Thread: MY SR journey so far.....

Keep at it. My first SR was also a RA from SRD and I still love it. Granted, it has only been in use for about three weeks now. The only reason I am looking for my next SR is because RAD and OCD I have never been a "one item" kind of guy. If one is good, then five is five times better, and all that.

I am FAR from expert but I would be willing to bet that as your skill with the RA improves and you learn better shaving and stropping techniques, when you return to your Wostenholm it will be like meeting a long lost love that you are still in love with.

I wish I had that second razor to try out. Good luck and keep at it

It's funny you address this. I guess I am just the opposite, I buy a good Prost right out of the box and plan to have it for my lifetime. I read about people having twenty and I just have to shake my head.

So I got my razor back from the honemeister. He did a very through job. It looks like had to grind some metal off the spine to work to the edge at the right angle. My quick visual inspection showed a much more tidy/clean edge.

So I gave the Wostenholm a light stropping and shaved off two and half days of stubble. I was pleasantly surprised. In fact I had one of my top straight razor shaves of my very young straight razor career. I did notice that this razor is more sensitive to the shaving angle then my Ralf Aust.

I guess if anybody needs a quality honemeister with quick turnaround time, send me a PM and I will gladly share his info. He came well recommended from another forum.

Closing thought. The vendor that sold me the razor did a crappy job putting an edge on the razor and apparently doesn't know what "shave ready" means.

From previous comments it seems possible that it was poor stropping instead of a bad edge from the vendor. Don't be too hasty to throw him under the bus. :-)

After looking at the edge with 40X loop before and after the recent honing, and fact that the old edge had a double bevel it is much more likely the vendor gave it a poor edge. The honemeister gave me feedback on the edge that indicated that the condition of the edge was worse than poor stropping technique. For example, he told me he had to re-hone the razor three times to get it into its current condition.

That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

Since your just starting out on the journey of straight razor shaving let me tell you my cut on the mater . for a while I kept a red face. I didn't have the angle right. a little razor burn. I used a both a round and square point razor and the square point would nick me almost every time. there again bad angle. I found that the 5/8 extra hollow ground would give way to much feed back. A friend sent me a Wostenholm and son blade that was 1/4 hollow and barber notch with a smile. I put a set of scales on it and honed it. It was more forgiving than the extra hollow and gave a lot less feed back That made shaving with the straights a lot better for me. since then I have used many different types and sizes hopefully getting better. face not quite so red and less blood letting. Don't get discouraged the journey is definitely worth it. enjoy and have fun.