G'day fellas

Hi All,

Thought I'd pop by and introduce myself, I've been stalking the forums for a while now learning about Straight Razors and figured I should probably say hi. After making the switch from cartridge razors to DE because I was sick of the rubbish shave of the old mach3 and figured there must be a more enjoyable shaving experience, I thought I should try a straight razor.

Anyway, I'm a fan of things from yesteryear, so after a long time perusing through not so great razors on eBay, I finally ended up with 2 razors which had blades in good nick. Anyway, last night I had a bit of time free so thought I'd have a crack at my first straight shave. The end result, I walked out to the shed and got a better shave from a bit of rusty mild steel that I'd had left over from some bodywork on the car.... Crickey, I dunno what some people call "shave ready", lol, but those two razors were definitely NOT shave ready. :p I finished the shave with my DE because all the straights would do was grab hairs and not cut (they feel sharp-ish to the touch but after shaving with them I'm convinced it's not sharp enough). To add to that, I did stop after a couple of strokes and go back through my bookmarked pages to make sure I wasn't doing something completely wrong and am convinced that while my technique is not perfect, it shouldn't be causing the tugging, rather than cutting action of the razor.

Anyway, so after being a bit annoyed last night and searching through a lot of info on whetstones, I've ordered a 4000/8000 Norton and am going to give them a tickle up and see how she goes after that.

Apologies for the long into :beer1:

Cheers,

Rob

Please FuzzyDropbear, don't attempt to hone your razors at this time yourself. Go to Local Help - Straight Razor Place Library. Scroll down to Australia. A list of Mentors in AU that are more than willing to hone your razor and give you a benchmark edge to learn by. Face to face sessions are readily and happily given by all Mentors. If you've honed knives its like saying you could walk to the moon from here - ain't gonna happen.

And welcome to SRP, a place of great knowledge, great people. Read the FAQs and the Library and you will get a firm grounding in this art/craft/hobby/obsession of ours.

G'day Rob,
Welcome to SRP, where abouts are you at mate add your location to your profile info so it shows, it will help a lot.
there are plenty of Aussies on here & there may be someone close enough to help you get a truely shave ready edge before you try & learn the hones yourself also
will make it a lot easier for you

Hey Rob,
If no other options present themselves then onimaru55 is in Sydney and hones professionally. It's worth trying a properly honed edge to see what you are aiming for, also if someone is close by they might give your razor a test drive as is to see what it's like.

Good advice already. Start with a razor that has been pro honed. Worth the minimal cost and will get you going on the right foot

Hi and welcome. The guys have said it. You need to start with a razor that is truly shave ready. This way you know that the razor is sharp and you learn what shave ready truly is. Good luck and any questions feel free to ask

Hi guys, thanks for the welcome, I live in sunny Ballarat, Victoria.

I probably should've mentioned that I have had some success with sharpening razors before, a year-ish ago I was at a friends place who had housemates who were getting into straight shaving and had reached the stage that they needed their razors sharpened. The short of which, they had bought a combination whetstone but wussed out of sharpening themselves, so over a few beers I had a crack (again, these were like mine, $20 vintage english and german blades from ebay). From what they told me, I did a pretty bang up job, they've since had them professionally done and said that there probably was a difference between my sharpening and the pro job (which one would expect), but they wouldn't say no to me doing it again in the future.

G'Day Rob and welcome to the fold.

Thanks mate, I suppose I should just add that I'm still alive, lol.

I ended up buying a 4000/8000 norton and had a crack at sharpening one of the razors. Took me a while as I was going slow, making sure I didn't stuff up too much. Anyway, after a few laps of the 4k, I switched over to the 8k for a while and ended up with a much better finish than the razor originally had (I suspect the previous owner had sharpened it with something, but it didn't end up with the finish that I got off the 8k). Then followed by a bit of stropping. Had a crack at shaving the left and right of my face as per the beginners thread and wowzers, what a difference! While I didn't get the world's closest shave (I wasn't aiming for it), I did get a very nice, comfortable shave that I only had to do a quick once over with the DE. It probably could be a little sharper, but that's something to improve on the next time I take it back to the hone.

I was a bit worried about shaving with such a sharp implement with my left hand, but it was surprisingly easy. I suppose a sharp blade that doesn't need too much pressure is beneficial there :D

Cheerio.