Don't get overconfident. The straight is an unforgiving humiliator.
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Don't get overconfident. The straight is an unforgiving humiliator.
You restored that blade? 37.00? Looks good to me. Nice Job!!
Michael
@mjsorkin, I'm sure there are some people who could do a much better job of honing than I could (apparently there's some legal issue in the state I live with people honing straight razors professionally, some health nonsense or something), but I kind of wanted to get better at it myself in order to be able to do it myself.
I've managed to get my razor to a point where it snaps a hair at a touch at every point along the blade so, for a beginner I think that's OK.
I found it's not so terribly difficult, just time consuming and repetetive, much like stropping, I've spent a few hours getting that right and I think I'm getting better at it.
My shaving technique is still developing, but I'm finding I am getting fewer and fewer cuts, and with my trusty styptic pencil, they are pretty well gone instantly.
The good thing about nicking yourself with a very sharp implement is you tend not to feel it so much, I think it's mainly a matter of developing confidence and developing my technique with an understanding of which direction the beard grows, little stuff like that you'd think I'd know all about after shaving for a couple of decades, but stuff you can really not bother so much about with the almost idiot-proof cartridge type razor.
I used to have the quickest under the shower shave you've ever seen with a cartridge, now I lather up with hand made soaps and creams in a heated scuttle, use an oil, hand made after shave, the whole bit.
I've actually never been one to bother with any kind of indulgence like that, but I think it's kind of nice to do something like that for yourself.
GF seems to like the end result and since I've never been a great one for colognes, it's nice to get positive feedback about smelling nice too.
Most recent aquisitions are a bottle of Madame Scodioli's "laudnum" aftershave and I can't speak highly enough about the stuff, it smells fantastic, soothes wonderfully and my skin just DRINKS it down and today I picked up a nice little puck of tade laurel shave soap, that stuff is REALLY nice, unlike a few other soaps and creams I've tried before it doesn't seem to dry out into this cakey residue on my skin, lathers up easy and I really like the smell of it too which is a bonus.
The fun thing about soaps is even really top of the line ones aren't THAT expensive so I can have a couple of them on the go at once even on a pretty tight budget. They seem to last forever too even though I like to make a tonne of suds (what can I tell you? I'm slow and careful cos I'm still learning, don't want to rush through it and discover I've amputated something).
looks awesome :)