Thread: Hello From France and some questions about my razor

Hi all, i'm from France and on this forum to learn more about shaving with a straight razor.

Despite the fact that i have all of the equipment, strop, hone stone and the razor of course, i feel that i cannot get it sharp enough.
Some expert advice will be needed

This is my razor, is this a good quality one?

Hello, and welcome to SRP!

Boker is a fine make of razor, you've got no problem there. However, learning to shave with a straight that you have sharpened yourself is not a good idea. If you are a beginner at both honing and straight shaving, it is very unlikely that the blade is sharp enough, and it will be nearly impossible to get a good shave from it. You are also likely to pick up bad techniques (like using too much pressure during the shave) trying to compensate for a dull blade.

I would advise you to get the razor professionally honed, so that you know you are learning to shave with a good edge. You should probably wait until you can shave well with a good edge before learning to hone yourself, but if you want to go ahead with honing, you probably want to get another razor to practice honing on - that way you can compare your attempts with a pro-honed blade. You need a good reference or you won't know what you are setting out to achieve.

I really think it's really important to start with a truly sharp razor. Otherwise it's like learning to play basketball with a flat basketball. If your razor wasn't sharp to begin with, I think it's quite difficult for a beginner to appreciate just how sharp a sharp razor is, and how to get it there. And then there's smoothness to consider, it's not all about sharpness.

I think you need to get your razor honed by someone who knows how and then take it from there.

I suggest a minimum of three shave ready razors to start. This way you have benchmarks to compare against. Two working razors while you get the third back on par. You don't need to spend a lot on each razor.

Main point is you need a good starting point. Unless you know the razor is sharp to being with you're just shooting in the dark.

There's a lot of guys here who might hone it for free, esp if they live near you, I've seen it offered many times...

Carl

I got myself a second razor to practice honing on using my professionally honed razor for a reference. As others have said it is hard enough to get the technique down and doesn't help if you don't know why your shave is not close. Changes to my technique such as less pressure, less angle and pulling the skin made a huge difference in the quality of my shave.

Russell