Thread: DE shaver taking the plunge...

Hello Gentleman,

My name is Rick Charles and I currently shave with a DE (Gillette Ball Tech, and Gillette SS), and love it. I've had my grandfather's Genco straight for some time now, and it was pretty dirty and really showing it's age. So I took some time last week and went into my father's knife shop and cleaned the razor up on his polishing wheels. It looks great, but now I need to have it honed.

I watched many a video on razor honing, and tried it myself on dad's stones..he's got a ton of them ranging from 1200-8000 grit. The razor will shave my arm like butter, but after prep and lathering up the other day, that first pass on the face told me it's not "face" shave ready, lol.

Anyway, I just wanted to come over here and learn what I can about shaving with straights, as well as possibly getting a few honing tips. I'll spend some time reading through the forum because many of my questions will probably be answered by doing so. Thanks in advance and for letting me in, lol

Rick

Welcome to SRP Rick. Very cool to have grampa's Genco and to have a background in DE shaving. You'll have the lathering, prep, skin stretching and the concept of no pressure and multipe passes learned already.

Here is the SRP Wiki where you will find the beginner's guide as well as a section on honing. I would still recommend you either send that one out to a honemeister or buy a shave ready razor. You will have something to learn straight razor shaving with and something to compare your own honing to as you progress. I would probably get some good shape reasonable priced vintage razors to practice on so that when I tackled the family heirloom I was sure of myself. Just IMHO.

Thanks Jimmy, way ahead on buying a different razor to practice on, already looking at eBay and talking with a friend who refurbs straights. Hopefully my DE experience will translate into better straight razor shaves. I don't see myself shaving with a straight everyday, but I'd like to be able to do it a few times a week as a treat.

Thanks for the Wiki link...I'll go read over the info.