Thread: Your First Straight Razor Shave

I thought it might be interesting for new members to hear from some of the more experienced guys about their first experience with a straight razor. We all start at the beginning and it might make people rest a bit easier knowing that none of us had anything sorted out the first time!

My first razor was a Dovo Best Quality. I knew enough to also buy a strop (pretty good strop in fact), a boar brush and a tub of Wahl shaving cream I bought because I thought it smelled like Barber.... No one had honed that Dovo - It was the factory edge and at the time I thought "man, this thing is razor sharp!!!" hahaha!

The man at the shop told me to lather up a balloon and shave it before I did my face - that actually went well.

I knew I had to strop before I shaved - looking back now, I don't know how I didn't slice that thing in half or completely wipe the edge off the razor. I stropped by flipping edge down at each end - what I was doing was basically bending the edge left and right for about 30 strokes....lol!

I shaved, painfully. I think the only thing that saved me at that point was the fact that I had a moustache and goatee, so that the hardest part of the face escaped the tender ministrations of my rubbish technique! No nicks, but tonnes of burn and blood spots. But I walked out of that bathroom proudly, eyes watering as the colder air of the house hit my freshly peeled cheeks!

In subsequent weeks I managed to nick my strop a lot and continued to dull the edge. I pasted one side of the strop with Dovo red paste, and completed the edge dulling task by wiping it off completely on the abrasive. Then I bought some hones, but that is another story...

If you are a slightly more experienced shaver, please share your first shave experiences here

James.

Oh, my story is quite similar

I bought a Dovo Bergischer Löwe and an English bridle strop from SRD.
Some good soap arrived in the package too.

After stropping it for a few laps,(I was told not to by the vendor) ruining the strop with a couple sizeable cuts, I was ready to chop down wiskers!
It did not work, I mean not at all.
The razor skipped, it tugged and for some reason seemed to want to cut skin more than beard.
Being quite stubborn, I wasn't about to let that stop me though, so I did do a full two pass shave and was rewarded with a quite loud scream by the missus when I proudly walked out of the bathroom looking like I was in need of instant medical aid.

Well, I put that razor away for a couple months, and used a few others I acquired rather quickly.
Each shave was a bit better than the the previous one, and when I finally did use the BL again, it provided me with a grand shave!
And with the very same edge that almost killed my wife the first time I used it

Mine was basically the same as Jimbo's, a Dovo Best Quality and an Illinois strop, it had a factory edge and this was before I found SRP. The shave was not great "to say the least". I was too stubborn to quit and once I found this site shaving really improved

My story is really boring. I read everything on SRP for 5 months before I joined. When I finally joined, I felt that I already 'knew' people here. My first razor was from SRD . It was/is a Dovo Best Quality (With lifetime honing). I did not strop the razor,as per Lynn's note.
Following the advice I found on the site while researching, I had a smooth comfortable shave,with no nicks and minimal razor burn.

my first was a 7/8 Sheffield marked round point..took me 2 months to completely shave my face..bought from classifieds hibudgl

I started with the package deal from SRD, Boker stainless in olive wood. Got the buffalo strop, they said it had a lot of draw, that sounded good, (another story), and patchouli soap and best badger brush.

I can't really remember if I stropped before, or not, but I probably did, and actually knowing how I am, I'm pretty darn sure I did. I started with washing my face and trying to keep it wet while I whipped up a lather with the brush and patchouli soap. I'm not sure if I shook any water out of the brush, but with the mess I was making, it hadn't been much. I couldn't get a lather to save my life and I think I finally concluded the soap had dried up and was way to hard to be useful. I ended up taking a bar of my wife's homemade soap and rubbed it on my face and then tried to lather that with the brush. Homemade soap with olive oil doesn't lather very well by the way. Well it should be slick anyway.

Now comes the time to shave and by this time I remember thinking that the bathroom wasn't usually this hot. I started at the right sideburn, and made a perfect 30 degree angle at approximately 45 degrees and started the first short stroke, all the way to the jawline. I reached up to feel how smoothly it was shaved and nothing had happened, that I could tell, so I did it again, and again. The razor wasn't seeming to shave whiskers like it should and that's when I concluded it hadn't been sharpened very well. Who was this Lynn guy anyway?

Of course I was having trouble keeping the soap on my face because the perspiration was rolling off my forehead, getting in my eyes and making trails through what soap I had left and washing it off onto my chest. And besides, you have to remember to breath. I did a full with the grain shave, neck chin and all. I even removed some whiskers, and by this time I was exhausted. I took a break to cool off and came back and shaved with my Gillette.

Stropping and honing down the road I guess.

Regards,

Howard

My wife bought me my first straight along with a strop and shaving mug back in 1982. She bought them at Cutlery World and the salesperson said it was sharp and ready to shave. I tried and tried and still couldn't get a close shave with it. After months of trying, using more and more pressure assuming that must be my problem, I gave up. Twenty nine years later I found my straight razor in a drawer. A little rust on the blade and I wondered what I did wrong. With the help of the internet I found SRP. I sanded off the little bits of rust and tried my hand at honing with a hone I purchased for my pocket knife. Failing again, I decided to send it off to Lynn. My eyes were open and I had my first BBS shave. Twenty five razors later, with me honing twenty three of them thanks to the videos from Lynn and Glenn, and I look forward to my daily shaves. To all the newbies out there, keep at it. It is well worth the time you have to put into this new hobby. Relax and enjoy the ride as will as the shaves.

I was looking at getting into shave with a straight and happened to fine a nasty old boker at a flea market. So i found this forum when looking for how to maintain and/or restore that razor. I got it cleaned up pretty good using the dreaded deumel tool, but it was super dull. I stopped in a the local old barber and talked to him for a few hours and he offered to hone it up for me.
Got home that night and told the wife to stand by with the phone in hand well i attempt to shave with this thing. Well im still here and shaving with a straight so there was no need to call 911.

Here is the link to my first shave http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...rst-shave.html

My first razor was a brand new Gotta, 4/8 I think. I did everything wrong I could possibly do so yes there was blood a nicked strop & a rapidly degrading edge. I wish SRP was around in the early 80's as I never had the good sense to talk to a barber.
Come too think of it the internet might not have been happening then either . LOL...

I was lucky to have a barber teach me to shave. He made me strop his razors for almost a month before he let me bring the razor to my face. When the day finally came to shave, he gave me a 4/8 Krusius Bros and the shave went better than expected. No blood, but not bbs. After that first shave, he dulled the edge and taught me to hone, letting me shave with both my failures and triumphs.