Learned a lesson yesterday

I bought a razor about 6 months ago on another forum that was advertised as "shave ready". Since I was just learning honing and stropping that long ago, I thought I'd keep it as a "reference" to compare against if I needed. I finally used it for the first time today. I did my normal stropping routine, the normal face prep and ended up with one of the worst shaves I've had in a while. It seemed to do all right WTG, but XTG and ATG were a disaster. By the time I was finished I had pretty good razor burn and stubble everywhere. I had basically gone from a 5 O'Clock shadow to a 2 O'Clock shadow.

Two lessons learned today:

1. Have a backup razor stropped and ready when trying a new razor
2. Do a quick arm test before trying to shave with a new razor

Has anyone else learned such lessons the hard way?

Last year I went to a wedding out of town and took a straight with me. Problem is the razor was supposed to be with "needed honed" razors and not the "recently honed" ones. I ended up doing a full face shave with a Merker mustache trimmer which is basically a miniature DE. Took forever to shave.

Whenever I get a new or never before used razor I will strop a known good razor just in case, I hate starting a shave, then realizing I have to strop another and having lather dry out while I do :)

Unless I knew the person who honed the razor and their abilities I would take any claims as to "shave ready" with a grain of salt.

Arm hair shaving isn't the definitive test. It can tell you you're pretty close but it may shave arm hairs like a champ and still not be where it should. Shaving is the only true test.

I have enough razors so a back-up is always at hand if need be.

I always seem to learn everything the hard way lol, your not alone...

Always have a backup ready to go, just in case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sleekandsmooth

I always seem to learn everything the hard way lol, your not alone...

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Yeah, I learned that you go where you look when riding a motorcycle the hard way.:gaah: That was an expensive lesson...