What was your 1st straight razor? (pictures welcome!)

[nicepatina]

I am a sentimental person, and I know that this straight will be with me till I die. I plan to get a kamisori and a vintage straight later, but I tend to have a hard time letting go of things that are my first. I am learning so much and having my first experiences on this little guy. It will hold a special place in my heart regardless of how many more I buy in the future.
1st honing and 1st peening job on this guy! Lol...why did I have to peen, stupid noob mistake thats why, but it was a success!..you can see the peen job on the tang side cause it's a bit thicker than the wedge side. But at least I know how to peen now.

My Ralf Aust 5/8

 

[Tomo]

Ralf Aust 5/8 in African Blackwood

This is how the madness started. The brush, razor and soap are gone but the bug remains.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

Japanese Derby Aiku

 

[rbscebu]

They say that you never forget your first and I haven't. We have been together for over three years now and still try to please each other every so often.

This Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 (older model with stabilisers) dressed in Madagascan mahogany scales was my first. It was also the one that I first put a shave-ready edge on. Then I was using lapping films only. Now it sports a diamond pasted balsa edge.

​

Over time this Titan became the evening razor of my first M7DS (now PIFed) and was engraved accordingly in Latin.

 

[ZeelandsRoem]

Hi all. This is my first post on this forum and I thank you all who shared information which helped many of us getting deeper and deeper into this hobby. I am a straight razor user for about 5 years, but I never managed to pull the trigger to create an account until now.

My first Razor was a 5/8 Boker Graf Everhardt. In fact, it was also my first straight razor shave as well as the razor where I started learning to hone. It is a fantastic razor, I love it to bits. However, nowadays it gets a bit less attention, mostly because my collection expanded quite a bit but also because later on I discovered I prefer a bit wider blades. But it still goes into my rotation sometimes, where I use it for a week or two.

And this is how it looks nowadays, after using it to shave daily for about two years, before I got deeper into the hobby (and thigs went quickly south):

 

[steveclarkus]

I bought my first straight razor in 1982 from one of those fancy soap stores and used it until stropping had no effect. This was long before the Internet and I ruined it trying to hone it. I later just salvaged the scales and tossed thee blade. It was a store branded 9/16 store branded Soligen.

 

[alex1921]

Dovo, Col. Conk 6/8.

 

[Wid]

Mine was a Waterville 5/8

 

[Gamma]

Westers 5/8 Gozeezy full hollow.

 

[lasta]

Wapienica

These don't seem to get mentioned much anymore, but used to be very popular around here and the Straight Razor Place.

 

[JPO]

My first straight razor was this Hart Steel 7/8.
It is still in service after more then ten years in use.
I also got a shobudani asagi with a nugura set and a latigo strop.
The bevel was already set, so my jnat covered my honing journey for a long time.
A simple badger brush, which was baught at the Taylor of Old Bond Street shop in London.
I also started with a Tobs shaving cream.
This is where the madness started. If I had stopped there I would actually have saved some

 

[Bosh Hog]

Here’s mine.

 

[Eastcoast30]

 

[Frank Shaves]

Dovo Carre.

 

[Legion]

Case Red Imp with "interesting" resin scales. I bought this first, but it is not the one I used to learn with. That was a 5/8 with a round tip, the brand of which I forget.

 

[PintoPlain]

I bid on 3 razors (below) that all ended within half an hour of each other. Two were from the same seller. I am unsure which one ended first, however the top two arrived form Germany in the same package.

This is a 5/8 Carl Grah and arrived with
A 5/8 makes "BOSCO". Both are Solingen razors.

The last razor I was outbid on which is why I bid on the two above, but apparently the winning bid was recanted, so I got it.
This is a 6/8 Thomas Turner & Co, cutlers to their majesties. I presume it's late 19th century but don't know much about it.

I learned to hone on the two Germans, and all are still regularly used.

 

[GeronimoWSB]

Dovo en vogue #105, holds an edge forever, used it probably 2 years as my only shaver before I had it honed. Only honed 2 times.

 

[Brutus]

Aust 5/8, round point, with plastic scales.
I guess you know how these look like, so there is hardly any need to post a picture.
It was supposed to be a low-cost experiment to see whether I liked and could master straight razor shaving.

For my first razor, I did not have the confidence to go the second-hand razor way and I never regretted it.
Austs are reasonably shave-ready, but I still had the razor professionally honed before shipping.

It became the razor that bore the brunt of my honing, stropping and shaving mistakes and is still an excellent razor today and I reminisce whenever I use it.

Fairly soon I moved to 6/8 razors and neglected 5/8 razors for a while until I realized that 5/8 is a near perfect size. Now it is the 7/8 plus sizes that are somewhat neglected.
Don’t see much reason to shave with a meat cleaver. I have nothing to prove…


B.

 

[nicepatina]

Aust 5/8, round point, with plastic scales.
I guess you know how these look like, so there is hardly any need to post a picture.
It was supposed to be a low-cost experiment to see whether I liked and could master straight razor shaving.

For my first razor, I did not have the confidence to go the second-hand razor way and I never regretted it.
Austs are reasonably shave-ready, but I still had the razor professionally honed before shipping.

It became the razor that bore the brunt of my honing, stropping and shaving mistakes and is still an excellent razor today and I reminisce whenever I use it.

Fairly soon I moved to 6/8 razors and neglected 5/8 razors for a while until I realized that 5/8 is a near perfect size. Now it is the 7/8 plus sizes that are somewhat neglected.
Don’t see much reason to shave with a meat cleaver. I have nothing to prove…


B.

Yeah I chose the 5/8 for my first because I had no reference. I dont have a full out beard. I just grow sorta a mustach and goatie area, so I am really intrigued with getting a shorter blade whether it's horizontally shorter like a kamisori or even a vertically shorter as in a 4/8. Although I heard it's a bit harder to keep a consistent angle of attack with vertically shorter blades but it would make access to that area by the nose so much easier for me.

 

[Brutus]

Yeah I chose the 5/8 for my first because I had no reference. I dont have a full out beard. I just grow sorta a mustach and goatie area, so I am really intrigued with getting a shorter blade whether it's horizontally shorter like a kamisori or even a vertically shorter as in a 4/8. Although I heard it's a bit harder to keep a consistent angle of attack with vertically shorter blades but it would make access to that area by the nose so much easier for me.

I have two 4/8 razors but don’t use them that often.
For me (moustached), the 5/8 to 13/16 range is my “core range”.

Much smaller and they don’t carry enough lather away, much bigger and they become more unwieldy.
I imagine for more elaborate moustache and goatie detailing work a 4/8 may come in handy, but to trim the edge of my moustache above size range works just fine.


B.