Kiwi Shaver

Hello everyone,

Glad to be here!. I've always been intrigued by straight razor shaving, yet never knew anything about it beyond the scary old stories, as noone in my family has ever tried it, even my grandfather was too young to have learnt before their decline and only has memories of his father using one! (I'm only 23 I suppose!)

So being absolutely brand new to the whole straight razor game (but not honing), I haven't had a face shave with my Gotta Superfine vintage razor yet - but have already caught the accessories bug!

I've purchased the ubiquitous norton 4000/8000k and a Naniwa 12000k to give an edge to my Gotta - which was already in excellent condition for its age - and have spent today - read; hours and hours! - lapping them both with wet and dry on a glass mirror tile.

After a shocking amount of lapping (these stones must look like rolling hills under a scope when factory finished!) I put the old Gotta through a few pyramids as demonstrated by the videos here, and have just stropped up an edge I think I can be proud of for my first go - if my now eerily hairless hands and patchy forearms are anything to go by!! - but I guess the real test will come when I've let todays final (hopefully) Gillette-shaved face grow out for a couple of days!

I look forward to sharing my shave with everyone and learning all I can from the excellent, friendly resource that is Straightrazorplace!