Thread: Beginners Tips: June 2012 (5 Year Retrospect)

Well my friends yesterday was 5 years on SRP for me, and here either today, or tomorrow will be 15,000 posts..

So a little retrospect I thought was in order..


I started using a straight razor 31 years ago this month, I was taught how to use one, and how to maintain one from my Barber, David in Denver Colorado when I grew my very first beard at the age of 22.. David explained that in order to keep nice straight lines and to keep a beard groomed correctly you need a straight edge... I loved it as I could actually shave more than twice a week and not get angry skin from it.. I managed to keep two razors shaving for the next 20+ years with an Illinois strop and a very very fine Arkansas stone. About the time we moved to Idaho in 2002 was when I dropped and destroyed my last straight, so for the next few years I tried everything you can imagine to keep neat, clean, and groomed.. My skin rebelled and I threw in the towel with all the BS gizmos, told the wife thats it I am going back to a Straight Razor.. I marched myself out to the shop and up into the loft and dug through the storage boxes until I found my old strop and my old stone..
This was about Dec 2006 - Jan 2007, so armed and dangerous, I started with Google I found a few razors on e-bay, my first purchase was a Wostenholm Pipe, after that I wasted money on a Fillarmonica #10
I fixed up the Pipe and got it shaving and really enjoyed the process, so next I found a 22 razor lot on e-bay and snatched it up, the wife raised an eyebrow at that one, as she knew how I could get from the Gun "Hobby"..
This was somewhere around April or May of 2007 and I decided that I might need a different stone, so I started searching on Google, I found "The Perfect Edge" and after a informative hour long conversation with Howard I ordered a Norton 4/8...
So armed with a new Norton, and a ton of gunsmithing smarts I proceed to carefully take some of my 22 razor lot apart, and being the anal retentive person, I am I had my calipers and my trusty notebook, and measured, checked, and learned, why those smart fellas back in the past did things the way they did..
Tearing things down and re-building them was something I always enjoyed doing and was pretty good at and after all, razors were steel and so were guns I knew how to polish, and I knew how to take my time, so maybe 3 razors into this endeavor I joined SRP on June 17th and started posting.

I learned a bit about honing I did not know, Thanks to Lynn and others like him, I already knew how to maintain my razors, I knew what an X-stroke was, and to hone lightly, but learning to set a bevel was a whole new experience..
IIRC when I joined SRP we had maybe 2800 members, it was a rather tight knit community and so amazingly helpful.. I started hanging out in the old chat room with Jared/Nickelking (RIP brother) and Byron Todd, Doc, Syslight, Hoglahoo and Gugi, we would sit in that old cave and BS for hours...
Sunday night chats started back up, and I got to know Lynn through there, and finally met him and most of the Chat Crazies at the first 2008 NC meetup.. By that time I was hooked and well into honing and restoring...
Over the last 5 years I have never stopped learning, and questioning everything about this hobby, there is always a mystery to solve or chase, it never seems to end.. I think that is what I really love about it, there is always a new challenge, so when you hear the senior members say "This is a journey and not a destination" take that to heart...
Many come here to learn the knowledge to shave, and maintain their razors and move on, others of us have made this into a hobby that we cherish and continue the tradition of helping people get started using a straight razor that is SRP..

In closing this I will go back to a saying that I used to welcome newbies to the forum with

"Welcome aboard the Straight Razor train, may yer ride be long and smooth"


g