Hi. My name's Jon, and I've just started to get into shaving.

I bought a cheap shavette to start with. Before I used it I read a bunch of guides which said 'to start with put the blade flat against your face, then tilt it to 30 degrees.' Well as soon as I did that my face started bleeding. By the time I'd finished I'd cut myself about 10 times, but the result wasn't too bad, and as I'd prepared my face with oil and hot water etc. I didn;t get a shaving rash.

Then I went off a drunk a bottle of wine, and decided to go back and 'tidy it up' a bit. But as I was drunk I just used the razor dry on my face (no lather or water) and ended up cutting myself a bunch more times, and giving myself a shaving rash. So I won't be shaving drunk again!

The second day, I managed to shave more or less properly, and only cut myself 3 times.

I have just bought a (fairly) cheap (£20) antique straight razor from E-bay, and I intend to get someone to hone it to shave readiness. Then I'm going to buy a strop and some honing stones and hopefully by the time the blade needs sharpening a second time, I will be competent enough to do it myself.

I have heard the name Glen mentioned on here as someone who is good at honing razors. Is he one of the admins or something?

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to everyone, and also what a great forum this seems to be! Here's to many years of straight-razor shaving!