Hello from Houston, TX

I’ve somehow ended up with no less than 3 new straightrazors with hardly an ounce of skill to use them with. I’ve spent countless hours staring at them onevery site I could find that sells straight razors and fell deeply in love with90% of them. I wanted my very first oneto come from SRD to ensure I had one honed by the master himself and also toget the video too. I ended up gettingthe Boker King Cutter along with a 3 inch strop as a kit package. I chose this razor partly because of itsrelatively low price, partly because I thought it was really neat looking,partly because I thought the name “King Cutter” was cool, and partly becausethe site was out of 98% of all other straight razors for sell there. I understand this is a widespread phenomenonbecause restocking order fulfillment has been very slow, a lot of shops were cleaned out at Christmas,and because James Bond apparently uses one too. I followed the suggestions for the first shaves by only starting with asingle part of one cheek and then adding another piece of the face eachday. Last night I was able to at leasttechnically claim that I shave some hair off of every part of my entireface. I didn’t hack myself up to bad butit definitely wasn’t a close, uniformshave. I looked like a blind shakybarber had just finished with me, but still I was quite proud haha. Afterwards I did a 2^nd and 3^rdpass with my usual Edwin Jagger DE89L to finish up properly.

Since purchasing that first razor my obsession hascompelled me to already add both a Dovo Carre and the custom Dovo that Jarrodhad custom made just for his shop. I hadbeen drooling over that simple, shiny, shoulderless, elegant design with thebeautiful 6/8 mirror finish and wooden scales but it hasn’t been offered aloneor he’s been out of it. I ordered the Carrebecause it was similar, had a pretty mother of pearl inlay in the scales, andit was actually in stock on a UK website. Then last week I happened to see a couple of the custom Dovos come up onthe other site last week and snatched one of them up. I figured I could use it as a reference bladefor sharpness until I get proficient with the King Cutter. I also figured I could hold both Dovos in myhands, decide which I liked better, and sell the other one. Didn’t work; I’m in love with them both. I swear I’d be almost as happy just lookingat them framed on a wall as I would be actually shaving with them.

I have a long way to go in my journey to straight razorproficiency, but I am patient and committed to the challenge. My biggest problem spots seem to be the chinand mustache area. I find it very easyto shave cheeks and even neck in most places, but when that blade hits the chinand upper lip area it just does not seem to want to keep moving. I’m working with different angles andapproaches and finally had some modest success last night, but I welcome anyadvice you all have for a newbie.

Here are a couple of lame cell phone pics of the Bokerand custom Dovo with some of my other shaving goodies. I haven’t take a pic of the Carre yet but Iam planning to take better pics of all of my toys eventually with a realcamera.

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Welcome to SRP!
It seems that you are well on the way to being a straight man.


enjoy,
jim

Welcome to SRP =] I will tell you now coming to this forum will most likely result in you 'needing' to buy more stuff lol. I never seem to have enough money to buy all the stuff I want lately. I want to try new hones (Jnats especially, even though I've barely just learned the basics of honing on synthetics), I want to get higher end strops (I destroyed the first one, I always seemed to start to build up speed as I go and I always keep building up the speed until it nicks lol, now I just keep a constant pace), I want a Filarmonica, I want a Tamahagane Steel razor made by Iwasaki Kousuke, and I need a big fat meat chopper of a razor from one of the reputed Sheffield razor makers preferably in mint condition, no I want one from several of them actually.... I don't even have a job yet I'm just a student and I'm already spending hundreds of dollars on a regular basis. Don't think it won't happen to you! Proceed with caution!

Welcome to SRP.

Logan,

Welcome to the forum, glad to have you. As I'm sure you've noticed,there's plenty of resources here. I'd encourage you to read through the wiki, linked below, always something in there that can be helpful.

Also there's a meet coming up in the Houston area on March 24th. I believe that's the date. You can learn and see and experience more in an event like that than you can in months of just reading and experimenting. Here's a link http://straightrazorpalace.com/get-t...ml#post1104875 .

Enjoy, and again, Welcome!

Howard :)

Indeed, Logan, it sounds as if you are well on your way! As SirStropalot mentioned, we are having a meet the 24th of March. Chime in on his link, or mine at the bottom of this post. It might be beneficial to attend!

Welcome from another, still newbie.