Thread: My journey so far with straight razor shaving, honing, etc.

So I have now sharpened a razor myself and shaved with it. Big thanks to Michael (FTG username) who was kind enough to invite me over and teach me a few things on his naniwa hones. I got a decent shave about the same quality as the shavette that I had been using previously. So it is possible for a total newb (note I had spent hours and hours watching every single honing video and reading anything I could find on honing prior to trying it out) to jump on the hones with a razor and come off of them with something in the vicinity of "Shave-ready" though I would not go so far as to say that I got the razor to shave-ready, it was definitely possible to shave with it without too much trouble.

That was last week and since then my sight unseen deal + silvertip brush and poorman's strop kit(the poorman's strops are out of stock but Larry was thoughtful enough to include a spare piece of leather for stropping on until he gets the poorman's strops in stock and mails it to me. Check out his site at whippeddog.com he is very trustworthy and a good person to go to if you want to get a shave ready razor for around 40 dollars, note. it will not be nice and shiny like the new or fully restored razors you can get from elsewhere but it's good if you just want to try out straight razor shaving without breaking the bank that is Larry's specialty.)

So I finally got to try shaving with a real shave-ready razor and I could instantly tell the difference between the one I sharpened myself and the one Larry had honed, it wasn't a jaw-dropping difference but definitely noticeable. The shave with the whippeddog razor I recieved no nicks or cuts, this could also be my improved handling skills but I am certain it was partly due to the properly honed razor, the shave with the razor I sharpened I did not cut myself either but I did have razor burn and some tiny tiny nicks.

If any Beginners are in the Melbourne area I have about 12 razors I have purchased off ebay and I could probably let go of a couple for people who want to get into straight razor shaving you can msg me for more details, I'd also be happy to meet up and teach people what I've learned so far in regards to honing/stropping/shaving etc when I'm free, if anyone is considering buying hones and wants to have a go at it I'm getting naniwa 3 8 combo and a 1k in the mail soon and I'm happy to let anyone have a go on my hones when they arrive and can TRY to show you the basics that I've (just very recently) learned.

I'd like to thank Lynn (for making this forum and his videos), gssixgun (Glen, for his many useful posts and also for answering my questions, and very helpful videos), Brad Maggard (Undream Great razor restoration videos on youtube, and also for answering my email questions), johnmrson (for replying to my pm), mjhammer (same), and anyone else who's replied to my email's Pm's posts since I started posting on here to help me progress on this journey back to a simpler time of straight razor shaving.

This forum is the only forum I have ever been on where I don't see constant arguing, petty insults, and flaming of people, and most of all TROLLING(touching wood now). I am so grateful for finding a community of people like this online, I really do feel like this is a true gentleman's(or gentlewoman's!) forum.

Anyways I just felt like saying that.


If you read all the way down to here thank you =]

John-

You are very welcome, John and, if you are ever in Brisbane, let me know and we could catch up.