Those old barbers sure know their stuff.
Having just received my first straight for Wid here, thanks again, I went to chat with one of the local old barbers. While he doesn't do shaves anymore I knew he had some knowledge that I could take advantage of. One of the first things he did was began telling me the direction of the grain of my beard. I knew he knew what he was doing but didn't expect him to just start pointing it out and such. I think I supprised him when I was talking about hot towels, alum, which hazel and such. He ended up showing me how to strop, gave me a old strop, and a dulled razor to practice on. I had a great afternoon, and I think he enjoyed sharing his knowledge.
He did say two things that I wanted to pose to the membership here for their thoughts.
First he said to use noxzema as a pre-shave, anyone ever heard of that?
Second he said to use a good amount of pressure when stropping. I could be wrong but I thought you were just supposed to use the weight of the razor.
Matt