FNG: The journy from shaving Boot to shaving Vet

The Recruitment

A little back story on how I got into this slightly crazy but rewarding hobby/everyday necessity.

I've been shaving since i was about 13-14ish and having been required to do it nearly everyday since I turned 16, I figured a shave, was a shave, was a shave, something I hated doing but its sooo much better then receiving the wrath of a Sgt or Sgt Maj.

As years wore on I hardly ever had to think about shaving with a multi blade gellet could do it in 10 sec, dry or wet shave it did matter just did it and moved on with my day.

Only problem was in the field it would get junked up, was hard to clean and just never felt that sanitary or "clean". I tried electric razors but never really liked the shave never felt smooth and the electric razors tend to pull my hair out more then cut them, i thought to my self if only there was a simpler cleaner way, so back to the multi blades.

then I did my tour and the problem compounded itself, not real proper cleaning of the razor for months add in sand that was like chalk dust and not showering for sometime a couple weeks I had to throw out my razor when i got home cause it was pretty bad. again this is a pain has to be a simpler cleaner way to do this, again could find nothing so new multi blade it was.

then this fall I had a chance to play bad guy for a unit training out in my area, and was aloud to grow a full beard for the first time ever (seriously) so off i went and did the training grew my beard and had a great time then I noticed one of the guys shave nearly everyday was using a straight razor to shave with. Now at this point in time I had only ever seen them used in the old wild west movies, well I put 2 and 2 together faster then an ADD kid whacked on Red Bull can forget about his homework, ask him a few questions and was on the hunt for this new shiny razor thing.

With the training ended I was on the hunt I looked EVERYWHERE in my town nadda, half the people I asked did know what I was talking about the other half looked at me like I had two heads. So jumped on the Internet and did a quick search ah perfect the House Of Knives in the next city over has them.


Boot Camp

So off I go in my truck down to the store, once I get there I realize holy crap I'm paying 100$+ for a sharp piece of steel, but I talked to the guy and he seemed to know his stuff, I got a nice badger brush, a clean, full stainless steel Dovo 5/8 and the dovo shave cream (note I paid nearly 300$ for everything). In the store the guy was helpful gave me a brief lesson on lathering and that but aside from that I was on my own.( ordered a strop too but it needed a few day to come in)

so get to my house, got my cream got my new shiny razor, and no clue how to use it, so I jump on google and low and behold this site pops up, I do a quick search and speed read threw the first wiki link , OK not that hard lets do this!

so swirl my brush, and get the lather on my face (in retro-spec now that i know what a good lather should look like i didn't do to bad a job). Now picture this if you will, I now hold a razor sharp steel blade with a grip that I learned about from the Internet that I now must sweep across the skin next to a rather important vain, so I shrugged said screw it and forged on, figured I would start with my sideburns and chin then work down my neck,
so I did.

and I didn't do to bad a job nicked my self on the chin and cheek but got a smooth face, less razor burn then i have ever had and felt rather fresh and invigorated, and its was only factor "shave ready", Hell I could get use to this I thought.


Im gonna take a break and say at this point thank for reading this novel of a story but it was a fun time for me and Im rather enjoying share my rather funny(from my point of veiw anyway) starting steps. more to follow on my next post :)

Welcome to SRP!

Good read, thanks for posting. Welcome to the community. The shaves keep getting better!!

Welcome to the forum ! Keep us abreast of how you progress ! Enjoy your shaves soldier !

Cheers,

Scott

Great story! Thank you for sharing. I look forward to reading more of your escapades!

If you have ANY questions, please feel free to ask; there is a great wealth of knowledge and information in the minds of the gentlemen who peruse these pages.

Thanks for serving!

Thanks for sharing! It sounds like you're off to a good start. It's amazing how many of us come in here having found shaving an onerous, but necessary chore for so many years. Once you discover the world of the traditional shave, either DE or straight, it turns it from a pain in the butt into something you look forward to doing every day. Have fun and welcome!

Thx Gents both for the support the members here and the amount of information of this site both are true staggering and I'm glad to have found this great group of people.

Now! On with the story
Boot Camp Part 2

After my first shave I was hooked it was a cleaner, smoother shave then I had ever had, so that night I practiced my lathering and use it to wash my face as to not waste the lather, something that has become a bit of a nightly thing as I got to bed with a very soft face and it seems to help lot with the morning shave too. My lather is still rather thin at this point but not to bad. this continues for a few days maybe a week with no real changes nice shaves few nicks but no real irritation, and people commented on how much smoother and younger my skin and face looked i was loving this straight shaving thing. (note: I'm only 23, but most people figure I'm between 26-30 so this is a very good thing)

Then disaster strikes! one morning while shaving I think I must have hit the tap with my razor as I put it to my face to shave first sweep, YOUCH! %$#&*%! nice big cut, I pulled the razor a way from my face to see that I had nicked the blade and a nice one at that, so here I am with blood running down my cheek starting at my 200$ chuck of steel that has a nick in it, I was already a little behind that morning so out comes the multi blade few quick passes, clean up the blood and off I go just making it to work on time.

