Thread: I am a Straight Razor Shaver

Back in June I really wanted to try a straight razor. I bought one for $25 off the forum. I immediately tried it on one cheek and it went smooth. I finished up with my DE. I started adding real estate littlt by little and it seemed it was getting harder for me to shave, it pulled, burned and drew blood. It was then that I made a vow that if I couldn't maintain the edge on my razor I would give it up. Well the RAD kicked in I bought hones, stropes, and razors off of ebay. My heart was broken when I cut up my new SRP modular hone pad. I just could not get the hang of stropping. I made bench strops to "ruin" as I improved my skills.
One Saturday my wife went to the Glenn Beck rally so I watched Lynn's video. I got juiced. I grabbed a Weiss razor I got on ebay , pulled out the dremel tool and went to work. In little or no time the razor looked like new. I did notice a chip in the blade so i went to honing and honing. The next day I tried the razor and it tugged every bit as much as my first razor. Well I guess i can't hone right either. I kept shaving with my no name and then bought a Dovo from this forum. I "assumed" it was shave ready. It shaved better than the original but it still was uncomfortable. I was ready to give up. But I did notice my strop skills improved. I then bought a Timor razor shave ready, I was now able to shave my whole face
and after a week it was easy and no burn when I went over my face with a razor rock.
Well after a couple of weeks with the Timor it started to tug and pull by then I was able to do multiple passes with the Timor. Today I figured I couldn't use the Timor again it was too "rough". I pulled out the Weiss that I had "restored" and gave it a try. Man was it smooth, I got a fantastic shave, it wasn't my honing it was my technique, my honing was perfectly acceptable.
The moral is if you want to learn to shave with a straight razor make sure you get a shave ready razor. Be prepared to stumble along the way. Stick with it. Today I am a straight razor shaver.

A good lesson -- thanks for sharing your experience. I think most of us went through a serious learning phase before we really got comfortable with straights.

Originally Posted by ShoreBird

Back in June I really wanted to try a straight razor. I bought one for $25 off the forum. I immediately tried it on one cheek and it went smooth. I finished up with my DE. I started adding real estate littlt by little and it seemed it was getting harder for me to shave, it pulled, burned and drew blood. It was then that I made a vow that if I couldn't maintain the edge on my razor I would give it up. Well the RAD kicked in I bought hones, stropes, and razors off of ebay. My heart was broken when I cut up my new SRP modular hone pad. I just could not get the hang of stropping. I made bench strops to "ruin" as I improved my skills.
One Saturday my wife went to the Glenn Beck rally so I watched Lynn's video. I got juiced. I grabbed a Weiss razor I got on ebay , pulled out the dremel tool and went to work. In little or no time the razor looked like new. I did notice a chip in the blade so i went to honing and honing. The next day I tried the razor and it tugged every bit as much as my first razor. Well I guess i can't hone right either. I kept shaving with my no name and then bought a Dovo from this forum. I "assumed" it was shave ready. It shaved better than the original but it still was uncomfortable. I was ready to give up. But I did notice my strop skills improved. I then bought a Timor razor shave ready, I was now able to shave my whole face
and after a week it was easy and no burn when I went over my face with a razor rock.
Well after a couple of weeks with the Timor it started to tug and pull by then I was able to do multiple passes with the Timor. Today I figured I couldn't use the Timor again it was too "rough". I pulled out the Weiss that I had "restored" and gave it a try. Man was it smooth, I got a fantastic shave, it wasn't my honing it was my technique, my honing was perfectly acceptable.
The moral is if you want to learn to shave with a straight razor make sure you get a shave ready razor. Be prepared to stumble along the way. Stick with it. Today I am a straight razor shaver.

Hehe, I'm a straight razor shaver too, man ;-)

I've been it for about 5 weeks now. I told myself, it ain't gonna be easy, and I didn't mind that. Being the reckless, yet patient guy I am, I've been climbing up the learning curve and shaving has become a really fun thing to do, even though I have still a lot to learn.

I just love doing it. That blade feels great on my skin!

Congrats to you.I'm hooked.

Lessons learned I c. Good Man!

Pcdad

Good encouragement. I've been straight razor shaving for about a month now and have not had a blood-free shave yet. What I can say is that I'm hooked. I look forward to my shave days. I did notice that using my off-hand made a BIG difference. Sometimes I think I shave better with my left hand (off hand) than my dominate hand.

Similar story. Tried some cheap razors along with canned cream--all I had was memory of my dad and grandfathers. Disaster.

Then I ordered a shave-ready Dovo from an online vendor (good one) but still had too heavy-handed a technique and tried to shave my whole face...pain! Then I stropped the thing to butter-knife sharpness...

Finally discovered this site. Bought another shave-ready razor, refined my stropping on the already-dulled razor and began to notice..it was coming back!

That began in April. It has been at times a rough road, but I'm pretty confident these days that I can sharpen razors and keep them sharp, I can get razors rather cheaply on eBay, knowing what to look for, clean them hone them, and enjoy shaving with them.

5 Months in I still feel I am a novice. Actually, I'm better at honing than at shaving!

Thanks for the story.
I was fortunate in that the majority of the razors I acquired were pretty much shave-ready AND I read up on the importance of stropping & (eventually) honing as needed.
As to the shaving aspect, I trolled DIY sites to learn the technique (I was unaware of this site at the time). I found that the most important part was a sharp enough edge, lathering, blade angle, AND making sure the skin is pulled taut.

Originally Posted by ShoreBird

Be prepared to stumble along the way. Stick with it. Today I am a straight razor shaver.

Shorebird,

Thank you for sharing this.
Perseverance is my key word; should have done this a long time ago. But, it's never too late, isn't it??

Kind regards,

Razorback

I am new to this as well and it did not start out that great now I can strop well and not cut up my strops and the shaves are just wonderful. I got to say though RAD is a horrible disease that has taken a hold of me and I can not cure it.