New guy saying hello and thank you.

[EdHutton]

Hi everybody. I am living in North Carolina. I originally started out in the US Army as a Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMETs work on hospital medical gear). I used the BMET skills to put myself through engineering college. Did the design engineering stint and then began climbing the corporate ladder. Production, Customer Service, Sales, and back to engineering as a manager, director, and finally Vice President. Yes I like to figure out how things work and build things too.

I’ve been consulting for several years, and a couple of years ago started doing humanitarian work. Long story but I’m running engineering teams in Cambodia, Ghana, Honduras, Nigeria, and Rwanda. We work with the governments and hospitals to set up schools and train people to take care of the medical equipment in public hospitals. Most of what gets donated in many poor countries breaks shortly after it gets there because there are no BMETs. We fix that.

I mentioned liking to make things. Metal things and electronic things primarily, I have a nice model shop but have been primarily doing management consulting recently. So I guess it was inevitable I’d find straight razors and wet shaving. I love the art of str8 razors and the wonderful shaves you can achieve. Somehow in my mind TIG welding, CNC mills, plasma cutter, and straight razor all seem to fit together . The management part of me just cringes at the Fusion razor $$$ solutions which don’t give as good a shave as the old str8 razor technology.

I’ve been reading all the great stuff on SRP. What a resource! Thank you! Straight razors have a steep learning curve. I am only about 50 shaves into this learning curve but it is starting to come together. I would not be doing anywhere close to this well without the resources you folks have put out on the Internet. Thank you very much!

Best,
Ed

[criswilson10]

Welcome to SRP.
I agree that welding, milling, and straight razors all go together.

There is plenty to read and videos to watch in the Library.

And if you have any questions, just ask.

[Haroldg48]

Hello from the Outer Banks, and welcome.

It is a great way to keep your face clean-shaven AND have fun doing it. You sound like a real renaissance man. SR shaving fits right in!

[eddy79]

Hi and welcome. Good to see another Ed about the place. You make the third Ed H I know of active here. Good luck with your shaves

[EdHutton]

eddy79,

Thank you. I once worked in an engineering department where there were five guys named Ed! It took a few years but finally one day all five of us were walking down the corridor. Someone couldn't resist and from behind yelled out, "Hey Ed!" The whole crowd of Ed's swung around to answer.

[MattCB]

Welcome to SRP Ed, it's a great bunch around here. Please feel free to ask any questions, lots of knowledgable folks here.

[edhewitt]

Hey ed, ed 3 here welcome to the forum, the 3 months/100 shaves is about right then i found that at about 6 months i got a bit complacent and things went backwards a bit, but i am well on track now one and a bit passes, 15 mins or so all up

[EdHutton]

Ed,

Thank you. Well I'm still slow but getting good results now. I can do my cheeks and down half a centimeter below my jaw line quick enough, but I have a couple of challenges. A big dent in the middle of my chin that I try to get smooth without digging any deeper :-). And a beard at the lower half of my neck that grows directly sideways. I finally figured out the rounded toe of the blade does a rather nice job on the dent. Serious stretching and contortions and using both hands, I can shave sideways on my neck well enough to get a smooth clean shave, but I am not quick about it yet.

I was pleased to figure out a few things which make for better results, and by figure out I mean read the ideas here and tried them out :-). Softening my beard helps (lather and hot towel), concentrating on WTG (even doing extra passes WTG provides better beard reduction with no irritation), then I go XTG which is irritation free, finally I go ATG. I am mindful of keeping the blade extremely sharp. Add in careful skin traction (especially for ATG) and a light no pressure blade -- well it really started working well then. Figuring out the process, technique, and my beard while keeping a scary sharp blade were the biggest steps forward.

I've finally got a great diagnostic for how sharp is the blade. I have some small lay flat whiskers on my chin. When the blade is very sharp they come right off WTG. Once that isn't true, it is time to refresh the blade. I am using pastes and strops to keep the blade fresh, but I've used the 8000 and 12000 hone now too. I've got a long way to go with blade maintenance, but again there is great information on SRP.

Thanks for saying hello! Ed to Ed

[Obie]

Hello, Ed, and welcome to Straight Razor Place. That you have 50 shaves under your belt is a good sign of being well on your way. It's good news.

[EdHutton]

Obie,

Thank you for the encouragement! I have a had a couple of minor setbacks, but it has mostly been a progression of improvements. I'm getting really nice shaves now. I'm starting to get a shave test feel for when it is time to freshen up the blade. I read here where everyone recommended 100 shaves to figure SR and wet shaving out. So I started a diary on my daily shaves. This has really helped. Even though my 'grading' is subjective, it helps to look at what changes I made in products, techniques, blade maintenance, pre and post shave process. Little by little I'm learning what works best for my beard. This has made shaving a journey of learning and ritual I actual look forward to now. I never thought I'd say that!