This introduction is long overdue... However, greetings from West Virginia!
My name is Jeremy. (SSAA ((straight shaving addicts anonymous)) group responds, "hi Jeremy") I started straight shaving a little over a year ago. I think it was the movie Skyfall that got me going. For some reason I must have always thought that one could only be shaved by someone else with a straight, but when James Bond appeared to be prepping to give himself a straight shave, I thought, "If James Bond can do it, I can do it." haha.
Anyways, I started my research and almost immediately found this site. Man, what an overwhelming experience that was. All the information, techniques, products, etc. I thought it would be best to focus on the information offered to beginners. That was a good idea. I learned the correct techniques of shaving, stropping, honing, and even learned that even though it is done in the movies and shows, it is quite impossible to get a decent shave by scraping the edge 180 degrees across your face.
I started with a modest setup. I bought myself a Dovo Best Quality half hollow, a boar brush, 2.5 inch leather strop, and managed to make cloth strops out of denim attached to hard wood slabs in which I applied dovo red paste, dove black paste, and dove white paste (not all on the same strop). After a very short time, I decided that if I was going to be shaving this way from now on, I had better learn how to hone, so I got myself a coticle. Maintaining the Dovo Best Quality was fairly simple since it came shave ready, but I decided to purchase a couple eBay specials for honing practice.
I could go on-and-on about every painful detail in my journey to where I am now:
Thought I was getting good shaves... I wasn't.
Thought I knew how to hone... I didn't.
Thought I could make a good lather... I couldn't.
Thought my stropping would improve... it wouldn't.
But I will spare you the details of every experience I have had over the last year.
I am still very much a beginner in every aspect of this hobby/lifestyle, but I have improved enough to realize that I will continue to improve as I get more experience.
I have now expanded my collection quite a bit (at least comparitively).
Razors (in chronological order) -
1. Dovo Best Quality half hollow
2. Stoddard & Company "Hub" 380
3. Imperial Extra Hollow 20507
4. Boker Silver Steel
5. Wade & Butcher Frameback
6. Wade & Butcher Wedge
7. Dorko Resco 7/8 (thanks to thebigspendur)
Hones -
2 Coticules - One hard & one soft
DMT 8000
2 sets of lapping film set on 3x12 inch slabs of granite - this works for any extensive work that I need to do, which is rare.
Naniwa 12k in the mail
Suehiro 20k in the mail
I also have a low end badger brush, a travel boar, chro ox went on my original strop and I upgraded to a 3 inch horse butt, several soaps, several aftershaves, alum, styptic, etc, etc, etc.
Funny, I remember thinking that switching to a straight would save me money in the long run. I'm not saying one can't save money by switching to straights, however, I think I am to the point that if I never buy another shaving item again, I am pretty sure my future son might save money. LOL
A special thanks to Lynn Abrams for creating such an awesome source, and thanks to everyone else for all the useful information that I have found on this site. This is my first post on the site simply because I just always found that my questions were answered by a doing a simple search, and up until now I have felt too green to offer any good advice. However, I am now getting comfortable shaves consistently, so perhaps I can chime in from time-to-time.
Thanks again! Happy shaving, honing, and whatever else you enjoy doing!
- Jeremy