At work I get some down time to look up what to do, discover that I can hone my own razors to make them sharp again, perfect! So off I go after work looking for the proper stones, no where in my town sells them, easy enough Vancouver's an hours away they will have something.
do my nightly lather face wash and go to bed. next day was a Saturday and I had gotten a call from house of knives that my strop was in so I took that as a good time to dive down to Vancouver and pick up my stop along the way, got my stones Norton 4000/8000 mixed pack was happy as could be on my drive back.

that night I looked into honing, read a lot of Lynn's posts and watched his videos, it didn't look that hard so again off I went dunked my stones in water till the stopped bubbling then I began to sharpen my razor,and so I did 4000 till the nick was gone then the pyramid till I figured i was sharp....it wasn't not at all much to my dismay so I said screw it, packed everything did my night face wash and went to bed. this sharpening thing went on for about a week could not get a sharp blade, then I hit what I would like to call my hump week.



This is coming out on the present time, my lather has really started to turn out nice and thick and just wonderful to apply, as well as I figured out what I was doing wrong but more on that on my next post.

There are bumps in every road , navigate them well and you will be rewarded! goods shaving sir.

Oh man, sucks to hear you dinged your new blade, but you should be able to get it back to shaving shape. Honing is harder than it looks, but not so hard that you won't be able to get a shaving edge. I got a passable edge on my second honing attempt. I think I could refine it more, but still alright.

I like your story. It sounds like you're on the right path. Keep sharing and thanks!

If you get a Norton 1K it will considerably reduce the time required to get a chip out compared to using a 4K. Learning to hone and shave at the same time is quite a lot to ingest... If you decide that you can't quite get the edge back to the razor, send me a PM, and I'll be happy to hone your razor back to life for just the price of shipping between us. I'm not an expert, mind you, but I have a Norton 1k, 4k, 8k, and a Chinese 12k for a finisher, and I consistently produce shave ready razors for myself.

Enjoy the experience!

So this is still all in the past as my last post got us up to about 2 weeks ago which I would like to call my "hump" week as its the week everything really came together.

Bootcamp part 3

It was at this point I was getting very frustrated, I have very steady hands and can have a very light touch when I want to (you try playing with explosives and PO'ed UXO's for nigh on 5 years without it :p) but I could not get a even remotely sharp razor from my hone like we are talking butter knife dull, finally I reread all the post the Lynn has made and realized I had missed a VERY important step in my razor honing process, I had not honed my hone, *facepalm* so having realized my terrible mistake I looked for a low cost option to do so, settling on a tile square form home hard wear some wet 400 grit sand paper, and 4 clamps i went to work, and by god dam near took me 3 hours to do both sides till the all the pencil marks were gone, I did it again just to make sure and WOW what a difference, my first pyramid made a huge leap in the sharpness of my razor i work until I was sure the bevel was set, it would pop arm hairs, then on to a extended pyramid and boy was that thing sharp, passed the hanging hair test and would pop army hairs with the blade off the skin, so I stropped her, whipped together an amazing lather (by far the best Ive made yet), jumped into the shower, used my beard softener, and jumped into my shave.

All I can say is WOW, and I mean WOW, that first shave with a true shave ready razor was like heavens touch, wiping away my beard, so smooth, so effortless, I would not say BBS as I still don't feel comfortable going ATG with my left hand just yet and a half BBS smooth face would look rather humorous (I would never hear the end of it at work) no irritation, the blade was so sharp I cut myself twice and didn't even notice till afterwords, since then I have had equally good shaves and my average lather is improving every time, all I can say is WOW, I am converted.

note my work computer does not have spell check so this will get edited once I'm home but figured i have some time at lunch to catch you all up to where I stand at present, from here on I will be doing a more detailed post on each shave, hopefully i can start increasing my very sparse collection to 2 maybe 3 razors and a bunch of soaps, creams, ASB and other such stuff.

Nice work! I am still fighting my hones a bit, so it's nice to hear of your success. Keep it up!

FNG

Straight Shaving I find is very much like being in the army, you learn the basics and never really stop learning, but you start to be able to pass on your knowledge, if your not carefully you can get seriously hurt and you have amazing days, normal days, and day you really just feel disappointed you started but the good days far, far out weight the bad ones. At this point I fell as if I have pass my straight shaving basic, I have enought knowledge to get threw but still so much to learn that comes with practic,

So one with my shave today

Prep work
nothing major did PT this morning in a brisk 3C and face was feeling a little raw.
So had a nice hot shower at work, some beard softener face wash, once shower was done threw on some beard softening cream.
let my brush soak in my coffee mug/shaving mug that i commandeered from the house in running hot water, threw a little bit of pre lather on my face and polished my boots

Lather
Same almond Dovo cream I've been using for the last month or so. Nice and creamy and thick, not prefect but warm and went on well enough for 2 passes, touch ups and an after shave wash. I cant wait to start trying out some new creams and soap hopefully after X-mas. Not that its not a good cream its wonderful love the smell, just something new would be nice.

