Good Evening (at the time of writing anyhow),
Newb Checking In.
Dave here.
DISCLAIMER:
I am the absolute King of TL;DR. I'm used to it. I apologize in advance. It's just how I am.
_________
Ultra TL;DR Paraphrase:
-From Scarborough, ON
-New to Wet Shaving in practice as of Jan 2016.
-Tried a DE Safety, but prefer a straight (based on around 20 total shaves, straight and DE...I know...nothing)
-Very excited and enthusiastic
-All in: Shaving, Honing, Restoration....
-Some good shaves so far, some face mangling has occurred.
-Will learn, practice and continue.
_________
I am from Scabrorough, Ontario originally (I still haven't caved and gone with 'a suburb of the Greater Toronto Area'). I've lived in Nova Scotia for a touch over a year and a half now, and am totally enjoying the fresh seafood and countryside adventures.
Even before I started looking into Wet Shaving I disliked cartridge razors. So, nigh on 8 years ago I bought myself a Rolls Royce (Panasonic) 13000 RPM linear motor beast of an electric razor that came with it's own self cleaning base station (blow dryer included!!). All the bells and whistles. It's Wet/Dry, uses creams/gels or not, deployable styling trimmer...the works. It's amortized at less than $65/year to date, and the longer it gets used, the lower that number goes. That's including detergent cartridge refills and one extra foil. I still haven't had to replace the blades yet (and probably won't, for those that don't know, on electrics it's the foil that cuts the hair. The blade agitates the hairs onto the foils.
Aside the point, I didn't run into Badger & Blade until a few months ago when I decided I wanted to change up my shave.
So...enter research. I had originally decided on a DE Safety Razor set up. I got a Merkur Futur (Satin), some Feather Blades, a in house brush from one of the big online Canadian Wet Shaving retailers and went from there.
Got a pure badger brush, apothecary bowl, a small selection of the cheaper soaps and a Proasso cream.
Watched "the videos" on YouTube, browsed all the forums, you know...the standard Newb thing in the Age of Information.
So...had a couple decent shaves, mangled my face a couple times...chalked it up to learning curve.
But then...I got some cash from my folks for Christmas. I'd driven from Halifax to Scarborough with the Wife for the holidays. I'd told my mom about my new found interest in Wet Shaving. So I also ended up with a Henri et Victoria High Silvertip White Mountain Badger brush...which is WAY better than what I did/would buy myself.
Anyhow...I decided why not, get a straight razor. I wasn't liking the DE that much anyways. And I've also loved knives in general. Knives....swords....any and all functional blades, the nicer the steel the better. It was years ago now that I decided I wasn't going to buy another 440C/HC knife again. VG10, S30V, 3G etc....
Ordered a Dovo 6/8 Best Quality, Illinois 827 strop, Naniwa 12k stone and a couple other bits.
I'll take a quick aside to mention that I've been honing knives since I was 17. And I phrase it as such because I was mucking about with Arkansas stones for a few years before that. At 17 I bought my water stones from Lee Valley. I acquired and learned the 800, 1200, 4000 and 8000. Fairly recently I purchased a flattening stone and a Norton 220 as well.
On my Christmas road trip to Scarborough, I managed to pick up 3 vintage straight razors in Kingston, ON at an Antique Shop. I've already pulled the scales and taken wet/dry sandpaper to them. I've also grabbed a cheap set of plastic scales from another online store that sells a kit with cheap scales and a set of pins and washers.
So...I've at this point:
-mangled my face with a DE Safety Razor (total of 9 or so shaves)
-acquired 1 new and 3 vintage straight razors
-have utterly mangled the restoration of 1 straight razor. (my pins are horrid, it's not centered properly at all, BUT...it shaved comfortably on it's first try)
-have honed 1 new and 1 'restored' straight razor
-shaved every day last week, 2 weekends and today with straight razors (and still somewhat mangled my face, but much more satisfyingly than with a Safety razor...not to say I've given up on DE Safety razors, but I KNOW I love straights.)
-I know I dislike stropping. (More enjoyment will probably come with more practice, but I'm totally going to go the route of a Shapton 16k to leather and skip the pastes...again, at least for now)
All in all, I'm having a blast. I've been hyper-researching for a few months now and I assimilate information pretty well.
I'll leave off for now, because I could honestly just go on and on, but I'm here...I'll keep on reading the forums and when I find something to contribute to...well...obviously I'm not shy.
