Thread: Newbie saying hi

If you've never experienced irritation from Fusion and Edge gels before, you shouldn't experience it at a later point in time. As for sharpening, most guys here would go with Norton 4k/8k combination waterstone and a paddle strop with abrasive pastes. Some use a fine finishing hone instead of paddles. I use the coticule, there's also Escher, Swaty, Spyderco UF and a few more.

I have a lithide barber hone from Tilly that I really like. It took quite a bit of lapping, but it keeps my razor in great shape.

A bit of an update.

I've now used only my straight razor for the last 4 days, and I feel like I'm slowly starting to get the hang of it. I started doing 3 passes per day, but have dropped down to two now, as I was getting some serious razor burn. I might have to drop to 1 pass for a couple of days or use my DE razor to let my skin recover. But generally it's going ok, I can't quite get as close a shave as I was getting with my DE but it's getting there.

My straight shaves are generally just a little bit closer than DE shaves. Little enough to say that they're about the same. Usually I do 2 shaves, but there are 2 razors in my rotation that I like to do 3 passes with. Completely rest your face for a day and you'll be ok for a 2-passer the following day. In any case I'm glad you're making progress. Keep at it

P.S. Isn't it great not to have to rinse the razor after every 2-3 strokes?

Miss a day - are you crazy??!!

It's bad enough only being able to shave once a day as it is!

Well the irritation is less today than it was yesterday, so I'll either miss a day tomorrow or try just one N-S pass and see how it goes. Cheers for the tip.

Btw the mailman just arrived with my Kimberley hone from Tilly, sadly he didn't have any of the 3 razors I ordered with him.

I might have problems this week, my girlfriend just started a job working at the local mail sorting office this morning. Now it's going to be pointless intercepting the postman in the mornings, as she'll see it the day before anyway. She'd go crazy if she knew about my RAD.