I just got done with my first SR shave about a hour or so ago. I have been messing around with wet shaving and DE on and off for a little over four years. At times I got the idea to try a SR but always talked myself out of it because of the honing and sort of the stropping. So this time around I talked myself in to actually pulling the trigger. I bought a Sight Unseen Flawed Razor and a poor man's strop from Whipped Dog. I attached a picture of the razor but I'm not able to read what type and who it is made by. All I can make out is "ed by her" at the shank.

Ok on to the shave. I first started on my cheek where I had just trimmed my beard to 1/16 of an inch. I had the angle of the razor to what I thought was around the width of the spine and it was pulling like crazy and at times it felt like it was stuck. From what I read it is not good to go forcing a SR when it is stuck. So after shaving my right side (right handed) I moved to the left. I tried to use a bigger angle and it seemed to cut better and much cleaner. By the time I did like three WTG passes I decided to touch up the tricky part of my lower neck that only looks clean with an ATG. I know it is not really good idea to go ATG when a newbie but hey what the heck.

Ok so damage report. When I figured out that I needed to use a larger angle I think I went to close to 45 instead of 30. My cheeks, upper lip under my nose and where my lower lip meets my chin have some razor burn. I blame it on my technique and blade angle being to close to 45. I have to figure out a way to comfortably see what I'm doing close to my sideburns with out having the razor and my hand in the way.

So after all that it was a very different experience but I look forward to shaving again so that I can get better. Also now I can watch youtube videos by Geofatboy and a few others and will be able better understand how they handle the razor since I have at least a small idea of what they are doing and talking about. Now I have to figure out how to take care of my strop and use it properly. I'm just worried about rolling the edge and I don't really have a good place to secure it to. I thought about getting some twine string so that I can anchor the strop to a door knob or hinge. Any suggestions are welcomed. I want to learn and get better since this is so different and awesome. Thanks everyone.

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