A true story for those about to buy a first razor

[mauledbyakitten]

I know that this story is a repeat of many people's experience, but it's always worth stating again.

Around Christmas last year, I decided to take up straight shaving, and so I managed to find a second hand razor, strop and scuttle for a very nice price on eBay. The razor was a Timor Blue Steel (new version) Solingen, and was sold as shave ready. Upon receipt of the razor, it was clear that it was far from shave ready, it looked as if it had been sharpened on the pavement. I sent the razor off to a pro honemeister for sharpening, and upon it's return I set about learning to shave. It pulled, it sliced, it very rarely gave a nice shave, let alone a smooth one.
For months i persevered, thinking that my technique was out. My lather wasn't good enough. My angle was wrong.
For a while, chances are that at least one of these things were wrong at any one time, but now I think my technique is good enough to deliver a comfortable shave, so why didn't it?

I recently came across a new razor, dusty and cheap, but totally unused in a hardware shop. I honed it myself as best I could and after a damned good stropping, I had my first shave with it yesterday morning. Oh my word, it was like heaven on toast! Even though my honing was substandard compared to the pro job I had done on my original razor, the steel was so much more forgiving! The result was a shave so smooth that even the Mrs (who thinks that straight shaving is just a long winded faff) commented on how smooth it was!

I guess that the point I am trying to make is that razor steel matter. A lot. As my dad always says, you can't polish a crap, and it seems that you can't put a decent edge on dodgy steel.

Please people, learn from my errors! Save up a few more quid and buy a proper blade. Ebay has a lot of bargains, but also a lot of crap.

Enjoy your journey into straight shaving!

Iain