Thread: Thanks to all and everyone!

For sixteen years, I lived on a small island, with one straight razor (an old Bismarck),
with nothing more than a 3-line Swaty barber hone, a translucent Arkansas stone,
and an old Illinois 827 strop to maintain it in shaving condition. I'd been shaving with
a SR for years before that, but I really didn't know much about the whole process,
and there was nobody here to talk to about it. Shaving supplies came by C.A.R.E
packages from relatives in the States...Col. Conk soap, mostly.

A couple of years ago we got internet service here. Last year, I discovered SRP on the
web, and a whole new world opened up! Archives, Wikis, product info, forems, and best
of all, a community of folks devoted to straight razor shaving.

On my last trip to the States, for Thanksgiving last year, I jumped into the acquisition
game, whole hog, based on everything I had learned on this SRP website and from
conversations with friends and mentors that I'd met here on SRP.

I bought razors, strops, soaps and creams, a silvertip badger brush, aftershave products,
and a basic set of hones. Well, today it all payed off...with the best shave that I've ever
had with a straight razor.

The shaving prep techniques came from the SRP wikis and advise from numerous posts
on the subject. The shaving cream was Al's "Calypso", the lather was made in a coconut
shell bowl, applied with an Italian brush, and the shave was administered by a vintage
Sheffield blade, purchased from the SRP classifieds, and honed by gssixgun.

Not only that....The blade I used today had developed a couple of pits on the edge,
thanks to this extreme Pacific island salt air environment (despite daily applications
of Camellia oil, I might add), so it required a visit to my new hones: Norton 4k/8k
combo and Naniwa SS 12K.

Thanks to all the honing advise on SRP, the pits on the Sheffield blade were
successfully removed, and the edge came up really sharp. I stropped it on a kangaroo
hide strop (made by SRP member MickR), according to the techniques learned from
the videos by AFDavis11, and the shaving technique came from AFDavis11's
"Elegent Shave" post. The aftershave was Al's "Calypso."

It all came together today. Truly a first!

Now, all my new-to-me razors are stored in an AlembiCase, pre-treated with an
alcohol-mineral oil dip (suggested by...can't remember his screen name...sorry,
senior moment.)

Thank you all very much! I couldn't have done it without ya'all.

See (some of) you at the September Meet-Up in Spokane, WA!

All the best from Tonga,
Paul

ps: A special thanks to Sham for my first professionally honed razor; to Modine for a
nice razor and an excellent homemade aftershave lotion; to smythe for a razor
that I value for it's name alone; to MickR and Legion for their "good stuff" and
Aussie humor; to Alembic for a fine product; to Lynn for a couple of finely honed
razors; and a very special thanks to Glen, gssixgun, for his help and support.

Congratulations, and what a nice story to read. Here's to smoother shaves still