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What do you need help with?

What to look for in a used or "vintage" razor. I'm doing a lot of reading in the wiki threads here. I can spot a horrible blade now, e.g. bad bevel (smile, frown, plain uneven grind, etc). Anything less than horrible or horribly obvious, I don't trust myself to spot yet. Doing a lot of "watch"ing on the bay to see which razor sells for what then try to figure out why.

I do know I will eventually want to not only learn how to shave properly but also be able to maintain my razor myself. Soon, I'll start studying the Method.
 
Ok I can help. Why don’t we switch to private messages abd when you see something you like send me the link and I’ll give you my opinion of it. Your welcome to email me as well.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I may take you up on that extremely generous offer, sir.

Slash, I'm using a Merkur 3 piece DE, not sure of the model but it has a longer handle and closed comb(Feather blade). I use a brush in a metal shave bowl that I preheat with hot water (also soaking my brush in it). I've been bouncing back and forth between cremes and soaps, tending more towards soap. It just seems to last longer in my dopp kit. Most days I shave WTG then XTG and call it good. When I'm home, off the road, I may add a ATG pass for my wife's sake.

Started out wet shaving in the mid to late 70s with dad's hand me down Gillette DE. Came back to it for the usual reasons: save money long term, face and neck irritation no matter what I tried. Once I found out that it was the store bought goop and the multiple blade monstrosity lurking in my kit causing the problem instead of being the solution, I pitched all that and here I am.

You are halfway there, then. Beware ultra cheap Chinese strops. Most are utterly useless. Look for seller "thexbay" on ebay for a strop. He has two models. Get the bigger one, 2-1/2" wide. $8.88 is a crazy low price for a usable beginner strop. BST for a razor. The good deals don't last so be ready to pounce. There are threads and threads about buying razors on fleabay. There are a few gems among the lemons. You just got to know how to pick them.

Keep participating! Stay in the loop, check in here every day. Sometimes somebody will PIF a razor or two. If you already have a strop, you might get lucky and win a PIF.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
I’ll pif @slim6596 a razor, send me a mailing address. It will have a jnat edge on it, so when it gets dull, which could be fairly quickly learning to shave and strop, have Scott put a coti edge on it. You’ll get to try two different classic edges.

Get a beginner’s strop or a poor man’s strop from Tony Miller. You could also just get a piece of leather from Tandy and lay it in the edge of a table and use it like a paddle strop.
 
I’ll pif @slim6596 a razor, send me a mailing address. It will have a jnat edge on it, so when it gets dull, which could be fairly quickly learning to shave and strop, have Scott put a coti edge on it. You’ll get to try two different classic edges.

Get a beginner’s strop or a poor man’s strop from Tony Miller. You could also just get a piece of leather from Tandy and lay it in the edge of a table and use it like a paddle strop.
......wow. I feel like a kid looking forward to Christmas now.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
The 1996 in this thread is boxed and ready to go to Tony. Might as well spread the ugly around! But it does shave well. I’ll PM a tracking number after I get to the PO Tony.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
It’s on the way Tony, should be there Saturday but First Class has been speedy so you may see it in Friday.

Don’t do anything to it, just shave with it the first time. I touched up the edge and stropped it so it’s ready to go. The upsweep at the toe is probably a good thing for you, it will make it shave a little milder especially on your neck and make it more difficult for the toe to give you a little ‘love bite’.

Lather needs to be wet. You don’t need cushion or glide, just slick, so just short of dripping off your face works with most good SR soaps. When you’re learning straight razor shaving, sometimes the lather can start drying out because it takes a while to get to the other side of your face. Re-lather it and keep it wet.

Keep the blade angle low, almost flat on your face. The razor should basically just slide across your skin.

Keep the pressure light. A straight razor is the only edged tool that pushing harder does not produce better results.

Get a good stretch of the skin, it needs to be taut.

If you do this, wet lather, good stretch, low angle, light pressure, and sharp razor, it’s almost impossible to cut yourself. Anything that causes the razor to stick or hang will increase the chance of a cut.

Welcome to the Straight Razor Club! You’ll note that we do not talk about nicks or weepers in the SR threads. Once you learn how to shave properly with a straight, those are things of the past for the most part.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
First order of business: leather strop. Next: gauze and tourniquets.

😂

Tell ya what... I think I might have a super cheap third world excuse for a strop that I can send you. No charge. If you insist, you can paypal me whatever the shipping comes to be, if you are too proud to just say yes please, thank you. I can't ship today but maybe day after tomorrow I can get it out the door. Unless of course you have already ordered the $8.88 special from thexbay, which will actually be a slightly better strop than the one I am thinking to send. Another option is to wait until late next week when I hope to have a batch of newbie strops ready to sell cheap. Slightly better than thexbay's mighty Pakistani special. Other options are the Illinois brand strops which are fairly cheap, or fellow member and stropmeister par excellants Tony Miller's entry level strops, (he also makes some very nice ones, something to keep in mind when it is time to upgrade) or Larry's "Poor Man" strop, from www.whippeddog.com, which has been the first strop of many members here. One way or the other, you should get the ball rolling on a cheap or free strop ASAP so you can continue to shave with Steve's generously PIF-ed razor.

Meanwhile I hope you are absorbing all the youtube straight shaving vids and newbie threads on this forum. But if I can offer just a bit of advice pre-emptively, keep your shave angle low. Here is how low. Press the razor flat against your cheek, both edge and spine together. Now tilt the spine out away from your face slightly. The gap between your face and the razor's spine should be about equal to the spine thickness. If the razor is extremely horror movie grade crazy sharp, tilt it out even less. (or with a shavette.) If the angle is too tight, the razor might not shave. If it is too loose, you are not shaving; you are scraping. Don't scrape. You are not trying to make rawhide. If it won't shave at one spine thickness, then either you are doing something strangely wrong, or the razor simply isn't sharp. NEVER go past one and a half spine thicknesses. Your face will hate you for that. I have complete confidence that Steve's edge will be up to the task. So keep that shave angle nice and tight. Light pressure, short strokes, skin well stretched, whiskers fully hydrated and coated in nice slippery lather. Just go one WTG pass for your first shave. Don't try, DO NOT try to get a close shave. Just survive the experience. Blood sacrifice is not necessary. Shave the lather, don't even think about the whiskers. Next attempt, if you had zero cuts the first time at bat, go two WTG passes. This is a good beginner shave. Don't even think about ATG for a while. Not needed, and you will either cut yourself, scrape yourself raw, or both. After a month of shaves, if you still feel like chasing the BBS dragon, go for it.
 
Oh for heaven sake, you guys are the best. Yes, please and thank you, Slash on the freebie strop.

"scrape your face" That's what my daughter called shaving when she was little. As in, "Daddy! You need to scrape your face!"
 
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