Thread: Ok...so I'm an idiot.

I came to own some fairly rough vintage straights that belonged to a friend's grandfather. They were old and rough.

Someone tried unsuccessfully to repair this one resulting in a frown near the heal.

I have never used a straight before but I'm a pretty good knife sharpener...and a poor listener. So I ignored 99% of what I have read here and set out to do the unthinkable.

I got out my hones and ground the recurve out of the blade and stepped through the progression and finished on my palm (no bare leather strops yet...all mine are loaded with diamonds).

To make matters worse this razor has a decent point on it, but who am I to listen to sound advice from veterans?

I headed to the bathroom and washed and lathered up after a few hot towels. I made my first pass on my right cheek and all seemed good...until I saw my neck bleeding about 6 inches away from where I made my first pass. WTH? I have no idea how that happened, but I kept going.

In the end I have 5 or 6 small nicks on my neck and some very mild burn. But a nice shave with a blade that probably was not honed quite well enough...but it shaved pretty good

I gotta admit it went a lot better than expected. I enjoyed it, but next time I thing I'll slow down a bit

Pics of the damage can be posted on the Cut of the Day thread! I'm glad you didn't decapitate yourself.
Seriously, when the real Senior Members speak -- and I'm not one of them -- it's best to listen.

Honestly, the damage was not bad enough to share there. Just a few minor nicks that are close to healed 12 hours later.

In truth I did listen and learned a bunch here, but I did typical trial by fire of diving in head first and learning the hard way. I find that the hard way teaches more permanently than simply reading sage advice

My gear showed up today (a professionally honed straight, some soap, a brush, and a few strops). Now I will be able to learn how a truly shave ready razor performs....and I have perspective to draw from

It's funny, I really didn't expect to feel do much pride from this process. But I do...

I have finally convinced one of my friends at work so join our sordid little world of wet shaving. I loaned him a few blades to try out and must have repeated the mantra 'go SLOWLY... take your time...' a hundred times. So far it seems to be working as he is still cut-free. Hopefully that will continue as blade meets chin for the first time one of these days!

Jumping into things with both feet has its merit in a lot of situations. But I hae me doots that this is one of them.

Anyway, great to hear the damage wasn't too serious!

Well, you should be a happy shaver right now if your gear arrived! Pics of razors are always welcome here (hint hint!).
As an old teammate used to say, "Less than 10 stitches doesn't count."
See you in the trenches, buddy!

It is amazing...the more I learn, the more I realize that I didn't even know about what I did not know...and still don't.

Good thing I have about half of a lifetime to figure some of it out

I think that's true for most of us. It certainly is in my case.

How's your "pro honed" razor compare to the one you honed yourself ? I'm just curious , because back when I started , I shaved with self honed razors for 2 months , before I got my first pro honed razor (honed by Bob Keyes) . I didn't notice any big difference until I got to my chin . The razor Bob honed , went through my chin whiskers almost effortlessly . Whereas , the razors I honed didn't do anywhere near as well . I had to fight my way through my chin stubble , and when I was done , my chin was usually a blotchy red mess . I thought the problem was my technique , because I was a noob . I'm sure , poor technique was part of it , but the main reason was because my razors weren't quite as sharp as they could have been .

I just received my pro honed razor today so I'll have to get back to you on comparison.

I like to think I'm pretty good at sharpening knives and such, but I'm pretty grounded about accepting that my razor honing might not be up to the level of a pro

I have shaved my face with knives before...and I can tell you that my straight razor did a much better job