16 Year Old Beginner

Alright I currently shave with a Gillette adjustable and Truefitt & Hill Lavender shaving cream and top it off with Classic Aftershave Balm. Well I am looking to go to a straight, I've used on once on my cheeks, baby butt smooth. Well here goes my questions and hope you guys can anwser them: Is it better to use a soap or cream with a straight, I've herd soaps are better. I have a Illinois #206 strop, is this a good strop, and its my only strop, should I use strop paste on it and which one? I don't have one yet but what would be a good hone, I've herd something about Belgian Marble hones over on the Wetshavers forum on MSN, also whats a good guide for honing and could someone please explain all those grits and such to me. Well feel free to recomend anything but remember on a teenagers budget; soaps. aftershave, strop, hones, pastes, etc.

Let me answer what I can, I use soap and am happy with it. I tried using shaving cream from a can but that was a bad experience. I don't put anything on my stop except strop paste. I don't use the sharpening pastes on a strop. I use a Norton 4000/8000 hone and I fine it meets my needs for now. With hones the larger the number the less it cuts. You will be fine with the Norton 4k/8k. If you go to the honing forum you will see some directions for honing. Start simple you don't have to spend a fortune to really enjoy it. I would recommend going to classicshaving.com and look around. Also you should get a badger brush again you don't have to spend a fortune. Good luck and take your time don't rush it.

Welcome to the group. You may be our youngest member. I personally prefer soap to cream for shaving, but don't be afraid to experiment. Everybody's different. If your only going to use one strop, don't put anyhting but strop conditioner on it. get another strop or a smooth piece of leather for sharpening paste. As Richz said the Norton 4k/8k is great, I also use Belgian stones. For grit sizes, the higher the number the finer the grit. I use a Chinese 12k stone for polishing the edge. Just remember when shaving with a straight, relax, go slow at first and consentrate. Keep distractions to a minimum. Also, go to the Yahoo SRP site and read the FAQ section. Hope this helps.

Sinatra,
The Illinois #206 will be fine. I used one for 5 months and just switched to a wider one but could have been happy with the #206 forever. If you don't already have a straight razor maybe finding a shave ready one from a group member would be your best bet to start.
I use a wide range of products from drug store/babrer supply bargains to specialty shop high end stuff and enjoy it all. Nicer stuff usually makes for a nicer experience but not always. Pick a good basic setup to get started...your #206 strop, a shave ready razor from here, basic soap and brush from Walgreens and try it out. Then for fun change one variable at a time, maybe try some different soaps, try a badger instead of boar brush ( I use both and actually prefer the boar as it whips up a lather faster on weekdays whenin a hurry), get a second, different sized razor, etc..... I would hold off learning to hone until you learn the shaving basics myself. If you have trouble honing then you loose your good razor to shave with so start in steps.
Tony

I don't use cream from a can, Truefitt & Hill is like Trumpers or Taylors, comes out of a tub. Also I already have a badger hair brush, a Vulfix #374, and a Shumate 4/8 razor.

Well this morning I used the razor on my right cheek, my left feels really werid and any pointers on that is helpful, wow, baby butt smooth, can't wait for my whole face to feel like that.

Hello Sinatra and welcome!

It sounds like you have all the basics, razor, strop, brush and soap and good ones at that!

Now just start reading the posts and files here and at www.classicshaving.com also those posts and files at the Yahoo straightrazorplace forum. If you need a link to that just ask.

Hold off on honing until you have to. There are a number of options to a standard hone such as a pasted strop or having someone here do the honing for you while you learn to hone on an Ebay special. You might also purchase a 5/8 razor from a member here, just make sure it is already honed. If you need help with that then just post a message here.

Let us know how it goes, :)

I am running into a problem, I expected to run into problems. Well you see learned how to hold the razor from Taylor of Old Bond Sts website, well during the shaving process the razor is hard to control, it wobbles and such and I cannot seem to get it right. Please post tips, thank you.

Check out Lynn's shaving video. You can access it from the front page of SRP under videos.

I use both soaps and creams. I'm using some of the Vulfix cream from Classic Shaving. I've used their soap, as well as soaps from eShave, Williams & BurmaShave. It's a personal preference as to which you like. What's nice is you can experiment and try many of them.

You might want to have a look at this PDF file,
composed by Dr Moss at shavemyface.com.

Very informative and a great guide to Str8 shaving.
A great addition to Lynn's video.

-Gramps

Alright I attempted to download Chris Moss's shaving guide but because I had to download the new version of Adobe it will not work. Chaulk it up to the fact my computer is a bit on the crappy side. Would it be possible for any members to cut and paste it into MS Word and send it to me as an attachment, ItalMafia1769@aol.com, also because I have dial-up I don't know if I can download Lynn's video, not at least with out it taking a day.

Humm... I read the Taylors "tips" and I can see how it might be a little confusing.. but they do have it right. You have to get used to not "man handleing" the razor, that will help in shaving and sharpening. You will gain confidence and control with a little time as the dexterity builds up.

This was edited due to the source of the images going off line ... if It comes back up I'll repost them... sorry

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Originally Posted by Sinatra

I am running into a problem, I expected to run into problems. Well you see learned how to hold the razor from Taylor of Old Bond Sts website, well during the shaving process the razor is hard to control, it wobbles and such and I cannot seem to get it right. Please post tips, thank you.

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Hi Patrick .... Learning the basic manipulations as you go around your face may be done with unserrated edge of one of your mom's flatware knives from the kitchen. Don't laugh .... stop .... the idea is to lather up and scrape it off using, well, the butter knife to begin to train your brain in the new movements with a wicked edge hovering about.

There is a chapter from a barber's textbook in the Yahoo! forum files on shaving in Adobe PDF format, "1961-Barbering-Text-Shaving.pdf" It's about 2MB in size. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...orplace/files/

I have a smaller ~4-5MB version of Lynn's video in my Yahoo! 'briefcase' at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/uthed1 It's best to d/l later at night. In both cases, "how to hold the razor" given the direction of movement is covered.

Both format's of Lynn's video are available here via the frontpage under videos.

I've also migrated a ton of the files from Yahoo to here. Access help files from the main page.