Thread: Is It The Blade, or Pilot Error?

Hey everybody!

To cut a long story short, I was given a blade by my Grandfather a couple months ago and finally decided to try it out. I google'd how to sharpen it, but quickly figured it would be best to get it "honed" - sent it out, and got it back yesterday. So this morning, I bit the bullet and tried 'er out. End result was a whack load of red irritation (burning), but a remarkably close shave in the un-irritated areas; had about a week worth of growth.

Steps I took this morning:

-Watched an hours worth of videos of youtube denoting, "how to shave with a straight razor"
-Shower
-Wet face with warm water
-Take a peanut sized amount of shave cream (Taylor of Bond Sandalwood)
--Lather with a bit of water in hands, then applied.
-Shaved, but took it extremely slow (grand total was something like 40 mins? I was nervous)

End result was quite a bit of razor burn around my lips, and a tiny bit on my neck. I tried to keep the blade as flat as possible, but I think I might have stuffed that - it felt like it was "tugging" or "catching" around the burned areas when shaving. Would applying shave cream without a brush hinder me? Is there something I should know about lathering up a cream versus a soap? Should I switch hands, depending on what side of my face I'm shaving? The other thing I was thinking was, could my blade be really aggressive? A close friend of mine shaves with a safety razor, and says some are more aggressive then others - this apply to straights too? I don't know much about razors, so I've attached a picture of mine...



Thanks for helping a total newb out!


Oh, forgot that I only shaved with the grain today - about 2 passes.