Tempe, AZ S-R Newbie. Hello fam!

Hello everyone out there in SRP land!

I'm a 25 yr old guy who has always had a visceral need to shave with a straight razor, as I tend to enjoy "the old way" of doing most things. I just recently acquired my first razor, a pre-WWII J.A. Henckels full hollow, along with all the necessary soaps and oils from AOS. I haven't honed the blade just yet, but man I'm itching to do so. I've peeked around and this community seems pretty cool so I'm excited to meet ya'll and learn from your experience! Oh, and I'm always down for face to face in the Phoenix area over a cigar. Damn, I wish I lived in the early 1900's.

Regards,

Jorian

Hi Jorian,

Welcome to SRP!!! I think you've peeked around enough that you've found the perfect site for help and info on the straight razor shaving experience. You'll find a lot of us here tend toward the ABC approach to learning, as opposed to the vegetable soup avenue of trying to master everything at one time. The first thing we recommend is starting with a shave ready razor. By having a razor honed by a professional you'll know what a sharp razor is, feels like, and have a reference when you do start to hone, which isn't as easy as it might sound. You'll find links below to our vendors and classifieds with members that offer honing services.

On honing, that itching you feel to hone is understandable, my experience, but you're much better off to get your shaving technique down with a known shave ready edge and experience some good as possible shaves, realizing that any deficiencies are due to technique and/or prep as opposed to the shave readiness of the razor. If you're trying to learn shaving technique and honing at the same time it's confusing as to which is lacking and really hard for any of us to give specific advice to help.

Look through our wiki linked below, filled with good info, and it will help with a lot of frequently asked questions.

Oh yes, Henckels are an excellent razor! I have several and they are among my favorites.

You can find members in your area with this link. http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

Welcome, and if there's any thing we can help with, ask away.

Best Regards,
Howard :D