Thread: new member/ first shave..

Hi all, I've always been fascinated by straight razors and always wanted to try one but thought I must be alone and there must be some great reason "no one" uses them any more. Thanks to curiosity, determination, and youtube, I found out alot of people share me affinity for ridiculously sharp objects, keeping them that way and shunning the new and 'better' way of doing things. Thanks for posting on youtube guys!

So, I was a little nervous after reading the beginners section on here 'cause I felt like I was going about this all wrong. I have always collected and restored pocket knives so naturally, when I decided to go for this (before checking out this site), I headed down to the huge avonlea antique mall to find the best looking razor I could find to restore and use. I found a Geo. W. Korn 5/8 with a nice set of bakelite scales that wasn't too bad, picked it up for 12 bucks and headed home with a grin. LOOOONG story short, I resored the blade to useable/sterile and despite reading that I should have someone else hone it for me at first, went ahead and honed it, because of all my prior experience with knives. Stropping was a bit scketchy because I used an old piece of bench leather I've used on a hundred kinves. I'll be getting a real strop asap. Anyway, I hit the hanging hair test on the first try, and despite a little anxiety over reading that I should be starting out with a bigger blade and one that has a rounded end, I couldn't get to the bathroom fast enough.. lol.

I started out only expecting to do the one side side burn to chin as reccomended but I couldn't stop. I was hooked. Did a full two pass and loved it. No nicks even, yeah! (I do have a gotee so maybe thats cheating but still..) Honestly, I have pretty sensitive skin and have never been able to comfortably shave ATG with a disposable or mach whatever they're up to now, in my life, but the str8 was great. No problem at all, I was really surprised. Can't go back now.. I really am that guy, too. The one who hates shaving and does it as little as I can get away with, but at least for now, I can't wait for some new growth. haha..


Seriously though, if you're new to this idea and are reading this thinking, "Awesome, maybe I'll go out and restore a razor for my first shave.." Don't do it! Take the well thought out advice of these fine gentleman and buy a decent razor, let someone else hone it for you and go from there. If I hadn't had hundreds of hours experience, restoring old rusty blades I could have never done this. I promise, those pits are deeper than you think and it's a big job. But don't give up on it either. It was well worth the effort in my opinion!

BTW, the model of my blade is called "Our Fli-something". Any ideas? its got one more character in cursive script after the "I" but I can't tell what its supposed to be. It also has a "trade mark" crest in between the two words. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for the great site!!

Well, apparently im no genius. Looked the razor over again and realized it's two characters and it's also written in the crest as well. How did I not notice that? It's "Our Flirt" ..hmm interesting.

Wow you seem to have an exellent start
Now if you decide to find a strop on your own please ask before you buy anything(we know what bad and crap means!)
You have a brush and soap/creme yet?

Oh and buy one shave ready razor either from one of the vendors advertising here or from the classefieds, then you can find out how good you did