So tell me......

[Lord Fatboy]

Use polish before sandpaper.

 

[Jakebullet]

My advice would be to avoid touching up with a DE razor. Make the shave you’ve done be the one you face the world with.
This little bit of advice will make you improve much quicker without a crutch, plus you will really be able to assess your shave properly afterwards.

 

[Matt O]

1. Don't buy zeepk products or anything out of china, really.
2. Except GD razors and decent-looking shaving brushes... but even those, not really (personal preference, not a knock against them).
3. Buy a semogue 1470 for your first brush and an Illinois 827 for your first strop
4. Buy the duosharp stand w/ F/EF plate, an EE and XC plate
5. Start buying vintage coticules that look hard, beat up and dirty, especially if unbacked, and never stop
6. Skip Jnats or listen to the Jnat guys and just trust a good seller to give you one + a tomo and then never buy any more, but don't pay more than $150-200 for the pair.
10. Never sell any quality finishing stones you haven't identified... you'll always miss them or regret it eventually.
11. Buy every single vintage washita and arkansas you see (they were stupidly cheap when I started shaving)
12. Move to Florida and stalk this guy named Tim... whenever he goes to a flea market, chloroform him and run in before him and buy all the good stones.
13. Buy a surplus 400x scope from a high school to check for pitting and other edge damage without using your face to test for it.
14. Don't waste money and time learning everything you can about soaps or trying every new soap that comes out... just stockpile vintage soaps and buy some Speick and wilk sword sticks.
15. Buy vintage razors in the 4/8-11/16th range with little wear that don't look buffed. They're cheap, usually in good condition, and all shave well letting you focus on getting scales in good shape.
16. On that note, undamaged bone/ivory > bakelite > horn > slick black > clear/cracked plastics in descending order of likelihood to not be bent/warped/loose/crappy if the pictures aren't great on eBay.
17. In general avoid the late-era tourist-trap Solingen razors, they tend to be soft and thin and pretty much destroyed by any moderate amount of pitting/age.

Number 14 is pretty good! I really like Ralph Lauren Safari, Old Spice, and seaforth. The more modern but now discontinued AOS with the tallow base is also one to stockpile!

Vr

Matt

 

[Twelvefret]

My advice would be to avoid touching up with a DE razor. Make the shave you’ve done be the one you face the world with.
This little bit of advice will make you improve much quicker without a crutch, plus you will really be able to assess your shave properly afterwards.

I'll take a bit of issue with the notion that a DE is a crutch and especially when learning. A DE can be used effectively to provide the initial bread reduction I refer to as the knock down pass.

A DE can also speed up the shave when we don't have a half hour to play around looking for every hair.

Multiple razors can also be a way to enjoy the full collection. For me, and YMMV, there is nothing about using another more familiar razor that's going to slow you down unless you're on some sort of schedule.

 

[kohalajohn]

I wish I had spent more time reading these forums before I made decisions and bought things.

I'd say keep reading. Always.

 

[Twelvefret]

I wish I had spent more time reading these forums before I made decisions and bought things.

I'd say keep reading. Always.

Yours is a common experience.

 

[Polarbeard]

I wish I had spent more time reading these forums before I made decisions and bought things.

I'd say keep reading. Always.

That's really good advice.