Thread: My impressions after one year of using straight razor

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on this forum and I thought that I will share with you some of my impressions on shaving with straight razor. I wanted to try this as early as second year of my computer science studies but unfortunately back then I couldn't afford a decent straight razor set and my girlfriend discouraged me from buying a cheap one. Probably I should thank her, as first attempts with poor quality razor could deter me from doing this. As soon as I graduated and got a job I bought my first razor - Dovo Best Quality 5/8, pair of wet stones, badger brush and a leather strop with linen side. I still remember my first shave with it - it took me an hour of careful strokes in attempt to find comfortable hand positions for each face area. And that was just in one direction. To my discontent, even after stropping razor was not even closely shave ready and I had to give it a run on a stones. All in all it wasn't that bad - at least I didn't cut myself. It was obvious I wouldn't be able to do it every day but at the same time I promised myself not to use safety razor anymore. Fortunately, one of "advantages" of being software engineer is that no one really expects you to be well groomed on the job so I shaved two, three times a week - always taking my time.

After using straight razor almost exclusively for over a year now I'am able to get job done in 20 minutes with two passes. I wrote "almost" because during that period I used disposable razor once when I was in hurry. That was awful. I had whole lot of bumps and nicks from trying to get a shave as close as with straight razor. Then I realized, that its virtually impossible and for sure I will never go back to disposables again.

I registered on this forum because I want to improve my technique since I know that still there is more to learn.

Thanks for reading my story!
Regards!

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Keep at it and good luck with both your career and shaving.
Sunbird
Australia

It's always nice to hear others experiences and insights. By the sounds of it that's 20 minutes well spent so good job.

Now you have to start with the honing routine. That will give you plenty more to learn.

Been at it two months - still waiting for that magic day when I don't have to finish the tough spots with the disposable! Except for about three places, it's the best shave I've ever had in my life. I wish I'd started doing this 20 years ago.

Third shave with a straight razor this morning. I'm thinking the two-pass method, WTG and ATG is probably what I'm going to be doing for a long time, too... I got a Dovo Ebony Stainless to start with and rolled the edge on the strop just after my first shave. Had to learn to hone real fast as a result. Since I actually had a few really NICE strokes today, I can figure my honing went well, but my apprehension is making most strokes a little too slow and heavy.

Being a stainless blade, it occurred to me during the extra strokes required to hone it well that I would probably need to really strop the hell out of it, too. I did, like 40 strokes on the strop after honing, another 30 the next night and then 40 this morning prior to shaving.
Examining the blade with a 10x loupe really helped me see what was going on with the edge during the honing process. To me, honing is WAY easier to learn than shaving with it. I've sharpened a lot of knives, and the hardest part is holding the angle. With a straight razor, the spine sets the angle and you use way less pressure, letting the stone do the work, so in my mind = easy day! Great results from a Norton 220, 1000, 4000 & 8000 grit stones, finished up with a 16000 grit Shapton.