Thread: Should this be in honeing or beginners?

Gents, I am a bit pleased with myself. I am new to straight razors, and still have not made it to a full shave. I get nervous, or cut myself and jump back to my trusty DE.

I had a lesson on how to shave from a Turkish barber in Dublin (while visiting) don't know if I should mention his name or web site - but I would like to do so.... anyway.....

He gave me a shavette and some blades and a spray bottle of Jaxa Limon Kolonyasi. So I gave it a shot, and cut myself. Kept at it and got better. Then when in Germany I picked up a straight It's a Bob Klass and from Solingen and has two cranes on the blade.

The owner of the store honed it, yet it did not seem as sharp as I would have liked. So I decided to try to hone. Being somewhat smart, I went out to the local antique shops and have picked up some inexpensive razors that looked in fairly good condition. Purchased aThuringen hone, lapped it. Picked a razor and went to town on trying to hone. Not much luck, picked up a Franz Swaty (sp?) barbers hone, lapped some more on the Thuringen stone and taped the spine. Then I tried the Thuringen again, the barber hone, the Thuringen, and stroped. Well, the antique store razor would shave me, yes it pulled a bit, yes it was rough, BUT I did not cut myself. So I tried one cheek and one side of my neck, then back to the DE to finish. Could I have shaved my entire faced with this razor? Perhaps, but why push my luck. Lap some more, practice honeing some more, and keep going slowly on the shave.

At some point I will try to use the Swaty or the Thuringen on my Klass but not just yet. I have a nice German blade that is in really nice shape from an antique store that I'll give a test with before I go to my more expensive new razor.

But all in all I am rather pleased with myself on two fronts.
1. Learning a bit about honeing, and starting to get an edge that just might lead to me being able to hone my own at some point.
2. Getting a partial shave without a cut or nick with a straight razor that I honed myself. I will be the first to admit it was not a BBS but it's a start :-)