Thread: First timer and his straight razor + gear

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Hi Welcome to SRP. You some kind a Lucky Man to have such a wonderful half.
Russian Razor she bought from me. It is SHAVE READY.
Pleas read SRP for beginner section. if i find link i will post . i am sure someone will do so.
Try go slowly if you do have uncomfortable shave please stop. You are doing something wrong. Remember straight razor shave should be comfortable.
don't shave against the grain.
Usually leave your chin area alone early on.
Have a good soap and pre shave preparation.
At first make small strokes to find proper cutting angle. then use that angle and shave. if i am not mistaken your blade should be honed without tape.
Be patient and any questions let us know.
hope this helps.
gl.

I was hoping I would find you on here.
Thank you so much for the beautiful razor. It is very clean and appears to be very well oiled, and I'm glad to have it confirmed that it's shave ready.

---
As to everyone else, I appreciate the info and support. I'll start slow with just my strop and getting a feel for the razor before I begin to shave. I grow facial hair pretty quickly and it's stiff so I'll make sure everything else is in place before I take the blade to my face.

- Rye

From one Newbie to another... You can practice stropping with the German razor.

Welcome aboard! You bagged some nice loot there! I have that identical strop and have been quite pleased with it.

Originally Posted by Belicoso

From one Newbie to another... You can practice stropping with the German razor.

I don't think I should - the German razor has a pretty decent sized nick in the blade and I'm pretty sure this would scratch and/or damage my strop. I think I'll need to get it honed first...

I'm looking to get an alum block and/or a Styptic pencil.

Could anyone recommend some good brands/products? I checked the wiki but there's no specifics there and rather than make a new thread I thought I'd just post here.

I have had one of those strops for a while..Just add some neats foot and it will be fine.

Originally Posted by RyeWhiskey

I'm going to go with the Shavex over the Razorock for an alum block. I don't like the container for the Razorock and the Shavex seems quite solid from the brief research I've just conducted. I'll grab the Styptic pencils as well as they're only a couple bucks and I'm sure I'll need them at some point in time.

Thanks so much for your help.

Good call, you will appreciate having both, and they serve different purposes.
Styptic fixes cuts, Alum is a great astringent.

Originally Posted by Birnando

Good call, you will appreciate having both, and they serve different purposes.
Styptic fixes cuts, Alum is a great astringent.

I'm going to get some Witch Hazel toner (the Rose Hips one from Thayer's is great) as well, but I can grab this from the local store in town. From what I've gathered from this forum, after I shave I'll be going for a:
Hot water rinse
Alum Block
Cold water rinse
Witch Hazel
then some sort of moisturizer or aftershave (though I'm not too partial to the latter as the scents aren't really my style).

This seem about right?

Originally Posted by RyeWhiskey

I'm going to get some Witch Hazel toner (the Rose Hips one from Thayer's is great) as well, but I can grab this from the local store in town. From what I've gathered from this forum, after I shave I'll be going for a:
Hot water rinse
Alum Block
Cold water rinse
Witch Hazel
then some sort of moisturizer or aftershave (though I'm not too partial to the latter as the scents aren't really my style).

This seem about right?

That sounds just fine.
I do the same thing, more or less.
The difference being that I either use alum or Witch hazel. not both.
IMO, they pretty much serves the same purpose.

Alot of people here use both, like you suggested

If I've had a bit of a rough shave I go for alum, if it was smooth and not very hard on the skin, I use Witch hazel.

Oh, and another thing. I wash of the lather in hot water, then cold water to close pores, and then I go to Alum or Witch Hazel.
In other words, I use the alum with cold skin and cold water.