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My First Fleabay SR honing and shave !

Pretty excited to share this.

I've been eyeing SR shaving for some years now and took to a half DE blade shavette. It didn't quite go well , maybe blade sharpness was a bit too much.

I stepped up to a Feather AC wooden scales razor and the shaves and techniques improved a lot with both hands.

Finally hit fleabay and got the cheapest SR on sale where shipping cost me more than the blade itself. Careful analysis of the razor geometry after weeks of reading on forums about spine wear, frowning and chipped razors.

While I was at it, I also bought the most safe stone combos, DMT D8C, Norton 4k/8k, Naniwa 12k and poor man's strop kit from Larry at whipped dog.

I didn't buy a new razor and an expensive horse hide strop as I would knick it. Besides I decided to start off on a budget ;)

Watched several YouTube videos on honing a razor, and finishing it.

Used the following technique to hone (followed the Dr Matt video on a honing a fleabay razor)

1) Geometry of the razor is flat and not wobbly- checked out fine
2) put tape on the spine (Scotch super 88)
3) Drown and soak the Norton 4k/8k combo for 15 minutes
4) Lap the stones flat using the pencil marks- check
5) keep some slurry to cut fast except for finishing.
6) up and down almost 50 laps half strokes as shown by Dr. Matt in his video
7) similarly on 8k.
8) Checked under a loupe and the edge looked great!
9) finish on Naniwa 12k about a 10 or so laps.
10) The edge was straight, even and had some random scratch marks - not bad for a first time hone !

Moment of truth. I had about 6 days of growth on my face. (I have a goatee)

Lathered up Arko squeezed down in a Williams bicentennial mug with a Wild West Brushworks Synthetic knot.

Pass 1 : WTG
In my eagerness I forgot to strop the edge and did a first pass.

It felt as of the edge wasn't sharp enough to cut the thick growth. Disappointed!

But kept at it and realized it was not tugging at all, so perhaps it was the hair resistance. I could hear like biting in to a hard toast "crunch" as I placed the razor on a new area and the razor took off the growth with a scrapping toast sound. A but unnerving really.

End of first pass took off all that growth.

Pass 2: XTG -

Keep the SR flat on the face and lift spine very slightly.

Pass 3 :

Try various angles, skin stretching and face making to get to that stubble on the neck and under jawline.

I had to reapply lather on small spots as the lather dried up and I realized that the razor skipped if I tried to pass over same place again.

Shave done and a cold water rinse.

Alum time
ZERO feedback from Alum (this was a first as the DE shavette and feather AC blade razor gave me lot of irritation). Cold water rinse again.

Dickinson rose witch hazel splash.

Time to examine the skin.

Except for the area on both sides below ear lobe and down that line along the neck, I found the skin BBS and this was the best BBS I ever had from any razor !

90% of my face was clean and no sandpaper feel.

Wow ! I am hooked.

My first SR honing and shave went off very well with an unknown vintage German steel "Electroite" !


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Sent by the Shave Maharaja from my SM-A705GM using Tapatalk
 
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Wow! Well done!

Looks like you did your homework and made wise choices. If only all of us went the same way we could spare ourselves piles of money, and lots of frustration.

You made a good choice to buy stones that will serve you well for many years. The saying that to buy quality will make you cry once, to buy cheap will make you cry many times is true.

Once you have settled down, kick your game into "Turbo drive" by making diamond pasted balsa strops. You won't be sorry!
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Congratulations and welcome to the gentlemanly art of straight razor shaving. Don't forget that there are hundreds of different SR's to buy and experience.

You ain't experienced nothing yet. Wait until you get to about 30 SR shaves and then 100!
 
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Congratulations and welcome to the gentlemanly art of straight razor shaving. Don't forget that there are hundreds of different SR's to buy and experience.

You ain't experienced nothing yet. Wait until you get to about 30 SR shaves and then 100!
This makes me curious. How many SRs do members on this forum have really?

I've been browsing ebay and it is mind boggling.

Why do I think that I've just entered big league AD graduating from DE to SE to SRs / Hones / Strops. Damn !
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This makes me curious. How many SRs do members on this forum have really?
....
I'm down to 34 SR's now after whittling them down by giving some away. I do have another on its way to me.

I think that 31 SR's is a good round number to have so I have four more to pass on to the poor.
 
I'm down to 34 SR's now after whittling them down by giving some away. I do have another on its way to me.

I think that 31 SR's is a good round number to have so I have four more to pass on to the poor.

Ah "poor" me with just three odd razors. :lol:

Many more to go !
 
This makes me curious. How many SRs do members on this forum have really?

I've been browsing ebay and it is mind boggling.

Why do I think that I've just entered big league AD graduating from DE to SE to SRs / Hones / Strops. Damn !

I have maybe 30 something.....but I just gave away a couple to a friend so that he didn't try using his RSO anymore.

camo
 
I'm down to 34 SR's now after whittling them down by giving some away. I do have another on its way to me.

I think that 31 SR's is a good round number to have so I have four more to pass on to the poor.

Not sure about the formula for straights but with guitars and bicycles (and possibly motorbikes) the formula for the optimum number that you should own is n + 1. With n being the current amount that you own.

GAS is a definite malady (guitar acquisition syndrome) - probably very similar RAD

cheers
Andrew
 
Not sure about the formula for straights but with guitars and bicycles (and possibly motorbikes) the formula for the optimum number that you should own is n + 1. With n being the current amount that you own.

GAS is a definite malady (guitar acquisition syndrome) - probably very similar RAD

cheers
Andrew

N+1 sounds like a good way to go !
 
So it turns out that if you line a 36" shelf with heavy felt, and you take all your straight razors out of their boxes, and put them directly on the felt, it looks as though you don't really have that many straight razors.

Also, there are gaps on the shelf. I wonder what to do about that?
 
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