Thread: First Good Shave

Well, a couple weeks ago I heard from someone that straight-razor shavers get laid more than disposable guys, so I hurried over to the classicshaving.com site and ordered up a TI razor, a mug and soap, a Rooney brush and one of those Dovo strops. It arrived 10 days ago and I could hardly wait to try it out, but I was disappointed to find that it would only cut fingers and not whiskers, so I got on here and discovered I needed a Norton 4/8 to get it in shape. I worked on it over the weekend and got it sharp enough to result in some black whisker dust swimming in the cream on my razor, so I knew I was on the right track, but it was still much more scraping than gliding, and the shave was not nearly close enough, so I had to take a second pass with my disposable. So after many more passes on the Norton, i finally got a close enough shave this morning to forego the second pass with the disposable. Now, with a disposable, I've for many years simply soaped up my mug in the shower and given it a single pass against the grain. I've never gotten much luck going with the grain, so I just skip to the chase and hit it once against the grain, so that's what I tried this morning, with a much better edge on the straight razor. The result was close enough to go to work, but now that it's almost 7pm, it wouldn't be close enough to hold up to intimate inspection, if you know what I mean, but it will do for now since I'm not expecting any intimate inspection tonight.

Anyway, it was a great feeling to get a close enough shave with the straight to walk out the door without having to resort to a second pass with the disposable, and doing it with a razor I honed (poorly) myself adds immeasurably to the pride and pleasure. I owe my thanks to all of you veterans for my small accomplishment. Thanks.

Congratulations, it will only get better with
time and an improved edge on your razor.


Terry

The TI razors can take a bit to become shave ready.
Now tha your razor is ahving to some degree be sure to take it slow from now on whhen honing. The most common mistake that newbies make is over-honing a razor, they make the edge to thin. From now on whe you hone use the following sequence
until you get a good shave. Use light pressure.

5/5( 5 laps on the 4000 then 5 laps on the 80000)
3/5
3/5
1/5
1/5
1/5

After that just use
3/5
1/5
1/5
1/5
until your razor is shaving very well.
Then do no more on the hone until the razor starts pulling again.
Be sure to strop just before every shave 30-60 laps. Do not strop the night before.

5/5( 5 laps on the 4000 then 5 laps on the 80000)

Quite a jump in grits...I didn't know Norton sold a 4K/80K combination...

bigstooge,

Congratulations on moving to the straight razor realm. So did I hear you correctly in that after you honed your razor, you did a one pass against the grain shave with your straight? That's amazing.

Ed

It is a great feeling. Keep your attention on the task at hand whether it be shaving or honing and it will improve very quickly for you. Congrats!

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