Thread: Hello from a newbie

Hello all, hope your're all well.

I've only just joined the site, my name is Ross from the UK.

Over the Christmas period I bought myself a disposable blade "shavette" straight razor. The reasoning being that the blades are cheap and I can practice with these cheaply without the need to practice stropping and honing (my username doesn't reflect this ). Then once the shaving skills are perfected to purchase a straight razor and the equipment and go on from there.

This was all done before I found this site and I'm starting to wonder if I've done the right thing. Only time will tell I suppose.

I've been reading the posts recently and struggling a bit with the abbreviations e.g. DE etc. I was just wondering if anyone could point me to a list of common terms and abbreviations so I can get a better understanding of what you guys are talking about

Cheers,

Ross

Hi and welcome. Many people start out using a shavette and move to a straight from there. In the library ia a list of all the abbreviations. If you have any questions about anything feel free to ask. Ed

Here's a link http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi..._Abbreviations

howdy. I started off using double edge razors then moved onto shavettes then finely straightrazors. any experience helps

Thanks Eddy that link is a great help I can fully understand what's going on now.

Thank you both for the welcome.

I didn't start with shavettes, but I think your reasons for doing so are right on. A lot of us (me included) managed to mess up the edge on a perfectly good razor while fumbling our early stropping efforts, not to mention honing.

With the shavette, you can start by learning to shave, just as you say. Whenever you like, you can purchase a strop and practice on it with a butter knife until your fingers and arm develop some reliable muscle-memory. Then at some point, you can purchase a shave-ready straight from a trusted honemeister, and shave and strop with it for months before honing becomes an issue. It sounds to me like a good way to begin.

Welcome, and good luck!

Originally Posted by deepweeds

I didn't start with shavettes, but I think your reasons for doing so are right on. A lot of us (me included) managed to mess up the edge on a perfectly good razor while fumbling our early stropping efforts, not to mention honing.

With the shavette, you can start by learning to shave, just as you say. Whenever you like, you can purchase a strop and practice on it with a butter knife until your fingers and arm develop some reliable muscle-memory. Then at some point, you can purchase a shave-ready straight from a trusted honemeister, and shave and strop with it for months before honing becomes an issue. It sounds to me like a good way to begin.

Welcome, and good luck!

Thank you very much for the welcome, this introduction seems to be the most logical for me as I don't want to ruin a perfectly good piece of kit, neither do I want to over load myself with new things to learn so one step at a time as they say.

I'll try and keep the forum updates as to my progress or lack of whichever it may be