I made a joyful return to SR shaving this weekend. (Sorry, this got long winded. Chalk it up to 10 years of not posting)
A quick back-story: I started shaving around 40 years ago when Dad gave me an Atra razor and told me to “shave the ridiculous peach fuzz off my upper lip”. For 30 years I continued shaving the way Dad did with a puck of Williams soap in an old coffee mug and whatever cartridge razor I could get blades for at the time.
My grandfather was a barber, and even my dad shaved with a straight razor until they took it away from him when he entered boot camp. I got nostalgic about a decade ago and decided to see if I could shave with one of Grandpa’s old razors. That is when I found B&B.
I learned how to SR shave, but I also discovered DE and SE razors, and that became my go-to. With young kids, and a hectic morning schedule, I wasn’t willing to make time for a daily SR shave. Occasionally, when I have some time off, I’ll go a few days without shaving. Then I’ll break out the SR, but at a couple of times a year, I don’t do it often enough to become really good at it. I’ve also never had one professionally honed, so I’ve always wondered how good my edge really was.
I also dropped off B&B for a decade and have been happily shaving with an old Gillette Long Comb New, and occasionally a GEM 1912 all that time. (I shave 6 days a week) Think about that, no new razors for 10 years...
Well, fast forward to a month ago, and someone talked me into the no-shave November thing. I have never gone more than 2 weeks without shaving in my adult life. It drove me nuts and caused me to think about shaving a lot. Since the only way to take off 12mm of hair in a shave was going to be with a SR, I decided to buy a new one from someone who could hone it properly just to see if I had been missing anything in edge quality.
Well, I bought a new Dovo from Christopher at shavesmith, and it came in just in time for me to mow off the month worth of growth. I can happily report a decent complete shave, and that the blade was quite a bit better than what I had done on my own.
This prompted me to break out the hones and have a go at my old razor. It is also a Dovo, but one I bought used so it was questionable when I got it. In the intervening years, I have also become a hobbyist knife maker (Long before FIF thank you very much) so I’ve learned a bit about edge geometry, and sharpening. With that new knowledge, I can see that the bevel of my old razor is a bit of a mess. I may need some help straightening it out, but that is for another post.
At any rate, I don’t think I’ll daily shave with the SR yet, but I’m planning that my weekend shave from this point on will be with a straight. It’s nice to be back…
A quick back-story: I started shaving around 40 years ago when Dad gave me an Atra razor and told me to “shave the ridiculous peach fuzz off my upper lip”. For 30 years I continued shaving the way Dad did with a puck of Williams soap in an old coffee mug and whatever cartridge razor I could get blades for at the time.
My grandfather was a barber, and even my dad shaved with a straight razor until they took it away from him when he entered boot camp. I got nostalgic about a decade ago and decided to see if I could shave with one of Grandpa’s old razors. That is when I found B&B.
I learned how to SR shave, but I also discovered DE and SE razors, and that became my go-to. With young kids, and a hectic morning schedule, I wasn’t willing to make time for a daily SR shave. Occasionally, when I have some time off, I’ll go a few days without shaving. Then I’ll break out the SR, but at a couple of times a year, I don’t do it often enough to become really good at it. I’ve also never had one professionally honed, so I’ve always wondered how good my edge really was.
I also dropped off B&B for a decade and have been happily shaving with an old Gillette Long Comb New, and occasionally a GEM 1912 all that time. (I shave 6 days a week) Think about that, no new razors for 10 years...
Well, fast forward to a month ago, and someone talked me into the no-shave November thing. I have never gone more than 2 weeks without shaving in my adult life. It drove me nuts and caused me to think about shaving a lot. Since the only way to take off 12mm of hair in a shave was going to be with a SR, I decided to buy a new one from someone who could hone it properly just to see if I had been missing anything in edge quality.
Well, I bought a new Dovo from Christopher at shavesmith, and it came in just in time for me to mow off the month worth of growth. I can happily report a decent complete shave, and that the blade was quite a bit better than what I had done on my own.
This prompted me to break out the hones and have a go at my old razor. It is also a Dovo, but one I bought used so it was questionable when I got it. In the intervening years, I have also become a hobbyist knife maker (Long before FIF thank you very much) so I’ve learned a bit about edge geometry, and sharpening. With that new knowledge, I can see that the bevel of my old razor is a bit of a mess. I may need some help straightening it out, but that is for another post.
At any rate, I don’t think I’ll daily shave with the SR yet, but I’m planning that my weekend shave from this point on will be with a straight. It’s nice to be back…