Thread: Hello from the Triangle (NC)

Welcome to SRP from Rockingham NC! You will find plenty of helpful advice here and guys will go out of their way to help you any way that they can. I am pretty new to straight razors myself after using a DE for a while then made the switch. Like someone has already mentioned you will get RAD pretty quick. I have purchased three very nice razors in the past four months all from SRD and have been very happy with all of them. I have also ended up with quite a collection of soaps, creams, aftershaves, etc. to go along with them. The Dovo 6/8 you ordered last night will arrive in just a matter of days. My experience with SRD has been excellent and I have always gotten my order in a very short period of time after placing it. If you get your stropping technique down you will not have a problem keeping those razors shave ready for a while. My poor stropping is what dulled up my first razor but I have gotten much better ever since and had no issues. I know there is a group in the triangle area that gets together from time to time and some of them I believe have replied to your post already. I have not reached out to any of them as of yet to see about meeting up one Saturday but it is something I would really like to do and you should as well. Us newbees can learn a lot from guys who have been doing this a while and I certainly want some instructions on honing as my next step is to purchase stones so I will have the ability to hone myself instead of sending my razors off to be done. Enjoy the new razor and good luck!!

CORSTO1
Welcome to SRP it sounds like you're in the right place. I'm new here too, 15 shaves in on str8s and the above advice is very sound as is all I've received also. As for blade size I went with 6/8 and 7/8 and find I like them both, you mentioned the Ralf Aust I have one in 7/8 and I really like the way it shaves. I also wear a stash and goatee and the big blades are not a problem for me so don't hesitate. The mistakes I made when first getting started-poor stopping dulled my first blade- not learning the proper pre-shave routine- not getting my lather wet enough- not stretching my skin enough. I had to focus my improvement in all these areas and then I started getting some really good shaves. If you can reach out to a mentor and get some one on one or go to a meet, the people here are great. I went to a meet one week in and the help was awesome, have had very good shaves ever since. I'll be meeting with a mentor in my area next week to work on trouble spots and honing. Good luck on this crazy journey and start a shave journal hear and ask lots of questions. Great shaving FrankC