother than you might think.

Best resource from the wiki imho are the stropping sounds. Funny how significant something so simple can be, but I personally feel that stropping a properly honed razor is less likely to be executed successfully by a beginner than honing a properly ground one. It's really easy to see why. You're extending your arm much further, you have to maintain balance, often at an angle and resist the natural sweeping motion our arms make, while holding the strop taut AND keep all points on the blade in contact without pressing into the strop. It's actually not a particularly simple motion for someone who's never used it before. With thicker tangs or loose scales, just holding the razor and flipping it can be a challenge.


Audio files are under "Using your senses"
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...azor_stropping


Oh, and don't decide your lather is "good enough". A good lather makes a huge difference. The only times I've finished and been displeased with the results was when I was trying a new method of making lather, and got impatient and shaved without getting a good lather. If there's one skill I wish there were more resources for it'd be lather making.

Ian,
I agree with you! Stropping is a very important skill to learn in the begining.

Practice is the key to speeding through this part of the learning curve.

Not a bad idea, if you can, to have a practice razor, or practice razor and strop, until you get the correct technique mastered. Once mastered your sharpened razor will last a long time with daily maintenance on the strop.

Maq