Thread: New Razor, first shave, I'm sure something's wrong...

Got my razor back after Gentlemanzblade honed it for me, I'll have another try in the morning and report back. He did confirm that my razor was in fact not shave ready so that's good news for me in some way I guess. From here on out I can only blame my technique.

Just for the record if there's any Kiwi's reading this he also sells razors etc, not to mention that he actually knows what he's talking about unlike the only other razor shop I've visited. I know where I'll be getting my next razor from.

Being stubborn and obsessive is why I'm still here! its the two most important parts of learning straight shaving! but always take your time and technique is EVERYTHING in straight shaving. I've been going 18 months now and still consider myself a beginner, maybe intermediate at best, and I've read wiki's and articles on the web a million times over and I'm going to read them a million more. Keep looking at the wikis throughout the learning process so that it sticks in your head, and admit when somethings wrong, being stubborns good but it can sometimes blind you to yourself being at fault which is how I ended up being frustrated with either stropping technique or honing or something else that I was missing in my technique so many times.

but its fun, so I wouldn't change it for anythin'

regards Alex

Good luck for that shave after the rehone Eben! No shame in taking it slow the first few.

Anyway hope your DOVO performs now, would have offered to hone it for you had I seen the thread earlier.

EF

I guess I'm only just had my first shave now that the razor is sharp. I didn't strop it as I assumed it was most likely done after honing and just gave it a bit of a wash and had at it.

It's like night and day. It still pulls a bit but I suspect that's either because I have tough beard (which I didn't think was the case but it might be) or my technique.

I have to say my skin is sensitive at the moment so I might skip and day and suffer a heavy beard for a day. I did get much closer at some points than I ever have with any other means of shaving so that's a good start. I also did have to clean up with a cartridge razor afterwards but it didn't take much off since the shave was closer than it could get already.

Now that I know I've got the right setup I can just work on improving my skill. I did nick myself a few times but no worse that I'd do with a cartridge razor when I'm rushing things. I'll give the razor a good stropping and try again in a few days.

On a side note, when I was asking the older guys in the office about getting a straight razor honed people's interest piqued, seems a lot of people are rather fascinated by the art of straight razor shaving. The looks on their faces when I told them I've already shaved with it a few times is priceless, they seem to think that you'll cut your face off or something. Of course I don't correct them on the danger perception, it's entertaining...