Hello from Blue Ridge Mtns-NC
I started shaving with a straight razor about 37 yrs ago at age 18. I tried a friends razor that was not very sharp, but I was hooked. A couple years later I bought a new $35 CMON razor at a barber supply outlet. I lived in an information vacuum with no mentor and I never bothered to buy any books, etc. and never really thought about it. Shaving was a necessity, not a hobby. I honed twice a year with a high quality Arkansas stone that I bought at a gun/knife show for $8 and stropped daily with a 16"x 2" cowhide leather strap that I impregnated with jewelers rouge and a little neatsfoot oil. I laid the strop on the flat sink counter for stropping. The strop was quite stiff compared to a real strop and I guess it acted like a hone to make up for the relatively coarse stone I used. After 20 yrs the scales on the CMON cracked at the pivot pin and I made some scales from an Asian yellow hardwood that was used as shipping staves on some textiles. About 10 years ago I bought a real hanging strop and a new Dovo razor to alternate with. A year ago thanks to lurking on this web site I bought a 12000 ceramic hone. Now sharpening is much more efficient and repeatable. My advice is you don't have to spend a lot of money to straight razor shave. I was a very accomplished knife sharpener by age 12 having spent countless hours sharpening family hunting, filet, and kitchen knives. My first shave was with a Gerber hunting knife I sharpened. I admit the shave was not very comfortable and I did not consider straight razor shaving for several more years. I shave after showering using hot water and Edge gell lathered on my face with my fingers. I only shave with the grain and it only takes about 3 minutes. I use my right hand only and crossover. I also like to heat the blade up with hot water and keep it hot by rinsing with hot water between strokes when the blade is full. I feel the hot water makes the blade expand and the lengthwise expansion seems to line up the edge and the razor shaves closer. After shaving I wipe my razor dry then dry it with a hair dryer before storing it in the medicine cabinet and have not had rust problems. Now my son wants to straight razor shave so I'm setting him up for Christmas so I can get my CMON back and do a proper scale restoration.
