Hello Gentlemen,

I have been straight razor shaving for more than a year now. I learned to shave on a DE razor with bar soap and shaving brush about 40 years ago, but eventually converted to Trac razors and canned shaving creams by the 80's.

I was fine with the Trac razors as long as they only had 2 blades and up until they added that stupid moisturizing pad then they lost me. I went several years frustrated with shaving and just wanted to go back to my original DE razor. I didn't think they even made them anymore because I never saw them in the local drug store, but I decided to google them and that is when I first discovered this forum and a whole world of shaving options. I bought a nice Merkur and a Silver-tip brush and began to learn the art of shaving all over again. After several months of butchering, I realized that old love affairs are often better left to the recesses of our memories and decided I would move on to something different.

I watched several videos on straight razor shaving and decided I would give that a try. I started with the Dovo Shavette because it was inexpensive so I wouldn't loose much beside a few quarts of blood if things didn't go so well. To my delight straight razor shaving came easier than I had anticipated, but not without incident. I cut myself less often with the Shavette than I did with the Merkur, but when I did they were usually much larger cuts. One of the most memorable was the time I had too much angle on the blade and just sort of set the blade on my cheek and the full length of the blade went straight into my skin. Another memorable moment was the time I twitched my nose while shaving my upper lip. The most embarrassing thing is having to wear these scars to work for several days before they heal and try explaining to co-workers what had happened. But after several months on the Shavette it was now time to splurge on a real straight.

For my first real straight razor, I picked up a Dovo Bismark 5/8" Full Hollow Carbon Steel Spike Point on sale from Lynn. It arrived pre-sharpened and it is still doing a good job over a year later with me just stropping the blade after every shave. Shaving has never been this good in the past and even with the "spike point" I have only nicked myself a couple of times. I don't know if beginning with the Shavette made me more careful or if a genuine straight is actually that much safer and easier to shave with than the Shavette or the DE razor.

I have also accumulated several additional stones over the past year, adding to the collection I already had for sharpening my knives. I have also watched several videos on honing razors with intentions of tackling this myself, but I haven't gotten over the fear of damaging my fine razor.

That's where I am at with shaving at this point in my life and I may be chatting with some of you folks here at SRP one of these days. Until then...

Wish you all a joyous shave!