Technique and Maintenance Matter

About 3 months, or maybe a bit more, into my straight razor lifestyle I am realizing a few things.

First, the razors I seem to succeed with most regularly are the ones I bought new, shave-ready, honed by a known honemeister before they were shipped to me. I've been pretty anal about taking care of these 3-4 razors. They have not been the victims of my first attempts at honing. I have, at most, lightly stroked them on a barber hone. I have also even been delicate, even before I knew why, about stropping them.

The other razors I own, some new but not hand-honed, others used and hand-honed, I have been more careless about. The latter, used+hand honed, could be as good as the first group, but I tried to improve on them rather than just use them. The couple I bought new, but didn't know at the time to have them honed, are a missed opportunity. I could have patiently learned how to turn a new razor into a great razor, but didn't.

So now I'm just getting the hang of good stropping, using the barber hone to keep the edge nice, and I've dipped down into the 8K hone a bit and even have a nice collection of fine old razors in need of TLC that I hope to improve my craft on.

The second thing I've learned, and I thought about it this AM, is never stop working on shaving technique. This AM my WTG pass was so good I almost didn't do any more. Habit, and just enjoyment of it, made me re-lather and do XTG and a little ATG to finish, but I had a definite B/B+ shave after the first WTG pass. I worked on light contact and angle. I'm learning how much "daylight" I should be seeing under the rib.

So…this is not news to anyone I know but my thought for today is (a) a well honed razor doesn't need much more help from me and (b) a great tool can only do the job in the hands of someone who uses it correctly.

So, that's the news from Kentucky…I'm off to "Shakespeare in the Park" with two fabulous, beautiful, intelligent and remarkable women!

"Hey sweetie, wanna stroke my clean shaven jawbone?"