Thread: First shave with my Thiers-Issard No 17

Took me two months but this morning I got to put steel to face using this beautiful Thiers-Issard.

Now, I am as much of a noob as one can be when it comes to straight razor shaving so I didn't feel all that confident as I started to lather up this morning.
I've used a shavette 3-4 times (ugh) and my Diamondine straight razor I think 5-6 times but neither of them w/in the past six months.
I've never really felt fully comfortable/confident when using a straight which of course probably has made me more reluctant to pick one up as a daily razor.
But, well, there I was, all lathered up ready to go...

I used Klar Kabinett soap and Myrsol emulsion as pre-shave.

I started out on the throat going WTG - it went surprisingly well. Might I even say 'easy'?

I was especially surprised that it was as effortless as it was around the adam's apple - and area I sometimes need to do some clean-ups when I use a safety razor.

I moved on to the cheeks and it was still pretty smooth sailing. A tiny bit of tugging but nothing too bad.
I felt very Clint Eastwood.

First weeper appeared on the left side of my face due to me being over confident and speeding up.
"Finding the right grip" is still something I am having a bit of a challenge with..especially when switching between the sides of my face. It doesn't feel completely natural.

The real challenge ended up being the area around my mouth - basically where you'll have a goatee. Hardest of it was the area under the nose.
I approached it slowly. Got a second weeper and decided that I had done enough for today with the straight.
My throat and cheeks were actually rather smooth.

I grabbed one of the smoothest DE's I have - a Gillette blue tip and finished it all off with an ATG pass with it.
Smooth and clean shaven.

I stropped the razor (ridiculously slowly I must admit) 20-25 times on the leather and another 10-15 times on the canvas before I put on some Anherb ASB and called it a day morning.

Personally, I think I did pretty well. There was some blood but not too bad.
I'm quite honestly looking forward to tomorrow morning.
Gonna strop it a little bit and then see if I can improve on confidence and grip.