Thread: my str8 history

well my name is Jeremy, i'm currently living in Korea. Luckily that is almost over though and i'll be back in VA. I've always wanted to use a straight razor for as long as i can remember, well i really just liked anykind of blades most of my life, that and anything that goes fast. Guess that's just part of being a guy though.

Well anyway then i really fell in love with str8s when i got my first shave with one at a barbershop. It was only to trim up on my hair cut, i was still to young to need an actual shave. That great feeling of warm lather and the fresh feeling afterwords, just ahhhh. Well then once i actually started growing facial hair i tried to find a barbershop that would do a full shave with a str8 and couldn't. I finally decided to get my own when i needed to make a reward for a goal i set. Don't remember the goal not that it matters i never met it.

I talked it up so much though that this past December my wife got me a starter set for my birthday. Luckily unlike some of the other posts i've read on here (i'm positive they meant well)i had talked to her about which ones i was thinking about getting. She got me a dovo stainless steel 4/8 frenchpoint professionally honed from CS, a 2" american made mountain strop, Italian Pure Badger Shaving Brush, and Classic "Gold" Hypo-Allergenic Shaving Mug Soap.

I looked in a few different places and got some basic info and then jumped in started using it as my daily shaver. well i thought i was doing good, but i was getting a lot of irritation and then after way too short of a time the razor got dull, well thats when i found this site and looked around a bit and found out i had been stropping all wrong and rolled the edge.
So then i bought a norton 4k/8k combo stone and went to work on redoing the edge, kinda jumped th gun a bit but hey got to learn somehow. The problem is when i did hone it i ended up with a duller blade than when i started. I came back to the forum and read a bit more and found i went to the 8k before getting a good enough edge so i went back to the 4k till it could shave the back of my hand then went to the 8k. worked beautifully. after some stropping i was good to go again, was still getting razor burn though.

Tonight i had been reading agian on here and picked up some new info about shaving angles and better lather. I just couldn't wait to try it out so of course i did and MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! Now i really am hooked this shave was awesome. Probably the best shave i've ever had. Still not BBS everywhere but most of it is and no razor burn.

I just want to say thanks to everyone that contributes on here it's really made a difference in my shaving experience.

Good to hear, you had successful shave!

And remember, do not push too hard, only very light pressure against the skin and you are done.

ie. let the sharp blade do its work. Too much pressure causes razor burn.

yeah it was a combination of pushing to hard and trying to do all three passes at a 30 degree angle. Plus a lot of not paying enough attention to keeping the blade at a consistent angle, also caused a few cuts. On top of that my lather was too dry.

Jeremy,
Welcome aboard--sounds like you're doing great--patience and practice will get you some great shaves

yeah now i just can't stop looking for my next razor

Roger that. It gets addicting, but it is a good, clean wholesome hobby.