newbie's first

I finally got my first real straight razor today. I had been using a disposable straight for a little while but this is a totally different animal. It's a Timor Hamburg ring I got off eBay. It was advertised as hand honed, shave tested and shave ready. I also got a strop. So I stropped the razor and shaved. I really loved the experience and I didn't nick myself once. On the other hand I did not get a really good shave for the most part. Though parts of my face were smooth so I was probably doing some things right. Being that it's my first time I'll assume there's a learning curve.

I do have a couple of questions however.
I had read somewhere that a razor should rest 24 - 48 hours between shaves. Is that true?
What is the easiest way to tell if my blade is sharp enough?
Does anyone know where I can get an inexpensive but good hone?

I'm sure I will have more questions as I go along but if anyone can help me out with these I'd really appreciate it.

Welcome aboard. For starters read all of the help files and go through the honing and strops forum to get a better idea of your maintenance needs. Can you post a link to your auction? It's quite possible you bought it from one of the members here. Always good to see a new face.

This is a place with a bunch of great honest guys. you can't find a better bunch of knowledgeable guys, the site is very informative. I have found the best way to learn about all this stuff is to read read read, use the search button above to search a topic or word and more than likely it's there. I started with a cheap disposable blade made by Fromm. But with the help of the guys here, I have been able to restore three old razors one was my grandfathers and the other given to me by my barber and I bought one to restore off e-bay which are the only three I have now which are Peerless, Hornet and a Sheffield Magbell #42 all old, but work good after being restored. I can't afford all the fancy stuff that some of the other guys have but I've started out with a regular coffee mug for my $1.50 Williams soap, a cheap boars brush for $6.00 a friend sent me a strop for free and Tilly at redtrader99 sold me the beginners set of hones at http://www.redtrader99.com/hones.html . So hang in there collect a little at a time and you will collect enough to work with. Check with some of your family that's how I got my grandfather razor my aunt had saved it, so see if any one in your family has any items. You might be surprised. here is some info on razor should rest 24 - 48 hours between shaves http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...1891#post61891
also try here for sharp test http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...ight=sharpness

These are just beginnings have fun and enjoy the ride.
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Damon I have to give you my respect for diving right in with very little gear and getting very nice results. :tu
One word of advice: Keep the boar brush until you're ready to splurge on something really extravagant. I even learned to get a decent lather out of a $5 plastic bristled brush so it will hold its own until you decide on something FINE.
I currently own the Wilkinson plastic and the EJ Best Badger. The Wilkinson is used for the first lather with the cheap soap that stays on my face while I strop, gets rinsed and the lather from one of my finer soaps/creams (mostly Colleen's excellent stuff, real steals at $5.95 a cake) goes on with the badger.
However, the badger will be relegated to being a long trip traveller and for occasional variety-changeups once I get the custom piece I ordered from Matt.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Damon I have to give you my respect for diving right in with very little gear and getting very nice results. :tu
One word of advice: Keep the boar brush until you're ready to splurge on something really extravagant. I even learned to get a decent lather out of a $5 plastic bristled brush so it will hold its own until you decide on something FINE.
I currently own the Wilkinson plastic and the EJ Best Badger. The Wilkinson is used for the first lather with the cheap soap that stays on my face while I strop, gets rinsed and the lather from one of my finer soaps/creams (mostly Colleen's excellent stuff, real steals at $5.95 a cake) goes on with the badger.
However, the badger will be relegated to being a long trip traveller and for occasional variety-changeups once I get the custom piece I ordered from Matt.

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Thanks It's been enjoyable here and I think sim will enjoy as well will have to look at the Omega brushes, and yes I want to try some of Colleen's soap I think I will try to get her to send a few broken pieces of different scents to try.

Even though her soaps don't give you the Santa-Clause beard lather as they're mostly glycerin, they have the following advantages:
3) The lather stays moist throughout the pass (her use of bentonite and kaolinite clays achieves that)
2) You get a smooth glide (again, hail to the clays)
1) They smell GREAT!

