Thread: Newbie Here

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum.
Honing a straight is like sanding oak floors, you can and may do it yourself, but it is wise to ask a specialist to do it for you.
Stropping your straight is like waxing and polishing the floors, it's your job.

Welcome! Give straight razor shaving a try! Watch the Lynn Abrams videos on you tube. He shows you how to strop, lather, Shave, and hone. Once your razor is shave ready you can maintain that edge for a long time. If you already have a nice leather strop, get a hard will felt strop from straight Razor Designs, and a spray bottle of chromium Oxide, or you can use a CRX crayon, with no pressure using only the weight of the blade do ten laps on the felt and 50 on the leather. Again, no pressure just the weight of the blade on the strop, make sure your razor is flat on the stretched out leather and go slow, I repeat GO SLOW. Let me know when your razor needs honing and I’ll get it back to shave ready fo4 you and won’t charge you.

I forgot, spray the felt strop until it’s light green all over and let it dry overnight. Then ten strokes on felt 50 on leather. Wipe your blade after felt so you don’t get CRX on your strop. If you don’t have one buy a 3” wide strop. SRD has very nice ones. I use the long English Bridle Leather most of the time. Don’t put any dressing, or paste or anything on your strop just massage it with your hands and maybe once every six months put on a few drops of Neatsfoot Oil and massage it in with your hands.

I pulled the trigger. Ordered a Ralf Aust 5/8 round point with a 3" strop from SRD last Friday, it came on Monday and I used it for the first time today. I have watched Lynn's videos so many times I can almost recite them word for word. jk. Though it's against my nature to completely follow instructions/advise, I did follow Lynn's suggestion to only do a sideburn to jawline pass for the first couple of shaves. Happy to say I still have both my ears and lost no blood. Baby steps. Sitting here trying to will the facial hair to grow so I can do it again.