68 Year Old SR Rookie

[Koop]

Well, I jumped in head first. I received my Ralf Aust 5/8 straight razor today. After a shower I lathered up and gave it a go. I've read a lot here at B&B and watched countless YouTube vids to get an idea where to start. Angle and pressure were the first learnings - finding the sweet spot involved a couple of nicks. Nothing a dab with a styptic couldn't solve.

When I got it right I could hear the razor sing as it cut the whiskers. My throat was the biggest problem area. I did two passes, one WTG and lathered up for second XTG. My cheeks feel pretty good - the throat area is a bit rough. I usually have a closer shave than this with a cartridge, but I've been doing that for over 50 years. This is day one and I'll only get better from here.

Cheers.

 

[Wid]

Congrats. Has your razor been professionally honed?

 

[martym]

Congratulations
Take your time and enjoy it!

 

[Seelector]

Sounds like your first shave went great! And yes they will only get better from here.

Sounds like the edge was in good condition which is the most important thing. Do you have a strop? You’ll need that and a way to keep your edge going.

 

[silverlifter]

Welcome Koop! Congrats on making the jump to straight shaving; your only regret is likely to be you didn't dive in sooner!
And welcome to B&B!

 

[Koop]

Thanks for the welcoming replies. The edge was straight out of the box. I bought it from Razor Emporium - I know there are some on this forum that aren't too fond of that store, but they're local to me and I had to start somewhere. I have a couple of board mounted strops - one with compound on both sides, the other with suede on one side and hard, clean leather on the other.

I've been a Japanese kitchen knife enthusiast for a while and have a lot of experience sharpening kitchen knives. I also have an assortment of synthetic and natural stones. I think I'll pick up razor honing pretty quickly. I have a linen strop on order. Today after shaving and drying my razor I did a couple of light stropping passes on cardboard.

 

[Koop]

Also, I added a year to my age somehow - I'm actually a 67 year old rookie.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Yes, welcome! Not bad for your first time out.

 

[David]

You shaved off a year on your first shave. Not too shabby!

 

[mcee_sharp]

Welcome, I'm new to the SR front as well, and right there with you using YT as a reference. I watched about 30 minutes of various people honing razors today!

Enjoy!

 

[captaincaed]

Way to go brother!

I made the transition from sharpening cultery to razors a couple years ago and found some speed bumps. Many were ironed out with a couple relatively inexpensive equipment upgrades. Sounds like you're doing your research well, but if you ever want to chat about the paradigm shift, I'm always game. Not an expert yet! But I found a few easy pitfalls to avoid.

 

[ChriWilson]

Well, I jumped in head first. I received my Ralf Aust 5/8 straight razor today. After a shower I lathered up and gave it a go. I've read a lot here at B&B and watched countless YouTube vids to get an idea where to start. Angle and pressure were the first learnings - finding the sweet spot involved a couple of nicks. Nothing a dab with a styptic couldn't solve.

When I got it right I could hear the razor sing as it cut the whiskers. My throat was the biggest problem area. I did two passes, one WTG and lathered up for second XTG. My cheeks feel pretty good - the throat area is a bit rough. I usually have a closer shave than this with a cartridge, but I've been doing that for over 50 years. This is day one and I'll only get better from here.

Cheers.

Welcome Koop !
Great choice to learn and solidify your techniques with.
I picked up a 6/8 wrapped in blond horn scales direct from Ralf while I was in London.

Welcome Koop! Congrats on making the jump to straight shaving; your only regret is likely to be you didn't dive in sooner!
And welcome to B&B!

Very much so. Looking back almost 2y ago - better late than never...

 

[Christian1212]

One thing important to know as a knife guy getting into straights, make sure your stones are as flat as you can get them for the razor. Other important stuff but feel like that gets forgotten about sometimes. Paste on a strop will keep things rolling for awhile though.

Cheers and welcome

 

[Koop]

Thanks for all of the advice and encouragment. I keep my stones flat with a flattening stone or a diamond lapping plate, depending on the stone in question.

 

[captaincaed]

One thing that helped me more than anything was getting stones designed for polishing more than toothiness, which I normally like in knives. It’s really hard to polish a razor bevel coming from something like a JKI 2k or 4k soaker. Really deep scratches that are a bear to work out (it took a 1.5k Shapton to work out JKI 4k scratches, really).

Shaptons and Naniwas were the easy button.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Once you have a keen razor, it’s all about stropping. You will need to strop daily before and after shaving on a quality strop. Linen will clean and dry the edge post shave and can add a bit of keenness and polish, depending on the linen type and weave, and plain leather will straighten the edge and provide the final polish before the edge touches your face.

Stropping razors is way, way under rated.

You can/may be able to strop your razors on strops used to deburr knives, but as I said you want to final polish on as pristine surface as possible. If your paddle strops were used on knives, they are likely loaded with steel.

A quality beginners strop start at around $50. Check out Tony Miller, he is a member here and quality strop maker.

The difference between sharpening knives and honing razors is honing in comfort, sharp is easy.

Welcome, you are at the right place.

 

[Eric_75]

Welcome to B & B!

 

[Sideburns]

Also, I added a year to my age somehow - I'm actually a 67 year old rookie.

Well, you're not the oldest rookie here. I'm 74 and I started using a SR in January.

 

[Kyle89]

This is day one and I'll only get better from here.

Sums up the experience! Welcome to the dark side.

 

[Steve56]

Congrats and welcome!