OK... I am new here, and this is my first post.... and my second day trying with a straight.

Over 50 years of shaving under my belt and so I know what I am doing with prep, soaps, etc. But this was a whole new world!

My chosen hardware and software for today:


That's a nice old Cadman "Bengall", all shave ready and stropped carefully. Following advice.... just start with one cheek, from sideburn downwards a little way. Try to keep the blade at about 30 degrees...

Well.... I shaved a small area WTG in small short stokes, but stopped half way down the cheek when the razor stopped! Like... stopped dead against the one and a half day stubble. Common sense made me cease the exercise right there and then. No way was I going to push against that resistance.

OK.... I'm going to blame the tool.
A bad workman always blames his tools. Right?


So I finished the task with my trusted Fatboy and Feather blade. Well it was sitting there ready to take over the task anyway. (That even took hair off the area on its first WTG pass that the straight had left).

Was I taking it too carefully and too slowly?
Common sense tells me that this razor will have shaved a face many hundreds of times, and it can't be that difficult?

Rod