Knick's Shave Journal

[webflunkie]

So, I decided to make the move from DE to Straight razor shaving, and purchased a Whipped Dog Sight Unseen deal with poor man's strop, etc.
My stuff came in today from Larry & Co. Below are two pictures of my razor.



Anyone know anything about this particular razor? It would be cool to find out additional info about it. The only marking is "Brillant Cutlery Co" with Germany below that as can be seen in the first image.
My first step into shaving with this setup will be Friday, I've got the day off and can take my time and work through what is likely a good fear of this sharp blade.

I've been doing some reading, and viewing youtube videos. Hopefully, I'm not at info overload and can when it comes time remember the basics of what I've read.

 

[webflunkie]

So I tried my hand at my first straight razor shave today, prep was as follows:

• Shower
• Hot Damp Towel (x2)
• Conditioner
• Hot Damp Towel
• Lather

Being a southpaw, I started with the razor in my left hand stumbling a moment trying to figure out how to hold it. Then I began shaving my left cheek, stretching the skin from above with my right hand as I had seen in so many videos, and read about in other posts. A few moments later I was starting to calm down a bit and enjoy the process as I was finishing with my left cheek. At this point I had successfully rinsed the blade a couple of times without trouble. Next was my right cheek, I was trying to figure out if I should use my right hand on my right cheek or continue with my left. I settled on continuing with my left hand. I started shaving my right cheek and that's when it happened, as I was rinsing the blade the I heard a little ping I quickly withdrew the blade and to my horror had dinged the edge.



The ding is about a 1/4 of an inch away from the edge of the blade. Considering my current resources, poor man's strop kit, is this something I can remedy or something I'll need to have honed out by someone much more skilled than I?


Other than the attack faucet I did enjoy shaving with the Straight Razor and want to continue learning to do so, after fixing the edge.

 

[webflunkie]

Ok, sorry about the lack of updates. I decided to send my razor out to get re-honed. I got it back today, huge thanks to Raithskar for the honing! This week starting off with Labor Day makes it an already short week, but to make it even shorter I have Friday off. My wife and I will be finding out the gender of the new addition to our family. So, I'm trying to plan out my next attempt with the straight, trying to decide if it'll be Friday morning to force me to slow down or if my excitement might cause me to make a stupid mistake. I'll update with my decision later.

 

[sgtd]

Congrats on your journey into straights and fatherhood!

 

[Raithskar]

You are most welcome Knick. Let us know how it does. I hope you enjoy it!

 

[webflunkie]

So I finally decided to give it a try tonight. I completed my first full shave with the straight razor tonight and I've got to say it went pretty well. A small amount of razor burn on the right side of my neck near my adam's apple (this area is prone to razor burn anyway), and a tine cut below my left nostril due to a newbie mistake mainly that I didn't properly control the direction of the blade.

So my prep was as follows:

Warm Damp Towel on Face
Lather with my Col Conk Bay Rum

Honestly I think my prep was a bit lacking and could've been better, but overall my shave experience didn't seem to suffer from it. I'm going to break my shave down into areas of the face and grade each area:

Cheeks: DFS
Upper Lip: DFS
Just below the Lip (soul patch area): DFS
Corners of the Mouth: SAS
Jawline (not counting chin): SAS to DFS
Chin: SAS to nearly SAS

So the overall grade I would think would be a good SAS to a low grade DFS.
But this being my first full go at it with just the straight, 1 pass with a little bit of clean up, I feel I did a pretty good job. It certainly could have been much worse with a lot more blood letting, but maybe that comes later as I become more complacent. But hopefully that doesn't happen. I look forward to becoming more proficient with the straight razor as time passes.

Congrats on your journey into straights and fatherhood!

Thanks! Wife and I found out we're having a daughter. And I've recently been able to feel her move, such an awesome feeling.

 

[Raithskar]

I've recently been able to feel her move, such an awesome feeling.

It is the best!

 

[webflunkie]

Finally had the time for a second shave with the straight, it went more quickly than the first one. Not only was it a little faster, it also seemed a little easier. As a lefty I'm still trying to get used to using my right hand during the shave. But I am trying to train myself to use both hands. Prep was similar to previous preps, I cut myself slightly on the right corner of my mouth, nothing major though. Looking forward to my next shave with the straight, which I plan on doing tomorrow. I'm still having a little bit of trouble with my chin, seems to be a tough spot to get used to doing with the straight.

 

[Raithskar]

hang in there Knick. It gets easier and the shaves get closer the more you shave with a straight.

 

[webflunkie]

hang in there Knick. It gets easier and the shaves get closer the more you shave with a straight.

Thanks Jon! I'm definitely in this for the long haul. And I am determined to get it.

Just did another shave tonight, still having a bit of trouble with my upper lip and the underside of my chin. But I definitely feel I achieved a DFS tonight, and I look forward toy next shave.

Oh just before going to shave I jokingly said to SWMBO, "time to try and avoid a trip to the ER"

Edit: I just realized, list night's shave was the first one without any nicks or cuts, which I personally think is a huge success!

 

[webflunkie]

Another shave last night with the straight razor. I changed out my usual shave soap (Col Conk Bay Rum) for C/O Bigelo shave cream. It had been a little while since using the shave cream and I had forgotten the nice feeling of the menthol. Overall it was a nice shave, I'm still having trouble with the area on the chin at the jawline and just under the jawline. I'm going to try and watch a few videos to see if I can get some pointers for this area. Does anyone happen to have any pointers for this area of the face?

 

[Raithskar]

I personally think is a huge success!

Indeed it is. I still get the occasional cut or weeper, just going to happen with an open blade.

 

[Anonymous]

A successful blood free shave with a straight razor is one of the best feelings in the world; you deserve to feel proud for accomplishing that. One thing though, how many passes are you doing? You mentioned that you did a single pass on an earlier post, are you still doing this? I stuck to two WTG passes for my first 30 shaves in order to get a feel for the straight before trying anything fancier. I found that this practice gave me consistently presentable shaves and when I was able to get about 10 shaves in a row without cuts or irritation I moved up to adding an XTG pass. Amusingly though, I cut myself 5 times on my second attempt at shaving XTG, haha.