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Farmer Tan's Foray Into SR Shaving

I switch hands when using a straight, just because the military taught us how to do everything with either hand.

Make sure you keep your hands relatively dry, as smooth plastic handles tend to slip when you're just learning grips. Slice a body part or hit the edge on the sink, and you ruined your day.

Practice and patience, and have fun Dave :)
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
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So that was the gear for my FIRST OFFICIAL complete shave with a straight. Two or three weepers that disappeared once the Proraso sandalwood aftershave hit my face. @shavefan donated that to the cause quite a while ago. Just the perfect amount of burn. I love a burning face - reminds me of why I'm not allowed more than one beer, especially around gas grills.

That weird soup bowl thing I bought at a Goodwill store for a couple bucks, the brush was given me by @BudgetShaverGuy a while back. It was full of dried up vintage Old Spice from @Tanuki from not that long ago. BUT....I planned on just soaking it and having at it, and it would have been fine for me with a DE shave, but I decided to use the rarest cream I have, from ISRAEL! Yes, @Space_Cadet sent that to me, because I'm just that likeable, really. The other side of the tube says "Shaving Cream", seriously. In America we just have to guess, because we only know one language, and we can't read that one real well.

The razor: my great grampa's that @Herrenberg sent me back all sharp.

My takeaways:

I started on my left cheek and used my left hand to begin! I think I will keep this up.

ALL of the nicks came WITH MY RIGHT HAND!!! Reason: I got sloppy.

I did two passes, MOSTLY north to south. Which on my weird growth pattern equals all three directions.

Results: my face, about a half hour post shave feels like it would in the morning after I shaved with a DE razor at night and slept 6 hours.

My thoughts: I will keep doing this. I am a pitiful shadow of the man I once was, and derive an inordinate amount of pleasure from having a skill not many folks have anymore. So I WILL boast about this accomplishment to what few friends I have that aren't on B&B, because, truly, I am that pitiful.

As to learning to hone, etc: I CAN see me doing this, in winter months. (The background for the photos is my ugly woodburning furnace in my living room that is at present 77° Fahrenheit, while it is 34° outside.) So that proves I like to stay warm, and my lovely bride and I can only watch so much Hallmark movies in the winter.

Thank you all for helping me with my new obsession, Dave
 
Make sure you keep your hands relatively dry, as smooth plastic handles tend to slip when you're just learning grips. Slice a body part or hit the edge on the sink, and you ruined your day.

Having had my hands on this historic razor, and Googled it a bit, I can tell you that those scales are not plastic. They're real amber.

Doesn't change your advice much, but I was impressed when I found that out.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Having had my hands on this historic razor, and Googled it a bit, I can tell you that those scales are not plastic. They're real amber.

Doesn't change your advice much, but I was impressed when I found that out.
My friend: please share as much as you can! It just now hit me that POSSIBLY my great unkles as well as my great grampa used this blade! He worked for the railroad, but I believe ONLY from the station/depot, so I doubt this razor left Hazard, Kentucky until my mom brought it to me around 30 years ago.

Though my Great Grandfather and his family could travel the rails for FREE all over the country when he worked.

Remind me to tell you about the time my Great Unkle refused to wait for President Truman when he travelled to Wash DC!
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
This thread is great. I am following along eagerly. Little did I know that when I was learning to shave with a straight, and Farmer Tan was right there in the thread, cheering me on, that I would have a chance to be around for his debut someday.
How hard was it for you to learn? Tonight I learned that there is no shame in re-applying shave cream because it dried out because you are SLOOOOOWLY trying to learn a new skill and not slicing off your earlobe!
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Many recommend that you teach you non-dominant hand to SR shave as well as your dominant hand. I have not taken that recommendation (yet, with about 500 SR shaves under my belt) and get great shave just using my dominant hand. Don't sweat it, just do what you feel comfortable with.
Do you shave every day, and I presume you pretty much ONLY shave with a straight?

I ask because I think my face can handle it again tomorrow evening, and I believe it would help me to become more proficient more quickly.

All of you others please feel free to answer as well!!
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I shave every day and exclusively with a straight razor. The beauty of SR shaving is that with the correct blade angle to the skin (between ½ and 1 spine-thickness away, forget that 30° mentioned on a lot of YouTube videos) and the correct pressure (almost nil), there is no skin damage or irritation.

Remember, just shave to remove the lather. The whiskers will come with it.
 
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Do you shave every day, and I presume you pretty much ONLY shave with a straight?

I ask because I think my face can handle it again tomorrow evening, and I believe it would help me to become more proficient more quickly.

All of you others please feel free to answer as well!!
I shave every day, using only a straight. That's a head shave, neck shave, and defining the neck / cheek lines.
There's no harm in doing it daily, but I'm thinking you may want to use the straight every other day. Just until your skin gets used to this new method of shaving.

And yes, that Arko will make the straight razor shave more comfortable :cool:
 
Do you shave every day, and I presume you pretty much ONLY shave with a straight?

I shave daily, three full passes WTG, XTG, and ATG. I use GEM SE for GEMondays, but every other day is a straight. With a sharp and smooth edge it's so gentle on the skin that daily is no problem. (And yes, it's usually BBS all over or very nearly all over.)

I ever so gently and carefully stropped it on a flat piece of flannel a few strokes. Hope that was okay....

Ok? I suppose flannel will at least clean the edge, but probably not do much to smooth or improve the edge. Leather is the ticket there. Since it was freshly honed you should be ok for several shaves, but sooner or later it will start to degrade without a leather strop in use daily.
 
Lather for an SR shave is normally required to be noticeably wetter than that required for DE shaving. I also found that my normal shaving soap was not as well suited to SR shaving. Experiment with different lather hydrations and try some of the soaps that are more preferred by SR shavers (like Arko or Proraso).

Lapping film and diamond pasted balsa stropping should keep your cost of blade maintenance well within reason.
Personally i would change :
try some of the soaps that are more preferred by SR shavers (like Arko or Proraso)
to:
try some of the soaps that are more preferred by some SR shavers (like Arko or Proraso)

I find that they lack in both hydration and skin care.
 
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