It has begun. Well, it will have begun when Larry gets my order, and packs it up and mails it. THEN. Well, then I have to receive it. BUT AFTER THAT! Then it will have begun...
For the purposes of keeping all my newbie questions in one spot, here be this complete newb's shave diary.
I'm really looking forward to trying this. Without this site I never would have found out about Larry. I have wanted to try straight razor shaving for *years*, and always found the several hundred dollar and up 'starter kits' floating around out there. I guess I was never vigilant enough in my searches before!
I'm most worried about maintaining the edge on the blade. Stropping and honing are entirely new to me. Thanks to some reading around here, I'm familiar with what they're supposed to achieve, but never having gone through the motions it's gives me the jitters thinking about trying to not ruin a) the razor, b) the strop, c) my hand, or d) all of the above.
My facial hair grows thick in quantity but the hair itself is only mildly thick. I don't burn through disposables at the rate some you do, so I'm hoping that with care stropping I can put off buying the a hone for a while. That way when I do buy it can be a nicely sized hone for edge maintenance. Assuming I don't kill myself or just hate straight razor shaving from top to bottom. With shaving daily/every other day, at what point do you folks think a hone will become required?
Van Der Hagen and Williams soap and a VDH boar brush are the tools at my disposal right now. I've got the luxury VDH kit from Amazon.com coming, mostly for the mug and so I could compare a badger brush to the boar brush. Williams is right out as a soap, for me. After reading the how-to in the wiki I can finally get an OK lather from it regularly, but it's just too much work compared to the VDH. We do have hard water here, and I read that can be part of it. I'll probably come back to it after a few months on the VDH and see if my technique has improved to the point where it's easy to lather up.
Perhaps this is more 'diary' than you folks wanted. Man I'm a long-winded little git, ain't I
For the purposes of keeping all my newbie questions in one spot, here be this complete newb's shave diary.
I'm really looking forward to trying this. Without this site I never would have found out about Larry. I have wanted to try straight razor shaving for *years*, and always found the several hundred dollar and up 'starter kits' floating around out there. I guess I was never vigilant enough in my searches before!
I'm most worried about maintaining the edge on the blade. Stropping and honing are entirely new to me. Thanks to some reading around here, I'm familiar with what they're supposed to achieve, but never having gone through the motions it's gives me the jitters thinking about trying to not ruin a) the razor, b) the strop, c) my hand, or d) all of the above.
My facial hair grows thick in quantity but the hair itself is only mildly thick. I don't burn through disposables at the rate some you do, so I'm hoping that with care stropping I can put off buying the a hone for a while. That way when I do buy it can be a nicely sized hone for edge maintenance. Assuming I don't kill myself or just hate straight razor shaving from top to bottom. With shaving daily/every other day, at what point do you folks think a hone will become required?
Van Der Hagen and Williams soap and a VDH boar brush are the tools at my disposal right now. I've got the luxury VDH kit from Amazon.com coming, mostly for the mug and so I could compare a badger brush to the boar brush. Williams is right out as a soap, for me. After reading the how-to in the wiki I can finally get an OK lather from it regularly, but it's just too much work compared to the VDH. We do have hard water here, and I read that can be part of it. I'll probably come back to it after a few months on the VDH and see if my technique has improved to the point where it's easy to lather up.
Perhaps this is more 'diary' than you folks wanted. Man I'm a long-winded little git, ain't I