Greetings, from Belgium.

Hello,

I'm not new to wet shaving by any means, I've never used an electric shaver. I started shaving in 1979 (I think) with a Gillette Atra (called the Contour in Europe), because Mom and I fell to their marketing schemes. However, the Atra, and the subsequent Atra Plus, gives an adequate shave.

In 1994, I bought a Col Conk 860 Pure Badger brush, an Illinois Strop Company strop, and a Dovo Special tortoise shell straight razor. With no training at all, I did manage to learn how to use that razor fairly successfully. I only shaved a patch of my chin off once. What I didn't have was any idea how to use that strop. My cartoonish strop slapping ruined that edge, but good. In about six weeks, I quit using that razor, and had no idea where to get whatever hones would restore the edge, or how to use them. Internet wasn't commonly available yet. So, back to the Atra, although I did continue to use the brush and Van der Hagen soap, whenever the local BX had some.

Until this year. The local commissary and BX stopped carrying cartridges for the Atra, and I had a supply of fifty Personna Auto Plus after market cartridges for the Atra that I got mail order. Still, their price was about a quarter apiece. An acquaintance on a different forum recommended double edge shaving and pointed me to the Badger and Blade forum. It turns out there are tons more to know about shaving than Dad ever taught me.

My first DE setup was a chrome handled Merkur Futur, with a pack of Merkur blades. This was something different entirely to the Atra. Particularly in the pressure needed and maintaining a good angle of the blade. It didn't take too many days to get that sorted out, and I was getting very fine shaves with that Futur. A sampler pack of blades showed me the variety available. Aren't those Feather blades something?

After reading a very good review of the Pils 101NE stainless razor, I bought one. I agreed with the review, and sold my Futur to a colleague (my first double edge shaving convert). Life was good. The Pils works very well indeed, and it is an over engineered work of art to boot.

Until I read a few deathmatch threads about Feather AS -v- the Pils Stainless. So, I had to see for myself and bought a Feather AS to compare them. Initially, the shaves were better with the Pils. And, why shouldn't they be? It was the only double edge razor I had and had used it every day for a couple months. After an insufficiently short evaluation of one week, I concluded the Pils to be the victor, and sold the Feather AS. Life was still good.

A couple weeks later, I saw someone selling a chrome handled Futur for the same price I sold mine for, and I replaced my Futur. After all, I still had the nice leather travel pouch I'd bought for the Futur. I found I could get better shaves with it than I did when I sold it. My technique had improved noticeably. Which made me wonder if that effect would be the same if I still had that Feather AS.

Not too long after, I ordered another Feather AS razor (from Bullgoose shaving, a great vendor). And, sure enough, I was able to easily get perfect shaves with it. In fact, I found I can shave as cavalierly with the Feather AS as I did with the Atra. Patience would have paid off. I have two razors that I ended up paying twenty bucks each more than if I had just kept the originals I bought. Not only that, I have a "rotation" of three razors. I prefer to maintain a minimalist outlook on things, and having a rotation goes against that. However, I like having all three. Each does a different thing very well and it's good to be able to trade off from time to time. What I find works well is to load each with a fresh blade on Sunday, then I get two great shaves from each of them when the week is up. I typically don't shave on Sundays, unless we go out somewhere.

But now, back to that Dovo Special. I now have the trio of Spyderco ceramic hones, the medium, fine, and ultra fine. I've had two attempts at honing that straight razor, and have improved it greatly. But it's not there yet. I think the medium hone is a bit too mild to set that bevel properly without taking a half day of honing, so I have an EZE Lap dual grit (medium and fine) diamond hone on the way. I'd like to get that straight shave ready and be able to keep it there, so I can use it on the weekends, at least.