Thread: What I Wish I'd Known

Not to buy a bunch of hones, razors and supplies until I knew what i was doing

In general, I'd like to think reading the Barber's Manual on this site helped quite a bit.

Some very helpful advice, specifically, was that which was given to me by a barber instructor.

He told me that stropping required some pressure, followed by very light pressure. He emphasized the need to use an x pattern while stropping. I thought this was odd, but it started me on my journey to spend time evaluating my stropping, as opposed to just doing it. To this day I'm still puzzled by his comment, but I've taken note of it's importance.

The thing I learned on my own was that razors need to be tweeked to become perfect. It might takes months to get a razor tweeked in. But once its set I may not need to hone it for over a year. I always thought that honing was accomplished NOW. And the razor should shave NOW . . . PERFECTLY. I thought about the primary difference between modern man and his straight shaving counterpart and I realized that getting the edge just perfect was a task taken with patience over a far greater amount of time than I expected or desired. Once I treated edge development more like wine fermenting, and allowed the edge to become perfect over time, the quality of my shaves vastly improved.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I would have benefited if I had shaved with a safety razor first, shaving down to skin but not BBS, and finished off with a straight razor.

That would have allowed me to learn how to deal with longer whiskers gradually, and a little less painfully.

This is really a great way to get the lay of your face down and get comfortable with the movements and hand positions you are going to use to get the job done. It lets you concentrate on technique rather than results at a time where you have no technique. Then as your technique and confidence builds the results will come naturally.

What advice helped you the most?
To start with a shave ready razor honed by a honemeister.

What advice would have helped you the most that you learned yourself?
I discovered the guillotine stroke on my own, then read the wiki and realized I should have known it since day 1. That is the reason for my avatar pic.

What advice were you given that you did not heed?
The "only start with one cheek and slowly work your way up to your whole face." I really didn't butcher myself. Shaving did take an hour, but I think tackling my whole face from day one helped my technique and comfort.

I think the best bit of advice I ever got off here, was probably Bart's one coticule honing method. Don't know how much value is placed in that any more, and I remember it caused a bit of a controversy at the time, but it really allowed me to concentrate on technique. I shaved, and sold, lots of razors honed only with my coticule. I'm sure there was lots of shaving advice that helped also.

I would advise people is don't get too caught up with parifinalia and other surplus stuff before you can actually use a razor. Like when you learn anything, it's good to have some constants.

That I should have put my Henckels For Barbers Use in a safe before it grew legs. (break in)

Good thread, Larry. Great advice, too.

That a shaving angle of 30 degrees means 30 degrees from the skin, not 30 degrees from the orthogonal. And when stropping, keep the spine flat to the strop, rather than at an angle like when honing a pocket knife.

That shave ready from the factory... isn’t...

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The thing I learned on my own was that razors need to be tweeked to become perfect. It might takes months to get a razor tweeked in. But once its set I may not need to hone it for over a year. I always thought that honing was accomplished NOW. And the razor should shave NOW . . . PERFECTLY. <...snip...> Once I treated edge development more like wine fermenting, and allowed the edge to become perfect over time, the quality of my shaves vastly improved.

Can you expand on this please? Examples, perhaps...

Thanks!

What advice helped you the most?

Be patient.