Thread: First post

Hello everyone,
After a few months of lurking and soaking up info from this great site, I thought it was about time to step out of the shadows!

A little background : I am a 60 yr. old married father and grandfather from western NC. I don't remember exactly when I first shaved, but by 1964 it was a regular part of my routine. I learned with a hand me down gillette, rubberset boar brush, and an old spice mug. I still have and occasionally still use these items! Apparently they last forever if you take care of them. Over the years, I tried canned foam and cartridge razors but kept going back to the brushes, soaps, and DE's. I guess old habits die hard. I remember my grandfather shaving with a straight razor when I was a kid and I was always a little fascinated by them. I've had a few barbershop straight shaves and a few months ago I decided I was finally going to give it a try.

On April 13th I received a Boker King Cutter and Premium IV strop from SRD. Like most, I started with a partial str8 shave and finished with my DE. After 3-4 days I completed a shave with DE touch-up. Finally after 10 or 12 complete shaves, I reached the point where I could get an acceptable shave without using the DE's for touch-ups and without much bloodshed! It still takes me 45mins., but I'm having a ball! I can usually get an acceptable shave with 1 1/2 passes and a little touch-up in stubborn areas. Although I still have a lot to learn, the info on this forum has made it fun and relatively painless. Fortunately, I was already familiar with making lather and skin-stretching. I just wasn't used to keeping lather warm for this long!

Along the way I picked up a Pike Swaty from Glen(gssixgun) and an ivory scaled Heiffor from Ivan(gugi). They were both great to deal with and were very kind in taking the time to answer my beginner questions. My thanks to both of them.

On June 13th I was involved in a motorcycle accident. I am recovering nicely, but due to soreness and limited movement, I was only able to get back to str8 shaving last Thurs. It's funny how happy that made me! Apparently using str8's is very addictive!

Anyways, that's where I'm at so far. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to learning more and using this forum for a long time.

Also, I wondered if there are any Mentors within striking distance of Hickory NC? I need to learn more especially re: touch-up honing.

Thanks

Gerald

Welcome to SRP Gerald!

Great to have you. Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope your recovery is a fast one.

Welcome to SRP! Looks like you're headed in the right direction...keep up the good work.

Hello, Gerald:

Welcome to Straight Razor Place and thank you for your first post. It's a good post, too, I might add.

I trust you will recover fully soon enough and begin the whole ritual of wet shaving with the straight razor. Whatever you do, take your time. Experiment and improvise.

I am sure if we have an SRP Mentor in your area, he will post soon.

Regards,
Obie

Welcome!

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and I hope you recover soon, and continue to enjoy straight razor shaving!

Good luck and keep us posted!

Welcome to SRP and thanks for the intro. Good to hear your coming along well after the accident.
Here is a map with some member locations.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/vbgooglemapme.php

Hi Gerald,

That is a great story and I hope you have mended well from the motor cycle accident.

One thing I have to correct you on. This equipment does NOT last for ever. It only lasts a week or two. That is how long I go before I have to aquire an additional piece of equipment that I already have.

Welcome an post a lot.

David

Hello again

Welcome to SRP Gerald. I'm in your age group and glad to have found this site and learned to use straight razors. Hope you're back up on that motorcycle sooner than later.

Let's try this again, Thanks for the replies and for all the kind words. Yes, I'm still making progress on the recovery. I'm sure I'll be fine in another week or two. Seems to take a little longer than it did when I was younger! At least enough of the soreness is gone that I can continue shaving with a str8. I would never have thought that I would consider shaving such fun. I guess after shaving for 46 yrs. I needed to find a way to make it interesting. Now if I can just avoid all of these acquisition disorders........

Thanks

Gerald