Thread: New Razor, first shave, I'm sure something's wrong...

If you're after someone in Auckland then get hold of Scott.
Send him a PM and he'll be able to help you out. Being in Auckland you may even be able to meet up with him and get some pointers as well as a honing

Thanks nzFuzzy, I've sent him a PM hopefully this will help me out a lot!

Hi Eben,

Don't let this discourage or throw you off. As soon as you get your razor properly honed, you can get a new start. In the meantime, make sure you read all the wikis on shaving with a straight razor. If you take it slow, things will work out fine.

It takes a certain amount of time to learn the skill of using a straight. I started eight months ago, at the age of 67. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Don't expect to get perfect shaves in the beginning. Go ahead and use your normal method of shaving to finish up. Before you know it, straight shaving will become natural to you AND I can testify that it is an exciting and wonderful way to shave.

Wishing you good luck and Happy Shaving!!!

Don't worry about me giving up, I'm very stubborn and obsessive about things, this is probably going to be the next thing I'm going to go all out on. I won't be happy until I can get a perfect, or as near to it as I can get, shave!

I've just acquired a strop so I'll strop the razor and give it another whirl, if it's still no better I'll get it honed (at which point I can only blame my lack of skill).

Thanks for your words of encouragement!!

Hello Eban,

Like you, I'm very lucky to have found SRP. If it weren't for this forum and the internet, I doubt I could have found anyone with the skills and experience to help me with straight razor shaving. Welcome to the forums.

I didn't notice where anyone had actually placed a link to some nice stropping videos. It's because of these that I've yet to nick a strop. I know I'm new, and I may be calling on the fates to strike me down, but all this really cool information has helped me to avoid mistakes I would have otherwise blundered into.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html

I found watching this very helpful to me.

Good luck to you.

-Mark

Hi Eban, and welcome to SRP.
I can only agree with the previous posters - get your razor honed properly and feel the difference.
My experience with the vendor you mention (in Brisbane) is such that they wouldn't know what shave ready is (meaning no disrespect).
The guy in my local shop has only had one straight shave and that was for his high school formal, done by a barber.
I spent some time talking with him and he was really clueless when it came to straight shaving, unfortunately.
It's just a training thing with this outlet, I think.
Read the stickies here, ask questions, look at the videos, practice and, most of all, hang on and enjoy the ride.
It gets better every time.
Geoff

So I've just had another shave after I stropped the razor, it seems to be a little better but only a little. I also spent a bit more time on the prep work and went the steamed towel route which may explain the difference.

I'm still waiting to hear back from a local member to see if he'd be kind enough to check my razor out and give it a finishing hone or something.

Definitely looking forward to getting a comfortable shave in the near future...

Hope it all works out.
Stubborn and obsessive seems to be a good thing with straights.
Scott did one of my razors for me and it shaved fine (not that I have anything like the US honemeisters to compare with)
My first razor was sharpened by the House of Knives (the Petone store sent it to their guy in Akld) probably not as good as Scott but another option and had no problem learning to shave with that edge.
Let me know how you get on.

I found someone on TradeMe who will hone it for $20, hopefully they'll let me drop by and watch...

Still waiting on Scott to get back to me (does he sell razors on TradeMe?)

Just a quick update...

I've dropped my razor off with a guy who'll hone it for me, he confirmed that the razor is not sharp enough. In the mean time I'll just play the waiting game and get shaving once it's honed...

Thanks to everybody for the great advice.