Thread: Hello from Portland, Maine!

Hi everyone. My name is Evan Atwell. I'm becoming very interested in the nuances, and rich culture and history of straight razor shaving. I'm already very active in the knife world, and am usually on the kitchenknifeforum.com, user Smashmasta. I have a pretty solid collection of Jnats, and a decent collection of European hones. I'm very into collecting natural stones as I find them endlessly fascinating. I see collecting them as similar to eating a cuisine from an area is the next best thing to traveling to that area - but with stones, you actually have a physical example of that area that you can hold and use!

I'm aspiring to open my own cutlery and whetstone sharpening shop in Portland, Maine within a year or so. Although a majority of my potential stock will be kitchen knives, with some EDC and hunting knives thrown into the mix, I also hope to carry a fine selection of straight razors. As of now, I'm much more knowledgeable about the knife and Jnat world than I am of the straight razor and European/non Jnat stones, so I hope to gain a lot of knowledge and tips from everyone here - please let me know your words of wisdom!

Currently my only straight razor experience I have had is from my Iwasaki kamisori (fitting as I'm into the Japanese cutlery and stones). I recently just had my first successful shave (ie, least amount of nicks and best close shave so far) and now I'm SUPER excited about shaving. That's to say I'm not anywhere near 'experienced' - I have a long way to go, but I think I just broke through that first plateau, if you know what I mean.

I look forward to learning from all of you. Thanks for reading!

Evan

Hello Evan. Welcome to Straight Razor Place!

Hello from Standish Evan. Welcome. Always nice to see a fellow Mainer.

Hello Evan
Welcome to SRP!
It's great to see another fellow New Englander getting involved with straight razor shaving and the forum. You will find fantastic people and a wealth of knowledge and experience here. Ask questions and get involved. It will be interesting to see some of your work.
Good luck...Enjoy the ride!!

Pete <:}

Welcome to the forum and jump on in. As was said great people and tons of useful information

Hi and welcome. Be sure to check out the library plenty of information in there will help a lot

welcome! sounds like a fascinating hobby/occupation. as you will learn, honing a straight is much different than a knife. first learn to shave with one (if you don't already) then learn to hone. as said before, this is the place to learn and if you can find someone to give you honing lessons you will be much farther ahead.

Welcome, good to have you here. I get up to Maine sometimes and would certainly stop by a shop like you are describing. Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to SRP. Lots of info and good people here.