Thread: Brand spankin

Hey everyone, my names Ty and I'm a 23 year old from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. After many many months of doing research into the matter and deciding on what I would get, I finally broke down and ordered everything I will need to keep me shaving, honing, stropping, maintaining, etc. for a long time to come.

I just got the package today (it took less than a day shipping from ontario to alberta with purolator express!) from Fendrihan.com (I know there are lots of great sites out there, but I chose to support a canadian company and am COMPLETELY pleased with the service I got, would highly recommend them to anyone) containing all my goodies. Going to have my first shave tonight doing a full prep and I'm really excited about it. I wish I could head home right now and shave, which, I can honestly say, is the first time in my life I have EVER felt that way hahah.

Against what almost all of the "guides for newbies" say, I decided to get a nicer razor for my first one. In my mind, sure, I may "ruin" it through not being that skilled with honing/stropping (though, I have read that a master honer could get just about any razor back to it's prime condition, it would take some serious damage to make it completely useless). However, even if I could never use it again and it was complete garbage after me using it, It's my first straight razor. It means something to me. All that being said, I have been around knives and have sharpened knives occasionally since I was a kid, so I don't think I could ever get it THAT bad, just gotta be patient and take my time until I learn the ropes of it.

I ended up getting a Thiers Issard Celebration Silver Wing, with Ram's Horn scales and a 5/8" French Point full hollow ground singing blade. Yea, the $400 canadian is a bold leap into uncharted territory, but it's one I was completely willing to make.

I'll let you all know how it all went after my shave tonight!

Hello, Ty:

Welcome to Straight Razor Place. Please keep us apprised of your progress.

Regards,
Obie

Originally Posted by Obie

Hello, Ty:

Welcome to Straight Razor Place. Please keep us apprised of your progress.

Regards,
Obie

Thanks Obie I also plan on attempting my first hone and strop tonight on a cheap straight razor my gf used for halloween a few years back. I got a DMT D8EE Dia-Sharp whetstone to hone the blade with, at 3 microns, then strop with the TI Bio-Dia .25 micron, followed by chromox and then a bare leather stropping.

Hopefully jumping from 3 micron to .25 isn't too big of a jump (I just assume it will take more passes to get it to the same level), as they were sold out of the 1 micron bio-dia. What I'm not too sure about it is if I should be wiping off the blade after each step in the process (I know that generally you are supposed to avoid wiping the blade as it can dull it, but I don't want to transfer coarser grit pastes to finer grit strops). I'm not even sure anything will show up on the blade, because you're supposed to basically clear off the strop of all "loose" paste, but I have never done it before so I'm not totally clear on that. Also, would stropping on bare leather after the chromox be a good or bad idea? Would it just dull it down further than the chromox?

I found lots of helpful info in the maintenance area of the forums, but couldn't seem to find answers to those questions.

Looks really nice. Is it shave ready?

Well, it passed the HHT, giving a nice pop of the hair as the blade eased through it, but with shorter pieces of hair (about 1"-2" long), the only way to effectively cut through them was to drag the blade against the hair slightly as it cut. I'm not sure if that is a norm, but that doesn't seem quite sharp enough for me, however, I wont know until after my shave with it. The little leaflet that came in the box with it says to give it 2-3 shaves before honing it, but if after the first shave it feels that it's not cutting with enough ease i might need to touch it up with a few passes on a clean strop.

Hello, Ty:

I like your enthusiasm about the world of straight razor shaving. Also, that Thiers-Issard is a lovely razor. I have eyed it for a long time. Perhaps one of these days I'll buy it.

Forgive me, however, for bringing up this point: I hear more enthusiasm from you about honing that beautiful razor than honing your shaving skill with it. All elements of sporting a straight razor are important, from stropping to honing. What's also essential is the proper skill in shaving with that blade.

If I may suggest, please send that razor out to a professional honemeister on its maiden voyage. This not only will establish the standard by which you will need to hone your razor, but it also will guard against the blade being damaged.

As the pros will tell you, honing a straight razor is a skill onto itself. It takes time to master it. What's most important for you right now is to strop correctly and to master your skill with the straight razor. Honing will come in due time.

Of course, you are more than welcome to do what you please. Either way, keep up the enthusiasm.

Regards,
Obie

Welcome to SRP

I agree with Obie on the Honing, especially with a razor as nice as that one. Let a professional hone it the first time and just concentrate on shaving with it. As easy as it sounds there truly is a learning curve that takes some time.

Plus with a professionally honed razor you could start off after a few months learning how to re-condition the blade and move on to re-sharpening and repairs from there. Start slow, it will come in time.

Couldn't agree more with both of you, when I talk about honing I have no intentions of doing this right away with the TI, but it is something I want to get better at doing, because as far as I can tell from browsing the forums, there isn't anyone locally who can do the honing for me, so I would be sending it to calgary to get it honed. Not a huge deal, as I can easily go a day or two without the razor, but there is that old addage about fishing and fish, no? Cant get better at something if you dont practice it!

What I am thinking of doing is cruising the flea markets and antique shops around town to find a cheaper razor that has a similar cut of blade so that I can work on honing with it, as the cheap one my gf has is a fairly large wedge and some serious weight to it, so it wont feel the same to work with it as my TI.

Suppose I should have clarified that before! hah. Hopefully the shaving and stropping comes to me fairly quick, but I have no intentions of rushing through the shaves (night time shaver), so I figure as long as I take my time and am patient with it, it wont take too long (fingers crossed, styptic ready).

Thanks for the replies and tips fellas, I really appreciate it

Well, I just finished up with my first shave with a straight razor! The whole process took me around an hour (like I said, I take my time) and I'm pleased to say that I did a WTG, XTG and ATG pass across my whole face and only managed to get a couple small nicks around my ears (forgot to stretch as I was going over the jawline to underneath the ear lobe!). That triple pass method is the same I have used for years with regular disposables. I had some trouble doing around my chin and under my lip, but with a little patience and angle adjustment I managed to get them done nicely.

I found I was using anywhere from about a 20-35 degree for WTG, roughly the same, maybe a bit less for XTG and anywhere from 5-20 for ATG. Reasonably good success with that, but It will certainly take me some time to get used to the angle adjustments while going over the jawline and such.

I have, however, noticed that most of my neck and chin area is on fire. I'm not sure if this is part of my faces adjustment to the razor, if maybe 3 passes was too much, if I was using too much force, too dull a razor, soap drying out or a combination. I tried to do small areas at a time, but nearing the end of a section I was noticing my lather start to get a little dry. While shaving, nothing was really bothering me (aside from feeling like at times it was taking a little too much force to cut through the hair). Any ideas?

Another thought I had that might have had some effect was that I also prepped with this: Dolerma Antiseptic Emulsion, 100 ml | Fendrihan Shaving Store
What I did was have a nice hot shower, and when i got out and dried off, I rubbed that on my face and then put on a hot washcloth to open the pores. After about a minute there was a nice warming sensation. Removed the cloth, rinsed my face and wiped it clean, then went about the shaving. What I'm wondering is if maybe some was left on my face? I'll try shaving next time without it and see if that might be the reason why.

Overall, I have the closest shave of my life, and aside from a little warmth on my neck, it went about as good as one can ask for their first SR shave.

Welcome aboard. Nice razor, watch that point tho. My ears are cringe-ing just looking at it.

Sounds like the first shave went well. The burning may be due to a lot of things. Watch the pressure, that could be it.

Let me know if you want some help with honing. I'm in Edmonton.