Thread: newbie's first

Hey Sim,

http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=6759 is a good place to start for info.

I had read somewhere that a razor should rest 24 - 48 hours between shaves. Is that true?
I only shave every second day so I'm not the person to answer this.

What is the easiest way to tell if my blade is sharp enough?
Shave with it! That's the standard answer you'll get from almost everyone here. There are thumb tests, thumbnail tests, hanging hair tests, but if it shaves well then it don't matter. When honing I use the hair on my arm as a guide as to when to stop.

Does anyone know where I can get an inexpensive but good hone?
http://www.redtrader99.com/hones.html has good stuff really quite cheap. But if you razor is already shaving well you might want to get a pasted strop from Tony @ www.thewellshavedgentleman.com, just to touch it up.

Happy shaving!!!

One addition: You can cheap out on a brush and still get a decent Badger piece. Check out the Omegas.

I don't really worry about letting the blade sit since I can only shave every one or two days anyhow. Seems like a silly little thing that 'Old Barber's Tale'. I think it only makes sense to follow that rule if there's a chance you could shave two faces with the same razor in the same day. Still ... I'd follow it because it's what my barber told me.

For a hone, I'd say you get what you pay for and you'll likely get farther and save yourself a LOT of hassles by buying a 3" Norton 4/8 combnation water stone.

As for the shave ... a little more practice with shaving angles and cutting angles will likely give you better shaves. Keep at it.

X

As a general rule my razors wait 8 days between shaves because I slowly built up my rotation. However, in my early days I only had one and it was magic for several reasons:
1) Nenad pointed it [and some others] out to me (hvala Nenade ) and that was the start of our friendship.
2) I got it from Tony H, another friendship
3) It was honed by X (thanks X ). Dang it, it's like a friendship charm
4) Even though it's not much of a looker, it's still my best shaver, period.
For a while I used it and nothing else, on a daily basis, with no adverse side-effects.

Thank you all so much for your replies.

The link to the razor I bought is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...6019&rd=1&rd=1

I have been researching straight razor shaving for a while before I took the plunge. But doing is so much different then reading. About a year ago I switched to using a double edge and I got a great brush and soaps. And I thought I would use a disposable straight for a while to see if I could get the hang of it.

So today I had my second shave with the real straight. It went better than yesterday's but still not perfect (in fact I cheated and finished off with my DE). Being that I so far have only got the one razor, I don't know if the issue is with the razor (perhaps it is not sharp enough or the wrong type of razor for me) or with me (perhaps I am not stropping properly or my technique needs improvement). But I’ll keep on working with it and see what happens. Also I might try to pick up a second razor to see if there is any difference.

One other question (for now) is a wedge blade better for a course beard than a hollow ground or does it just depend on the individual blade and user?

Thanks again for all your welcomes and advice.

Originally Posted by sim

One other question (for now) is a wedge blade better for a course beard than a hollow ground or does it just depend on the individual blade and user?

There's a difference between hollow ground and wedges, but wedges have a lot of disadvantages for relatively minor gain - they're fairly heavy for their size, they're much more annoying to hone, they're fairly rare. Ordinary hollow ground razors shave fine. I've got a pretty wirey beard and the only thing I avoid are the super-hollow "singing" blades, they're too light and have too much blade flex. Most of my favorite razors are full-to-3/4 hollow ground blades or frameback-style blades, while my 8/8 W&B wedge is something I prize highly but use only rarely.

sim it looks like you got a nice a pretty nice razor, but I wonder if it really is a Timor Hamburg is there anything on the tang besides what's written on the blade I didn't see anything in the pics but if so and it has a makers mark stamped in the tang you made a pretty good deal. Other wise I'm not sure. You may want to let us know.

The only other thing not mentioned is that you will really benefit from the DVD put out by the founder of this group, Lynn Abrams. It is 3 1/2 hours of info that will help you a lot.
Go to the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, it is a sticky, cost is $20 and it will answer 90% of your questions. It is th best DVD available, anywhere.