Thread: How did you learn?

I learned to shave with decidedly unshave ready straight razors. I didn't know it at the time though. Just bought the razor from a bro-in-law, and sharpened it on a barbers hone that my wife just happened to have sitting in a kitchen drawer. It was sharp, I thought. But, on retrospect, no where near!

The bad part of that approach is obvious and doesn't need to be stated. The good is that it forced me to learn slices and scythes and the like. That knowledge has been invaluable. So, based on my vast experience I can definitely tell newbies...

DON'T do it that way!

I foolishly bought a Boker off Ebay before knowing what I was doing. Thankfully it was in good enough condition to be honed. Hi_bud_gl honed it up and I shaved for the first time with that.

My first two razors were from my late grandfather. As a kid i saw him shaving and sharpening them quite often. When i decided to try shaving with them, they were almost shave ready. I was already familiar with sharpening knives and tools, but i had to learn how to sharpen razors before i could get ok shave. I think it took few months.

FWIW, my first straight razor experience was with one I had just purchased from a local barbers supply shop sometime in the mid 1960's. I watched my grandfather shave with his and thought it looked like something I ought to try. It worked fine out of the box, or so I remember.

My barber taught me, she had a lot of fun with that!

Here's a post from October 14, 2009:

Was SRP a signifcant factor in your taking up the SR?
Was this site a substantial factor in your decision to take up straight razor shaving? Clearly there are many factors that affect our predisposition to do something like this. My guess is, that for many or most of us, this site and its resources pushed us over the edge (happily so in my case).

If no, were you already SR shaving?

I presume Lynn will be happy to see how this site has influenced this band of brothers (and sisters)!

The poll results were Yes 84; No 58

My first shave was with a shave ready Boker I purchased from a member while I learned to hone of some ebay razors I had purchased for that reason. Looking back, the only thing I could have done different was to learn to strop with a butter knife and a belt or something, it would have saved me from tearing up my first stropp.

I started with two shave ready Wacker razors. I never believed they were shave ready, but they were. The problem was their size, and the fact that we did not have the Wiki at the time. Both problems solved now.

i started off with a zeepk and i honed it up then tried to shave with it after that i saw that i neded a good razor so i got a dovo off ebay and i had beter luck with it that was in 07 and have been shaving with a straight ever sence and loving it.

I came here first and bought three vintage razors - one from X, one from Lynn, and one from Joe Chandler. They were all shave ready (thank gawd!) and I was off and running. Learning to hone was/is another story

Jordan