Thread: 'Officially' a straight user

Wanted to say hello to everyone on the forum, I have been obsessively reading SRP for a couple of months. I have been using a Parker Shavette with disposable blades for a couple of months. I figured investing $25.00 to see if I even liked straight shaving was better than buying a real straight, strop plus everything else.

Needless to say I loved it so I ordered the monthly razor & strop set last week from straight razor designs: Boker King Cutter and 3" Red Latigo Strop for $122, great deal. I ordered it at about 2am on Tuesday morning and I got it by about 11am on Thursday... pretty good for free shipping!

Glad to have you hear. You will have to tell us how you feel about the difference between the shavette and the straight.

Great!! Hope your shave is as enjoyable as mine!!

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Welcome to SRP. Sounds like you're off to a good start with the gear you purchased from SRD. Using a real straight is different than a Shavette, so remember patience is a virtue and focus on learning to strop properly to maintain your edge. Best of luck and keep us posted.

Hi and welcome!

Congrats on the new toys and welcome to SRP


Mick

Welcome to SRP. You have started well.

So far, so good.. My buddy uses a DE Merkur and he told me that one of the local cigar shops has recently started selling brushes, soaps, and other misc. wet shaving stuff. I have been using a VDH boar hair brush so I stopped in and got a Col. Conk badger brush for a few dollars. WOW, what a difference, not only softer bristles but I get so much better lather and so much quicker!

As far as actual shaving, I have used my shavette for a few months prior to getting my Boker straight. I almost always got some nicks and blood spots; only a few shaves without. However, my first shave with my Boker resulted in no nicks! It was great! My shave was not quite as close as with the shavette, but I think I just need to adjust my technique to the larger blade area, different angle, etc.

My main concern is stropping... it's more difficult than I thought it would be. I read about it for a while before I ever received my new equipment and thought it sounded relatively simple... not so sure that is the case. When I first got my gear in the mail I decided to do a 'hanging hair test' just to see what it was like. Figured when better a time to do than being freshly honed and sharpened form Lynn, right?

Anyways, I have stropped since and re-done the hanging hair test just like before, but doesn't work. I also shaved a little arm hair off and it was very smooth and clean. I guess I am a little worried about my stropping technique, don't want to develop bad habbits early on.

How much pressure do apply when stropping? I know the focus is on the spine and the cutting edge 'just follows', do you put more pressure on the front (spine)? Seems like if I do that the edge lifts from the strop. Hopefully this is just newbie paranoia; but rather safe than sorry.

Thanks for all the welcoming comments,
-amt

Well I don't go too light, but then too light would be better than too hard of a pressure.... The best advice I could give is to start slow and smooth.

If you watch a good stropping vid, you can kinda see how much the strop deflects with resonable tension.

YouTube - straight razor stropping