Thread: New guy from NL walking in

First of all, thank you for the warm welcome, gentlemen! Nice to get such feedback right from the start! Looks like a place with great guys here, and it's always cool how a hobby/passion can bring people together.

Originally Posted by Moonshae

Welcome!

It's recommended that you get your razor honed professionally the first time so you know what a good edge feels like, especially since most factory edges are not shave ready. It's also more difficult to learn everything at once...focus on shaving, so then when you start honing, you know if you've done it right or not.

eBay is a great source for a cheap razor to practice honing. If you mess up the edge on your shaving razor, you'll end up sending it off to a pro anyway.

According to the shop, they send all razors straight to the honer after they are delivered to them. The seal on the small box around the razor was broken, but he explained it's because it's honed. There was also a sticker on it from the honer (Pieter Welker). So I guess it's just a matter wiping off the oil, strop it and try it out, right?

Originally Posted by engine46

Aldo, welcome to SRP.
Your introduction was one of the best I have seen from a person who is new to straight razor's. You made all the right decisions if you ask me & you held back & did not buy a honing stone yet but that can be in the future. You will find that using a straight razor is so much better. You get a much closer, smoother shave with a straight that is correctly honed & stropped rather than the conventional cartridge razor's which usually make a person itch & burn. A linen or canvas strop is personal preference & you don't have to have it unless later you decide to try it along with some paste's or diamond spray. That is up to you & using just leather is just fine to start out with. And yes a second straight razor is much better to have than just one because when you do send one out to be honed, you will need something else to shave with. I hope you subscribed to Lynn's YouTube video's & if so, you will see all of his video's including those on honing & stropping. You are the first new member I have ever seen that seems to have done his homework before going shopping. You have done very well in your first purchase & I hope the Dovo is shave ready. If it needs honing, I'm sure you will be able to find someone near you who can hone your straight razor for you, then once you feel comfortable with honing, buy you a good quality but cheaply priced straight razor you can practice with until you get good at doing it, then you can hone your good straight razor's yourself instead of having someone do it for you. If you can't find someone close to you, perhaps a barber might be able to hone it for you. Hopefully, the guy you bought it from, knows how to hone & made it shave ready for you.
If you have any questions just ask.
Good luck my friend!

Thank you for that!! As I said in the opening post I'm a guy that likes to dive in new things all the way, but no matter what the subject is, I do that only after I spent a lot of time reading and watching websites and videos (sometimes even too much). I don't want to get into a store totally clueless, spend a bunch a money and walking out like "what the hell am I supposed to do with all this stuff?"

Is stropping on pasted canvas 1 step before getting the razor honed? So, without doing this, should you get your razor to get honed more often then when you strop on pasted canvas (is that called a "touch up" or "refreshing" the razor?)? If so, I guess it might be worth considering getting a strop with linen/canvas after all in the longer run.

Originally Posted by kalerolf

Welcome.. sent me a pm I hone your razor.

That's awesome, man! Thank you very much! You teach how to do it as well?

Originally Posted by eddy79

Hi and welcome. Was your razor still sealed in the box with a factory edge. If so send it to kalerolf for honing. Try to find someone local for learning to hone or buy a good condition cheap razor to practice. Starting with synthetic hones will be much easier to learn. Lynn Abrams and Gssixgun on YouTube have great vids and many of us have used them to teach ourselves but be warned it will take some time and a good bit of practice. Good luck with your shaves and any questions feel free to ask

It wasn't sealed, and according to the shop that's because it was sent to the honer first.

In general: have you guys have any good tips for buying a razor to practice honing? I've seen razors on Amazon.com for as little as 12 bucks. I know Lynn has a list on his website of which razors to absolutely avoid using, but is every razor suited for practicing purposes only? On Ebay, or the Dutch variant Marktplaats, I'm afraid the razors are already in bad condition. At least, difficult for a newb like to me to judge from a few pics.

Again, thank you all for welcoming me, feels great! I know I have a lot to learn, and even though I'm patient in practice, I'm not patient in wanting to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible, so sorry for all the questions!

So, I couldn't wait to experience something new, so I just took my first babysteps.

Stropping: I was very careful with this to start with and by the sound maybe too careful, as I didn't hear that kind of 'scraping' sound at first. I managed to keep the spine on the strop and the turns went not too bad either. In the upper inch of the strop, I have a 1mm partical that's loose at the left edge. You can hardly see it unless you have the strop in the right angle of light, but still a cut. Damn!

Lathering: the Proraso soap is nice stuff but I might have to use some more water. Tried several things: without water, with a little water and even some more. The thing is, the soap dries pretty quickly which leads to kind of a crumbling layer on my face. It felt somewhat dry at times, and it felt like the razor was sticking to my skin. When I reapplied some fresh soap, the shave was more smooth.

Shaving: I think I've never been so careful in my entire life with something new. I might have had a too small angle, at times touching my skin with the spine. Even though I'm a noob, I feel like the razor should be sharper. I felt a light pulling of the hairs and I read that that's not how it's supposed to be.
Touching an arm hair with the razor didn't lead to cut the hair. Not even close. I'll let you guys be the judges of that.

I feel that the sharper the razor is, the bigger the chance you cut yourself, right? Because I only had 1 tiny cut (about as thick as a fingernail) where I expected to do much worse. As a result of seeing less blood than expected, I went from sideburn to jaw on both sides and also did 90% of my cheeks.
Skin was feeling a little burning, bot could also be from trying multiple strokes on the same spots.

Holding a SR feels good and gives me the idea I can get used to this quickly with both hands. I made very short strokes.

Washing the blade: after a few small strokes, I held the blade under running water, not too hot. When the soap started to dry, it didn't wash off the blade very easily. Only when I reapplied soap it quickly washed off.
Question: after washing it off after a few strokes, what's the best way to dry the blade with a towel? Should I dry it like you strop? In the direction of the spine? Or should I 'grab' the blade with the towel wrapped around the spine and wipe it off from bottom to top? I'm afraid the blade might lose its sharpness if I dry it the wrong way.

So, all in all, I'm still alive, lost no blood but didn't get the shaven parts as smooth as the cartridge yet. Must be a matter of technique (maybe angle too tight?), stropping or just not honed well enough?

Time to let my skin heal up and grow some hair back. Then it's time for attempt #2 with hopefully some useful tips!

As you gain experience it will get better.

here is a link to find other members in your area

http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

1st would be your not meant to strop before shaving with a fresh honed blade as now you don't know if your stropping damaged the edge before use. Burning is usually to many passes or too much pressure. You want to just wipe the lather off. It will take time to get your technique right and the shaves might not be close and you may miss bits till you figure it out. Sounds like you need more water in your soap or to lather in sections as you shave. A pasted strop for touching up the razor can keep your razor longer before needing to be honed again. I dry the razor on a tissue without touching the edge then with the tissue on my palm strop it on the tissue before doing some linen and leather laps. Good luck and keep at it.