Hello from a long time DE user from Virginia

Hi guys and gals,

Long time DE user (Merkur 39c slant) that decided to pick up and try out a couple straights. Ordered these from a guy on ebay that specializes in razors, described as shave ready by him to I assumed that they were good to go. Watched a lot of videos on technique and such, felt like I did okay - only one minor weeper on my left cheek. I am fairly ambidextrous so tried out both cheeks as a first day sort of thing. Everything seemed alright but a LOT of stubble was left over and I don't feel like the razors were cutting that great. Am I correct in that you should use minimal pressure similar to a DE and that the razor should just cut through the hairs like nothing similar to how a DE does?

Here is a pic of the two I bought. After the shave I dipped each in 90% alcohol to get rid of any oil/moisture. Top one says W.H. Morley and Sons, the other says Giesen & Forsthoff.

- Album on Imgur

Welcome!!

Yes, minimal pressure like a DE. Make sure your angle is good, it should be about two spine widths off your skin. Try laying the blade flat against your face and very slowly add angle you will find the sweet spot that way. Also use more pre-shave prep than on a DE, it will make a difference. It is also possible the blades aren't properly honed

Welcome!

Send them off for a professional honing. Well worth it. most razors are quite dull, even if they seem sharp to the touch.

FWW, both razors are of good to great quality. Different folks have differing definitions of shave ready. A ood honing by a pro will pro-long your enjoyment!
~Richard
PS I hope you have a decent strop and good soap! No strop? then a flat stack of about 40+ newspaper pages will do for now.

Hi and welcome. Take any ebay seller saying shave ready with a grain of salt. I have brought a couple saying shave ready supposedly honed, stropped on pastes and plain linen and leather and none were above what can be achieved with a 5k stone and 1 actually had a chip in it. If this bloke restores razors I would expect a better fix to the heel on the g&f with that much hone wear and something better than the bolt on the Morley using star washer to try keep it tight. As Richard said both are good quality and you can expect good shaves from them. Send them to a pro the it is only your technique that is the variable. Don't expect clean checheeks the first couple times either this is going to take some adjustments just like starting with a de. Good luck and any questions feel free to ask

Welcome to SRP!!

Definitely, once you have your Technique down, SR's should perform every bit as well as a DE. I use DE on my Head and SR for Face/Neck and the results are almost identical.

Really tough to give you an idea about Shave Ready aside from what everyone has said. But, the Microfasteners the Morley is put together with are fairly expensive, have to be bought in Bulk most of the time and an Average Joe would not likely know anything about these prior to flipping razors... So, my belief is that thr guy knew quite a lot about SR's as you just don't get information about stuff like Microfasteners outside of Forums like SRP or similar Forums/FB Pages. Shoot the guy an email and just tell him what issues you aelre having... That is the least, out of respect if nothing else, that you should do. That will also give you time to ask a couple of other questions like, "What is your Honing Progression?" and/or "What type Stropping Regimine do you use?". If he has solid answers about decent Gear then that leaves you with what has been said already... Shave Ready means different things to different people. But, overall, the SR should perform similarly to DE once you have the technique down. I shave 1-2 times a week and occssionally go two weeks and, no matter how long I've gone, I get DFS with a single pass of the SR... I do a second pass to clean up edges and make everything uniformly smooth but that first pull removes everything even closely resembling stubble.

As far as ideas on what could be contributing... You are, essentially, an Expert DE Shaver so your Prep may be biased to support that Expert Level skill and speed. Take a look at details like is your Cream/Soap drying out as it takes longer with the SR than you normally take... If so, work ir up a little more wet/creamy and see if that helps. Stropping is also huge... Those Razors would have been Shave Ready for only 1 full shave or maybe three partial shaves before requiring Stropping.

It all takes time just like when you started with DE so watch out for details that you may have learned to overlook as your skill improved with DE and if that does not work then I'd start looking around in the Classifieds here for Honing and just email then ask questions and go with your gut from there. :)

Welcome to SRP. Sorry i'm late to the party. Take all of the above advice, firstly, get them honed by a pro. They are quality straight razor's & the seller may have honed them like he said but I seriously doubt they are shave ready. Take your time & don't jump into anything on eBay as many are out to just make a quick buck & will say they are shave ready! Any questions just ask & we'll be more than happy to help you out.
Good luck!