Thread: What Mistakes Did You Learn From The Most?

Originally Posted by Phrank

Well I can think of one...not shipping one of those beautiful Palmera's up to Phranky in the Great White North!!!!

...and I thought you cared Bill....

One comming up tomrrow,have a buddy across the border pic it up,have done that many times

For me just the classics over the years as I learned to use and restore them... This is just a tiny sample.

RESTORATION

- Using a Dremmel anywhere near the edge
- Using a Dremmel rotating toward the edge versus away from it
- Using a Dremmel in any way except light buffing along the spine or tang with the edge protected
- Starting the sanding of a full hollow blade using 100 grit compound on a 6" buffer (not much metal left)
- Unpinning blades (too many rookie mistakes in the beginning to mention)
- Pinning blades (every mistake imaginable)

BUYING

- Buying razors on online before I knew what to look for and what (and who) to avoid
- Thinking Pakistani blades could be sharpened - or would maintain an edge consistently
- Buying lots of 10, 15, 20, etc thinking there would be a gem in there
- Not carefully reading eBay descriptions and being surprised when I got a 3/8 blade or shorty
- Not looking at or requesting better photos and getting a wanna-be can opener
- Allowing emotions about a pretty razor picture to influence the purchase of a real dog that took a nice photo
- Getting sniped out of an auction and then getting revenge by bidding twice as much on the next blade
- Buying any blade at a flea market or antique store without looking at it carefully (or knowing what to look for)
- Buying any blade thinking it might be a good investment as opposed to a good shaver

SHAVING

- Not preparing my beard first
- Trying to shave after really good scotch
- Not holding the blade as parallel to my skin as possible
- Not stretching the skin
- Not stopping to consider why so much blood was dripping from my face
- Skipping stropping
- Trying to use a Pakistani blade more than once (the quality is random)
- Not giving shaving or stropping my full attention (busted blades are the result)

MAINTENANCE

- Not having patience when sharpening a blade made in Sweden
- Thinking I could get just one more shave from a blade before sharpening (hint: blood)
- Not researching pastes, stones, strops, etc before buying what looked like a good thing
- Not reading this site thoroughly before buying anything related to SR shaving

So, here we are about 8 years later and tons of lessons learned - most of which are laughable now but kinda dumb when I was learning. Could have saved a ton of money, time, frustration, and some flesh and blood if I'd slowed down and read what was posted here thoroughly first.

BOUGHT A ZEEPK