Newbie Introduction from Annapolis, MD!

Hello all. I have been reading the boards here for a while. I made the switch from the landfilling shaving cartridges to a safety blade about 2 yrs ago, and just last week ventured into straight razor shaving. I was gifted a Thiers-Issard 5/8 carbon c135 steel bade. This was purchased from AOS, and like many others here on the boards they told my wife that it was shave ready. That product knowledge that the women at the store are pushing is consistent with the literature that comes with the blade, but now I know different. I thought that maybe it was just my inexperience that was lending to the uncomfortable shaving, and persisted with stropping. The shave did get better after 3 or 4 shaves, but I am reading some about the enjoyable experiences you are having and I am no where near that. My only frame of reference is the straight shave I get from the local barber and this is not like that. I did get the name of a hone guy in Atlanta. I do not mind the maintenance, but it peeves me that AOS is pushing this bad information out there and I am now delaying shaving glory by having to pay to ship out my blade.

Am I doing something wrong?? Outside of the wanking ... I am looking forward to reading along with you!

-Brian

Welcome! Nope, you're not doing something wrong - sending the razor out to be honed is absolutely the right thing to do. Look at it this way: shaving with a straight you've got a lot of learning to do - grip, blade angle, pressure, etc., and you might as well eliminate as many variables as you can. Knowing your razor is shave ready at least insures that if you're not getting a comfortable shave it's technique, not the razor.

Good luck!

Welcome to SRP!
you are on your own with the wanking bit sorry.

the TI are generally almost shave ready with is why it seemed to get better with the stropping. some new TI are close enough to just need a pasted paddle and a few minutes to have them ready to strop and shave.

enjoy,
jim

If you have a local guy you get shaves from, go in for another and take your blade and have him check it out. Maybe he can hone it for you as well? (For a price I'm sure!) I would guess even if he has disposables, he probably knows a little bit about the art and can help you with your blade!

Vendor section has plenty of very trustworthy folks who can hone your blade and have it back to you quickly! Shoot them a couple messages!