Thread: First shave with a straight razor!

I used a Tower Brand #126 razor I had aquired from Wiskers who was nice enough to have it sent out to be honed before making its way to me. I also aquired a strop from the classifieds here that I employed to make 20 passes prior to shaving on the leather side only after wiping off the oil from the blade.

For lather I used a Van Der Hagen set I purchased at a local walmart that included a boar hair brush, shave bowl, and soap. I had been practiing building lather with this using the Mach 3 to shave.

Sunday night I used the straight for the first time and I think it went rather well. Still working on how exactly to hold the blade. I made a pass with and against the grain but still had to touch up with the Mach 3.

I am sure I did not quite apply enough pressure or use the proper angle most of the time but twice I could tell I was using too much pressure at too high of an angle as I could feel the blade start to dig in, but slowly backing off seemed to ward off any cuts.

I can say my neck was feeling rather raw even with aftershave lotion on, the cheeks did not seem to be so bad. I will give it a go again this morning. Oh and pics of the razor below!



Closed and now for the money shot!

Congrats on breaking the ice, I used a DE to for my chin and mustache for a couple of weeks when I first got started.

Congrats on your first shave, just be careful with the blade angel and pressure, and you should be fine!

Nice razor!

IMHO pressure should be zero and angel is where most of the learning is done. I have learned that my angel was wrong in previous attempts.

What a great start. Just a reminder not to shave to often over the next few weeks. Your skin needs that time to acclimatise itself to the new tool.

X

Well done on the first! Your skin will become accustomed soon!

Congrats on your first.
Pressure is a relative term. You only need enough to cut hair after all but angle must always be low.
Sounds like you'll learn quickly.

Thank you for all of the encouragement, today was only my 3rd shave with the straight and I feel like the first time I acutaly cut a significant portion of the wiskers off with this new tool.

No cuts my wife is scared to death of either so far so that is very cool.

Adjustment of the cutting angle seems to be the most helpful and getting used to holding the blade steady at that angle.
Hopfully by summer I will have this figured out a lot better. Right now I can get away with the light shadow beard for a few days, at least I feel that way.

The Mrs may be scared right now but just wait until you get the shaving down pat, she will be eating her words. Hope she has ketchup and mustard handy.

Originally Posted by jbcohen

The Mrs may be scared right now but just wait until you get the shaving down pat, she will be eating her words. Hope she has ketchup and mustard handy.

Haha