Originally Posted by
Razorfeld
A small diversion and aside to the Great Experiment. I had the joy of spending three hours with a 19 year old (going on full maturity) college student yesterday getting him started on the path of straight razor sharpening. He had inherited two W&B's (lucky devil), not used since his Great Grandfather's use. I had him send them to cudarunner to be cleaned up and honed, which of course resulted in some fine work. After about an hour and a half of talking about everything razors and shaving we hit the shaving room and he was led through lather building, razor maintenance and finally, first shave with a straight. In retrospect I could think of no other razor more suitable to demonstrate with than the 8/8 filli. First, the look on his face on seeing such a large razor, and then realizing his 5/8 was as good as they get as I demoed first the side burn area and led him through doing that section and then a full face shave and watched quiet joy spread from his eyes to his whole demeanor was beyond priceless. Let me also state that under normal conditions I would not have gone the full face route except for the fact that I was dealing with an intelligent, systematic thinker that could handle the process. Sent him home with a brush, lathering bowl, witch hazel, two soaps (one of them William's for the challenge)and of course, my phone number. His W&B has a wicked point and he learned quite quickly to concentrate and be aware of the razor's placement all the time. Oh, and a brand new styptic pencil.
I, again, give credit to the shave ability of the 8/8 filli to orchestrate a successful intro to our funny field of shaving diversity (he was wide eyed when I showed him my electric double edge razor) and can't not see him not shaving with a straight for years to come.
Forgot. Also lent him a vintage 2-1/2 inch strop.