Shave

Nothing to write home about but smooth for 2 WTG passes, Bit of burn on the chin, But I'm pretty sure I was use way to my pressure all in all a fine shave.

After shave

warm water splash, face wash with left over lather, cold water splash, and my normal ASB no witch hazel today as I forgot it at home when I was packing my shave gear this morning

All in all I fine shave and a great way to start my day off.

Rob

Nice stuff, Rob. It sounds like you're getting it down. Using one soap only would probably help you focus more on your blade technique, which is beneficial. I just have too many now :D

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Welcome to SRP enyoy your stay over here an most important enyoy your shaves.

Thx for all the support gents. I don't quite have the way with words that some of the members here do but I still enjoy writing this.

FNG Week 2


Had a bridging EX this past weekend out on one of the local lakes and learned a few things about shaving away from the niceties of home, first off I had to spend some time away from my strop for a few days, I noticed my razor does not suffer to badly from 3 days of no stropping got a nice smooth shave every time with no noticeable differences, despite not seeing a strop, which was nice to see. If i had to go any longer then a weekend though I would probably have to.

Secondly I should find a small traveling case for work, to include; mirror, shaving soap(to double for washing face), a field razor ( I may get a disposable straight for this purpose, to avoid having to strop in the field), boar brush (stiff bristles to deep clean the skin when shower is not available), paddle strop (if i don't go disposable), and some beard softening face wash. Gonna see what I can make or find maybe something CAD-pat :P

I had nice smooth shaves all weekend and the skin got a real test (0 degrees C with rain and wind out on the lake) with no irritation.


Which brings me to this mornings shave, the EX was a bit of a bag drive and got very little sleep and spent most of yesterday doing my personal post EX stuff, laundry, clean kit and what not so I was not well rested to say the least lol.

Need less to say I almost slept in this morning and I was running very late (didn't shower which did not make my morning any better) so rush around only to realize I left all my shaving stuff at work *face-palm* so throw my uniform into my day bag throw on sweats and hall @&& out the door, get to work I have like 10 min to dress and shave normally not a problem with my old way of shaving but I am not as fast yet with the straight and likely never will be. (seriously I could shave whole face with water in 45 seconds no problem) so hot water running in cup and brush while getting dress, polish boots, get all ready for day. Now time to shave! I have about 5 min at this point a 4 day no strop razor I was not looking forward to this and figured I was gonna look like Freddy Kruger after this but I had no choice on went the beard soften, then the quick lather, and a way I went as quickly and a smoothly as i felt safe one pass and touch ups was all I had time for and you know what only one little nick that i didn't even notice till I was done. So thank god for deft hands and I little luck, I just made it, came outta the bath room putting on my ASB, and talk with my boss with about 30 seconds to spare, not my ideal situation but $H@% happens some days, the shave wasn't to bad either smoothish and not much irritation to speak of


So note to self its still a good idea to keep disposable at work to avoid cutting my jugular if I every run late again, no point in pushing my luck twice.

and with this I'm off to bed cause I like my sleep :P

Note: I would like to apologize at this point for all grammatical and spelling errors in my posts, I do my best to check everything before I post but I miss words and what not a far bit.


FNG week 2 day 3

So today was payday and I treated myself to a few new products a new soap and cologne the soap was Prorase sensitive soap and gave it a try wow I really like the way the razor slides with this soap, and how great me face felt after may have had my best shave yet, the cologne was old spice original scent. Still have not stropped the razor and still nice and sharp, no pulling yet, gonna go the week and see how long I can go before it become for me an uncomfortable shave.

Also got a leather air freshener for the truck, I think my next cologne will be a leather scented on cause my truck smells amazing right now.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

FNG week 2 day 4-5

So I almost have my field shaving kit finished, got my soap, brush and built a field scuttle that works very well
http://straightrazorpalace.com/misce...tml#post884798

Just need a razor now, and I'm going the shavette route, still have to do the research to find the best one for my needs, but probably the dovo.

Was on a course for the last 2 days and had to shave at work again so I used new my prorase soap and omega boar hair brush from me field kit and tried out my new scuttle, it still needs a hole so it can be filled with water but thats a minor thing. As well as I picked up so of the Real Shaving Company's ASB and wow I think this is gonna be my new ASB and my normal stuff will be put in my field kit lol, finished of with some old spice cologne.

So nice shave today, and yesterday was much the same no irritation or nicks, which is always a good thing yet again I love starting my day off with a great shave even if i have to get up a little earlier to get it done.


Happy shaving,
Rob

I like your field kit, Rob. Nice work!