Thread: Hello! Newb here, first few days with a straight

this is a great sight with a wealth of information. It has accelerated my learning curve significantly!

Last week I decided I would look into shaving wiht a straight. Not sure why. maybe because I hate shaving so much, maybe because i have an interest in good knives and obtaining a "razor sharp edge"

Regardless, i took the plunge saturday and bought a 7/8" "barbers rattler" made by wade and butcher (after learning on this sight that they are good). I also bought a 3" by 30" peice of leather to use as a strop.

Got the blade home, honed it on an arkansas surgical black stone so that it shaved arm hair nicely, stroped it about 40 times and decided to have at it.

Result was the worst and most painful shave I ever had. Convinced me that the hanging hair test is important to pass!!. I knew my blade didnt but figured it couldnt be that bad.

I knew i needed something finer than the arkansas black to polish the edge so i put some jb bore cleaner on the rough side of the leather and tried again. eventually it would "pass" the hanging hair test if i cut the hair about 1/4" from where I held it. Thought that migth be good enough, WRONG! still got a bad shave and had to finish with a mach3.

not one to give up, i coated the smooth side of the leather with an even finer abrasive (JB bore bright) and tried again. This time I got the HHT to work at close to 1/2" . So time to try again. This shave was still nto what one would call a pleasant experiance.
at that point I was ready to concede defeat in that I didn't have either the tools or the skills neccesary to sharpen a razor so i could get a good shave so I went to classic shave and ordered the legendary norton 4000/8000. Also ordered one of Tony/s hanging strops and am looking forward with great expectations to getting them. Figuring I would shelf the razor untill they arrived.

Well today I decided I just couldnt leave it alone. In reading more about technique i found the 30 degree rule, geeze, i had been shaving with the blade almost perpendicular to my face! so out comes the razor and he strop. I removed all the abrasive from the smooth side and poceeded to strop. eventually I got it to pass the HHT at about 1"!!!

Now armed with a sharper razor and more knoweldge I plan on trying again in the morning after a hot shower. Please wish me luck as I have no stypic pencil or anything.

btw thanks so much for all the great info here. I am sure I will be posting more questions in the near future but thought you all might get a chuckle out of the missteps of a determined newbie

Welcome to the site. Now you've learned that there is more to this lost art than most people think. It takes a good amount of study and reading of the support pages on this site. All kinds of little details relating to shaving strokes and positions, honing and stroping and the materials to use. First and formost is experience. very often you'll see posts from newbees who have bought the best of everything but can't understand why they didn't get that textbook perfect shave the first time.

Most of us here had to learn the hard way without any support and I can tell you from personal experience it was a painful experience. The learning curve can be very steep.The thing to remember is that at one time everybody shaved this way so you can and will too. So keep reading and asking questions and before you know it you'll be giving advice to people here on how to shave with a straight. Oh and that 30 degree angle thing is rather important. And yes the hone you are using is not designed for a straight the hone of choice for most here is the Norton combo 4K/8K or a series of old barbers hones or pasted strops.

Trapper Welcome. I am still new but before I even started I was on here about 3 weeks asking and reading. Lots of stuff to learn. I got 3 razors off of ebay the first was a 4/8 barbers rattler. I just found my niche the other day and got my razors sharp enough to shave with. After that there is still a lot to do. Good prep is a key part along with the razor. It just takes time. But I am a research person I don't just jump right in. You can crack your skull that way. It will only get better and easier as you go. Keep reading and asking the guys who have been doing this a while lots of questions(they love that). If you can't get your razor sharp enough you can always ask one of the guys to help you out. Stick with it.

Keaton

Originally Posted by trapperjohnme

Please wish me luck as I have no stypic pencil or anything.

Now here is one brave newbie!!!! I don'teven look at my razor without a styptic pencil handy.

hang in there trapperJ,
I too am in the same boat read "my first shave not good" so i have been re-educated. keep reading as many of the posts here pertaining to your imediate interests.all the questions will be answered.I too went thru that painful fist shave, but i need to practice the strop, if done wrong it makes your blade dull!

thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Well, I was able to pull it of fthis morning. I was actually able to shave my whole face with the SR without having to change to my M3. I didnt have any serious pulling of hair and it seems to cut pretty well. I did nick my upper lip a little bit do to the natural curve of the lip and my carelessness. also had some blood spots where i had previously irritated the skin.

all in all 100X better than it was when i first tried it on saturday.

I must admit having some satisfaction in getting the blade keen enough with just the tools I had around the house. never thought I'd be using gun cleaning compounds to sharpen a straight razor

Well done . This can be very satisfying when it works

Welcome aboard, Trapper! Nice to hear that you're seeing improvement. I don't know that I would ever use my gun cleaning stuff on a straight razor, but hey, if it's stupid, and it works, it ain't stupid.

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it, though. I empathize on the cut to the upper lip. I've done that to myself, and even with a styptic pencil they're a pain to get to stop.

Let us know how things go!

You're on your way dude. Best piece of advice: read, read, read, patience, patience, patience!!! SRP won't disappoint.

Welcome aboard.

-Rob