Thread: A little guidance for a beginner?

There are a million options, and you've gotten some great advice so far.

If you're waiting on one of Tony's vegan strops, you might consider picking up soap and brush and a DE safety razor in the mean time. This will give you time to figure out the mystery of lathering (which was much more of a challenge for me than shaving actually), will teach you something about blade angle and light touch, and will get you half the equipment you need for straight shaving. (For around $30)

AFTER you get a strop, you can pick up a shave ready blade from the classifieds here, or whippeddog.com or one of the other vendors if you've saved up some dough and want to go to the Big Time.

Worry about hones and honing later. They're easy to get into, can be done step by step, and are only worth doing if you're enjoying straights.

+1 on attending a get together in your area.

Happy Shaving,
Jim

Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended up buying a razor from pinklather in the classifieds here, and through some unbelievable confluence of shipping times it arrived on my doorstep the same day as my strop and styptic pencil, with the brush and soap getting here a few days before.

The first shave went pretty bad. I cut myself probably a half dozen times, and after two passes I was still extremely stubbly. At this point I hadn't done anything to the blade, I just took it out of the package and shaved with it. Since then I've been stropping before and after shaving, working on prepping better, and at this point I'm getting an almost satisfactory shave. The razor still seems to pull and catch a little when I go across or against the grain, and when I go with the grain (at about a 30 degree angle) it seems to just glide over the hair without really picking any up. At this point, after three passes I have just a very short layer of stubble around my chin and sideburns, even less under the chin, and my cheeks are pretty much clean. I'm trying to figure out just what I might be doing wrong so far: how easily does a well-honed razor normally take off hair?

It sounds pretty normal for a beginner You possibly dulled the razor a little with stropping. Practice stropping for awhile with a dull butter knife, then 40 laps linen and 60 leather side and see if it's better.

+1 to Rod

A properly honed razor will take hair off pretty dang easily, IF you're using the right pressure, the right angle, good stretching, and have done even half way decent prep.

Your experience sounds pretty common for starting out. If you're confident your stropping isn't/hasn't damaged the blade, then work on stretching and angle. If you think your stropping's been even half way decent, then practice and then have at it with your razor. A lot of times you can bring a razor back up to snuff with a good stropping if it's only barely out of shape (which sounds like might be the case).

Best of luck, and keep us up to date!

Peace,
Jim