First time, just some quick guidence

Hello members,

My fiance's mother gave me a great gift. Everything I need for a good shave with a SE the only problem is that I am not too terribly trusting of the quality of the blade here.

Amazon.com: Ultimate Pro 150 Straight Razor: Health & Personal Care

Ultimate Pro 150......hmmmmmm

Either way I have exerience with sharpening blades with water stones so I sharpened the blade to what I consider a good sharpness and have stropped it several times (arm is getting all shaved up testing)....thank you for all of the information on the site as the stropping thing is very new to me....aka very slow so far.


Any input is appriciated

It sounds like the fiance's mother has plans for you....son! Good luck and have fun!

I have no experience with that razor either, but I have my doubts about it too. I would suggest that you thank your future mother in law profusely but ask her to return it for a refund so that you can find yourself a quality razor.

You can tell her you appreciated the gift so much that you researched it and found this forum. Tell her that we recommended its return, putting the blame on us. Then put the money toward a quality vintage or new razor. This forum certainly can help you find a good one.

The "user reviews" aren't very good on Amazon.com. I'm inclined to believe the first one -- "un-sharpenable".

If your previous experience has been with knives (not razors), you're going to have to adjust your expectations. Razor honing _starts_ where knife honing _ends_, at around 2000 grit.

Razors are typically "shave-ready" after 8K - 12K grit, _and_ sometimes stropping with abrasive pastes, _and_ lots of laps on cloth and leather strops.

Charles

If you are like any of us you will shave with it a couple times and then buy another. Just know that this razor will not be your best shaver in 6 months.

Happy Shaving :tameshigiri:

Well, have sharpened the blade with some good Japanese stones started with 6,000, then 10,000 then strop, warming up with the what looks like cloth side then the leather side. Passed the hair test, then thumb nail test. I think I will try the sides of the face and see how that goes, hopefully it goes well and then brave up and do the rest of the face.

Wet shaving is awesome for me, like the whole experience of using real razors and by talent coming out with the BBS shave. Will be posting how it goes!

Well, yall are right on on the sharpening thing here!!! Guess my opinion of the test's fail and I have some more learning to do. Could never tell with the knives but my stones are not really flat any more....kind of a suprise to me but then I think about it and not really.

Got down my left side of the face and it really was not cutting all that much off. This was going WTG, and I was not pressing too hard really but enough that if the razor was sharp it should have taken way more off of the face.

I will be getting a "new" razor from whippeddog.com, as this is highly recomended from the forums here. Also getting a flattening stone and a new barber stone....I really want to learn how to sharpen the razor and only way to learn is to do it.

Thanks for the info guy's it helps a newbie like me!