Armageddon's introduction

Hello everyone,


My name is Elijah, I joined the chat on IRC before I came here. I would like to thank all of the wonderful people joining there they made me feel welcome and helped a lot.

I was about to get scammed by an online seller and the people on the chat helped me out to get out of it. I ended up buying myself the Dovo Ebony Bismarck from SRD. A lovely razor, a perfect service and I would like to thank both Mr Don and Mr Lynn personally for their service.

Anyway, enough babling and let's get down to the subject. I have been a shavette user for about 6 years now and when my shavette broke I searched for an alternative and went into straight razor shaving. Today was my first shave and I'll share what I went through. I'm pretty sure my experience will help me and help new comers alike.

No, I did not nick myself at all but it was a horrible experience. The razor was not cutting the whiskers, more like tearing them out. It hurt a lot but I managed to shave my whole beard. What I'm sure of is that the blade is honed perfectly. I did not strop the blade by advice from the users on the chat afraid I would round the edge. Everything else might have been wrong.


Anyway, I'll be shaving again tomorrow and see how it goes. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Thank you all.

NB: the little mark on the blade's top is a reflection of the original oil applied by Mr Lynn.

Welcome to SRP. I feel bad for your experience. I can't speak first hand, but what I've read is the Shavette is a different shave than the straight. Maybe you're angle is off a little? Can't say for certain. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in and help you out.

BTW, I love the look of the Bismark.

May I ask what kind of prep you have done?

welcome to SRP. It's going to take a bit of getting used to. Your shavette would have shaved quite differently than the razor you just purchased. Have no worries though, You have a great razor!!!! It has been honed by the best and is up to the job no matter what. Keep reading the forums and don't give up. You will get the hang of it! :)

Cove5440: I love the looks of it too. Don't worry about the experience, it happens hopefully I can know why it happened and correct it.

skeekandsmooth: I won't give up, I'm in for good. If I wanted to try it out I wouldn't have bought a lovely razor, I could've tried it with any razor. And it has been honed by the best that's why I ruled honing error.

xuz: I made the lather, applied it, put a hot towel for a bit, reapplied another hot towel for some more time, then lather again pulled the skin and shaved with an angel I used to use with the shavette which is less than 45 but I've been told that it needs to be close to flat.
NB: I had a couple weeks worth of beard...

Thanks guys for the fast replies and the welcome.

The biggest thing to work on is to make sure your Bismarck is more vertical when using it. You can get away with a little more open angle using a disposable, but definitely not with the Bismarck and it's 6/8 width blade. The tendency is to bend the hand back at the wrist when using the straight razor so really try to keep that 30 degree or less angle when cutting and it should go better. Even though you have been using the disposable, try only shaving from one sideburn to the jaw with the Bismarck using short strokes and cleaning up with a little longer strokes until you get used to it and then move on from there.

Have fun.

Did you strop the razor before you used it? If so, I'm wondering if you didn't dull it with stropping. Most newbies, including myself, dull their new razor when first learning how to strop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jbtusa

Did you strop the razor before you used it? If so, I'm wondering if you didn't dull it with stropping. Most newbies, including myself, dull their new razor when first learning how to strop.

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I already mentioned that I did not strop it.

Anyway, I just stropped today and shaved WTG and ATG. It wasn't a close shave everywhere, I missed some spots. It was a very good shave, I guess I needed to strop first which I didn't and I fixed the angle (went to 1 to 1.5 spine away from the skin) and it went very smooth. I did have a tiny bit of burning sensation for about 10 to 15 minutes after the shave but that was it. I can happily say it is way better than the shavette and it feels better as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Armageddon

I already mentioned that I did not strop it.

Anyway, I just stropped today and shaved WTG and ATG. It wasn't a close shave everywhere, I missed some spots. It was a very good shave, I guess I needed to strop first which I didn't and I fixed the angle (went to 1 to 1.5 spine away from the skin) and it went very smooth. I did have a tiny bit of burning sensation for about 10 to 15 minutes after the shave but that was it. I can happily say it is way better than the shavette and it feels better as well.

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Your confidence level will improve with each shave............take your time and enjoy the learning curve..........Welcome to SRP................Remember: Be Patient !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Armageddon

I already mentioned that I did not strop it.

Anyway, I just stropped today and shaved WTG and ATG. It wasn't a close shave everywhere, I missed some spots. It was a very good shave, I guess I needed to strop first which I didn't and I fixed the angle (went to 1 to 1.5 spine away from the skin) and it went very smooth. I did have a tiny bit of burning sensation for about 10 to 15 minutes after the shave but that was it. I can happily say it is way better than the shavette and it feels better as well.

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So how have your shaves been lately?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by driver/examiner

Your confidence level will improve with each shave............take your time and enjoy the learning curve..........Welcome to SRP................Remember: Be Patient !

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Thank you for the welcome. Patience for me differs according to specific things. For example, I couldn't hold myself from buying a hone simply because I had the money and didn't want it to go away on something else. BUT I won't be using that hone any time soon unless I can get a hold of a cheap razor, I might go with the unrecommended razors on SRP to start learning on. After all, I don't want to mess up a lovely blade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cove5440

So how have your shaves been lately?

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Shaves are becoming better, more comfortable when it comes to WTG and XTG which is what I tried the first time. So better in that matter but I still have problems with ATG at the moment. At this point, I still feel the razor burns after the shave but I get less skin irritation than before and the next day it feels better and better. We'll see in the future if I keep going ATG or if I stop, after all I had to ditch the ATG when it came to DEs and Shavettes because my skin couldn't hold it. Well, we'll see I guess.

I'm glad to hear you're sticking with it. My first shave with a straight ended, after a harrowing sideburn to jawbone scrape, with me thinking, "People do this?!" I stuck with it, and am happy I did. I'm having a ball. I hope you do, too.

Cheers,

Jack

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jackslimpson

I'm glad to hear you're sticking with it. My first shave with a straight ended, after a harrowing sideburn to jawbone scrape, with me thinking, "People do this?!" I stuck with it, and am happy I did. I'm having a ball. I hope you do, too.

Cheers,

Jack

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I do understand that there's a learning curve with everything. I had to learn that, with no help, when it came to the shavette and I already knew that when I bought my razor. The thing is, even though my first experience was painful, my skin felt better after it. I'm there for life ;)

I'm glad to hear you're sticking with it, the shaves becomes whit each shave better, every time you learn something (terms of shaving, prep or Lather)
Have fun and stay tuned.
great blade by the way

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kalerolf

I'm glad to hear you're sticking with it, the shaves becomes whit each shave better, every time you learn something (terms of shaving, prep or Lather)
Have fun and stay tuned.
great blade by the way

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Thank you :tu:y

I just wanted to add that yes lather is becoming better and better, I looked back at youtube tutorials and compared mine with theirs and fixed a lot of mistakes I was doing. Now I get better more consistant lather.