My favourites (in general order of appearance) are:
1) Cavendish Black (her classic and hands down the best)
2) Orange Patchouli
3) Leatherneck
4) Bay Rum + Orange
5) Desert Ironwood
And yes they are all in my rotation together with C&E Nomad and a couple of creams.

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 :D) 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 :D). Dang it, it's like a friendship charm :D
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.

Quote:

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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?

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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.

Thanks for the info about blade types. I appreciate it.

As far as markings, there's something stamped on the shank. It's a bit worn out but it looks like it says GIESON & FORSTHOFL (not sure of that last name) Solingen Germany. Does that mean anything?

Thanks for letting me know about the DVD. Sounds great.

i woudln't worry about the 1 razor only and waiting 48hours.. becuase as you start this love of straight shaving you will acquire more razors and you won't have that problem. but i also used my single razor when i first started daily without any problems.

straight shaving is so different then normal bic razor or de. you can not expect a perfect shave out of the gate, it won't happen. so don't expect it but expect improvement as you learn your face and how to hold the razor and what angles to hold it at to move to the contours of your face along with what angles to shave your face.

when i started i did sort of a 1 month progression on learning.

week1 - straight shave both cheeks, finished rest of face with bic along with touch up

week 2 - straight shave cheeks and started working jaw line (my personal heaviest beard), lip and chin. did my neck and touch ups with bic

week 3 - straight shave cheeks now no problems, jaw line pretty good (dont forget to pull up your skin by your ear) and lip/chin were good. started shaving my neck with straight.

week 4 - cheeks/lip/chin/jaw all good, neck almost all good. neck was very sensitive and it took a while for my skin to adjust to straight shaving as its more aggressive then you will be used to.

try some thayers witch hazel(non-alcoholic) after your shave/cold splash/pat dry... it stops bleeding from little nicks and tightens your skin making everythign feel great. buy it at GNC stores

remember, u have to learn your razor angles and movements to match your face...and your face has to learn the feeling of straight shaving(toughen up). its not a overnight process but the results a month from now will be fantastic

~J

Well if its a German blade you did good on the buy. All is good in my book.
Enjoy the hobby and post often sim, I look forward to your findings and experimentation. :tu


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

One word of advice: Keep the boar brush until you're ready to splurge on something really extravagant. I even learned to get a decent lather out of a $5 plastic bristled brush so it will hold its own until you decide on something FINE.
I currently own the Wilkinson plastic and the EJ Best Badger. The Wilkinson is used for the first lather with the cheap soap that stays on my face while I strop, gets rinsed and the lather from one of my finer soaps/creams (mostly Colleen's excellent stuff, real steals at $5.95 a cake) goes on with the badger.
However, the badger will be relegated to being a long trip traveller and for occasional variety-changeups once I get the custom piece I ordered from Matt.

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You can get a plain badger hair brush here for $10 shipped.
(it used to be $9 shipped. I think me leaving the link on shave boards drove the price up :) )
http://beautyrose.stores.yahoo.net/twdeshbrform.html

Thanks so much for the info. I had a couple of more shaves with it since my last post. One of them was a lot better. I have a feeling it might not be sharp enough. But I just bought my 2nd razor off ebay (you called it right jscott:) ) and I will be able to compare.

They are asking for $15 to ship to Canada. Dream on lol

Well it turns out the razor was not sharp enough. I did a hair test and it couldn’t even cut through a hair with pressure. I did the same test with a DE to see the difference and the hair cut easily. I hope this next one I’m getting is sharp enough. In the meantime I’m putting this one aside till I get a hone. Live and learn.

Got my 2nd razor and shaved with it today. It went pretty well. I can’t get as smooth as with a DE yet but I’m getting better.

Also, I think I may have made a mistaking with stropping on my first. I have a leather hanging strop which has a rough and smooth side. I had been stropping on the rough side then on the smooth side. In afterthought stropping on the rough side may not have been a good idea.