Thread: 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!