Thread: 43 years old, and finally learning how to shave

Hi everyone. I'm intrigued by straight razors, nostalgic tools and skills, and the idea of pampering my face a bit more. Step one is lurking around these pages, learning what I can. Step two for me will be acquiring the various accessories as I can afford them. I want to eventually purchase a cool vintage blade at an affordable price and do my own honing, so my first series of purchases will be honing stones. Once I can get a scary sharp edge on my kitchen knifes and chisels, I will start to acquire strops, brushes, soaps, etc. The blade itself will be my last purchase. Thank you all in advance, for giving me the guidance I should have learned 25-30 years ago.

Hello and welcome!

Can I suggest you go for a razor & strop first? It'd be a lot easier that way as you need to have some experience using and stropping a straight before you'll be able to tell how well you're honing. The classifieds here or some of the vendors are a great place to find an affordable, and vintage, razor that's been professionally honed. As for the strop, a piece of folded over newspaper could work until you're ready to buy one.

G'Day and welcome to SRP.
I can't add anything more to the posts above, except to agree.
Leave your stones for a while and get used to shaving/stropping first - I started at 53 and there is much to 'unlearn'.
Let us all know how your going - and don't forget the photos.

Sounds like once again, I had it in my mind to do things the hard way. I will certainly consider the advice. Thanks guys!

If you are using a blade to shave, as oppose to electric razor, then, yes, start with soaps and brush. Then straight and strop and finally the stones. Used to get good edges on my chisels and planers. On my shavers, I get "shavebables" edges, not the best and I've been at it for 5 month now (honing that is).
It helps immensely to start with the best possible edge, so you can learn proper form and get good results, versus getting into bad habits ( to much pressure and angle) and frustrating results ( cuts and razor burn). Double O