Dave
Newb Checking In.
Dave here.
DISCLAIMER:
I am the absolute King of TL;DR. I'm used to it. I apologize in advance. It's just how I am.
_________
Ultra TL;DR Paraphrase:
-From Scarborough, ON
-New to Wet Shaving in practice as of Jan 2016.
-Tried a DE Safety, but prefer a straight (based on around 20 total shaves, straight and DE...I know...nothing)
-Very excited and enthusiastic
-All in: Shaving, Honing, Restoration....
-Some good shaves so far, some face mangling has occurred.
-Will learn, practice and continue.
_________
I am from Scabrorough, Ontario originally (I still haven't caved and gone with 'a suburb of the Greater Toronto Area'). I've lived in Nova Scotia for a touch over a year and a half now, and am totally enjoying the fresh seafood and countryside adventures.
Even before I started looking into Wet Shaving I disliked cartridge razors. So, nigh on 8 years ago I bought myself a Rolls Royce (Panasonic) 13000 RPM linear motor beast of an electric razor that came with it's own self cleaning base station (blow dryer included!!). All the bells and whistles. It's Wet/Dry, uses creams/gels or not, deployable styling trimmer...the works. It's amortized at less than $65/year to date, and the longer it gets used, the lower that number goes. That's including detergent cartridge refills and one extra foil. I still haven't had to replace the blades yet (and probably won't, for those that don't know, on electrics it's the foil that cuts the hair. The blade agitates the hairs onto the foils.
Aside the point, I didn't run into Badger & Blade until a few months ago when I decided I wanted to change up my shave.
So...enter research. I had originally decided on a DE Safety Razor set up. I got a Merkur Futur (Satin), some Feather Blades, a in house brush from one of the big online Canadian Wet Shaving retailers and went from there.
Got a pure badger brush, apothecary bowl, a small selection of the cheaper soaps and a Proasso cream.
Watched "the videos" on YouTube, browsed all the forums, you know...the standard Newb thing in the Age of Information.
So...had a couple decent shaves, mangled my face a couple times...chalked it up to learning curve.
But then...I got some cash from my folks for Christmas. I'd driven from Halifax to Scarborough with the Wife for the holidays. I'd told my mom about my new found interest in Wet Shaving. So I also ended up with a Henri et Victoria High Silvertip White Mountain Badger brush...which is WAY better than what I did/would buy myself.
Anyhow...I decided why not, get a straight razor. I wasn't liking the DE that much anyways. And I've also loved knives in general. Knives....swords....any and all functional blades, the nicer the steel the better. It was years ago now that I decided I wasn't going to buy another 440C/HC knife again. VG10, S30V, 3G etc....
Ordered a Dovo 6/8 Best Quality, Illinois 827 strop, Naniwa 12k stone and a couple other bits.
I'll take a quick aside to mention that I've been honing knives since I was 17. And I phrase it as such because I was mucking about with Arkansas stones for a few years before that. At 17 I bought my water stones from Lee Valley. I acquired and learned the 800, 1200, 4000 and 8000. Fairly recently I purchased a flattening stone and a Norton 220 as well.
On my Christmas road trip to Scarborough, I managed to pick up 3 vintage straight razors in Kingston, ON at an Antique Shop. I've already pulled the scales and taken wet/dry sandpaper to them. I've also grabbed a cheap set of plastic scales from another online store that sells a kit with cheap scales and a set of pins and washers.
So...I've at this point:
-mangled my face with a DE Safety Razor (total of 9 or so shaves)
-acquired 1 new and 3 vintage straight razors
-have utterly mangled the restoration of 1 straight razor. (my pins are horrid, it's not centered properly at all, BUT...it shaved comfortably on it's first try)
-have honed 1 new and 1 'restored' straight razor
-shaved every day last week, 2 weekends and today with straight razors (and still somewhat mangled my face, but much more satisfyingly than with a Safety razor...not to say I've given up on DE Safety razors, but I KNOW I love straights.)
-I know I dislike stropping. (More enjoyment will probably come with more practice, but I'm totally going to go the route of a Shapton 16k to leather and skip the pastes...again, at least for now)
All in all, I'm having a blast. I've been hyper-researching for a few months now and I assimilate information pretty well.
I'll leave off for now, because I could honestly just go on and on, but I'm here...I'll keep on reading the forums and when I find something to contribute to...well...obviously I'm not shy.
Dave
