Thread: My First Straight Razor

Hello all. New to SR shaving and this forum. Just bought this vintage Le Grelot "lord barber". What do you think about the quality, if possible to tell from the pictures?
Cheers.

Hello and welcome to the forum.
It´s a nice piece you got.
Le Grelot is an excellent shaver and it should serve you well in the future.

Welcome to SRP, Le Grelot are fantastic razor, from the pictures posted your razor looks like it will be a fine shaver as well, giving its "Shave Ready".

If its not look under the "Classifieds" and find yourself somebody to make it Shave Ready for you and you will be greatly rewarded. Enjoy!

Thank you guys! Went to a couple of places in NYC yesterday to find out if it needed honing. One of them right of the bet said it did. Left it there, but came back in 15 mins to get back. Something felt amiss about the place, two others complimented ton he purchase and said it was shave ready.
So, I bought my first hanging Dovo strop and, of course, did too little of the stropping. Maybe 15-20 before my first ever SR shave. Should have probably been 50.
Shaved. Did not kill myself. Did 3 passes: 2- WTG and 1 - ATG. No cuts. Nothing. But the face skin feels a little sore.
This will be my weekend shaver, Muhle R89 Grande DE for daily use. Love that one too.

Looks great. They are good razors. Should be a good shaver. Enjoy

Looks like some blemishes on the edge that might not be present after a honing. Your Le Grelot is as good a shaver as any razor out there. I love mine to bits, my best shaver. It's definitely worth getting honed by a skilled honemeister so you can appreciate it's gloriosity (my spell check just imploded :P). Stropping just isn't going to do it if it requires honing.

Get that sucka honed and don't look back.

Hone that razor.

Hone, yes.

Hone.

Got it. Will hone. Now next question. How honing will be affecting the life span of the blade, especially one from the 70-s? Does it have enough steel left to continue to be honed maybe 3 times a year? I am sure this was discussed somewhere before, but with the "internets" I have no attention span left.

Oh, btw, some of the pictures have dots and maybe what looks like blemishes, but in reality this was just oil. The blade looked perfect "in person", after I wiped it off.

No one can look at an edge and tell if it is shave ready*, and if they feel the edge..whelp, then it has to be stropped back out. Have you ready any of the beginner stuff here? There are scads of information general and specific to answer all your questions-already organized and posted in the SRP Wiki as well as scattered throughout the threads here.

*Shave readiness is determined by a shave test, not arm hair test, not leg hair, not HHT, not TNT, not TPT. SHAVE FACE TEST.

Only your stropping will determine how many times per year it may need to be honed. If all goes well, you should be able to keep it shaving indefinitely with CrOx touch ups. SEE experiment that Glen did here some while back. He kept one going so long (pasted stropping only) he quit trying.

Great looking razor.

ALSO, no one ever even SUGGESTS that a noobie tries ATG passes, especially with an unknown edge and first shave. Read up. Enjoy, slow down, it's a lifetime sport.

Welcome to the forum!

If you are looking for local honing, you should contact bayamontate. He is local and great.

Keep an eye out for the next area meetup.

Michael

Regarding the ATG, I know I know. But I tried and it was absolutely fine. Long time ago I played violin and the way you hold the bow is kind of very similar to holding SR. Or so I think. So, I was very comfortable with that tool in my hand.
Will check Wiki and Classifieds for local guys with SR service experience.
Cheers.