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 2nd and 3rdpass 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.

Attachment 124039Attachment 124040