Thread: 1st one down

First of all, thanks to the great comments on my last post. I picked up a beginner's kit from David and a 4-sided strop (my experience with sharpening knives as a scout makes me prefer an ancored leather piece) from Tony last week, both arrived on Monday. Thanks to both of you, real pleasure to do business with such friendly and helpful folks!

Tonight was the first time I had the time to really give it a go. For the past week I've been doing the lather route for my safety shave so I could be sure I had that down pretty well. I watched Lynn's video (again), then I laid everything out, cleaned off the razor and stroped it up. I put a hot towel on, did up my lather, and set into business.

Now, I keep most of a beard, though it changes a lot (I do historical characters for events, schools, and libraries, part of what sparked my interest) and so I really only needed to shave my neck and chin tonight. I figured this was a good time to try all this out as I would only be hitting two areas, but one would be the worst, being the chin.

Happy to say, I'm still here! I only did one pass tonight, and it came out pretty well, though the chin was tough! That's the only time I caught myself good, and I'll admit I was getting cocky. One or 2 other minor spots, but nothing worse than a Mach 3 gives me. The chin looked like I had slaughtered it at first, but cleaned up it's not that bad. Certainly nothing that will keep me from continuing down this road. I found I liked the level of control I felt I had, not to mention the testosterone increase of not slitting your throat with such a deadly item! And I am just getting the glimmer of that relaxing ritual I have read of here. I'm looking forward to reaching that point, though I am certainly not there yet! And, while tonight's shave isn't baby bottom smooth, I feel good about my first time out.

Thanks to all of you for your great information here and your encouragement. And HUGe thanks to David, Tony, and Lynn.

Oh, one question. Lynn mentions a professional video on shaving, any idea where one finds that?

John West at [email protected] approx $30 total.

Someone correct me please if I am mistaken.