Monday is the Day

Ok Guys, I have my very first razor coming Saturday from a B&B Member and it's a shave ready one along with a strop kit and I have set Monday as the day for the first shave, the strop supposed to be a leather/canvas one along with a balsa wood one with a paste on it, I think chromium oxide. I have read and read and watched vids until the cows have come home and still am going to have questions but for now here are a few.

1. I assume that I can use the razor right out of the box since its shave ready ?

2. After I am done doing my first shave or at least doing partial one say the sideburn area and maybe the flats of my cheek area until I get comfortable with it what am I supposed to do after my fist shave besides clean it up, from what I have read some guys will strop after use so the next time it's all ready to go and some will wait until it's time for the shave so does it matter ?

3. From my limited knowledge I am supposed to strop 25 or so strokes with the canvas then 50-60 with the leather and the pasted balsa is used after 8-10 shaves then the cotton and leather ?

4. Honing is something I know will need to be done but the big question is when and how difficult is it to do for a newb ?

Please pardon my stupid questions but I want to learn how to properly care for this razor even though it's a very inexpensive one, I have several DE/SE vintage razors that are in good + to excellent condition that are used everyday and I do baby them and my plan is to do the same with this one even though the cost is low, I figure it will serve as an excellent tool to teach me and if it's something I intend to pursue I can step up my game later and get a vintage razor and better quality hanging strop along with some stones and PIF my starter set.

Thanks

-Will

The only member that I wouldn't trust as being able to provide a shave ready edge, assuming the said it was shave ready...... is ME!

Don't strop before your first shave, and just go WTG on the cheeks until the razor feels comfortable. Only you will know how many shaves that is. Then add in the WTG on the neck, but be careful for the weird growth patterns or you could be ATG there too soon.

After each shave, I strop 15-20 on linen (or whatever your non-leather component is. canvas for you) and the 50-70 on leather.

When it comes to the paste, strop 3-5 times once a week, or if the edge feel like it's getting dull. Then ... and this is important..... wipe your razor clean with some TP or paper towel. This stops your paste from contaniminating your strop. Then strop normally.

Honing is an adventure I am still on, but I have been able to keep my edges serviceable for two years. If I can do it, you can do it.


Welcome aboard!

No stupid questions, Will. I think Sam has you covered so far.

Good luck!

I strop 10/10 after shaving to ensure the blade is good and dry. Before this I carefully wipe the blade with toilet paper or Kleenex then I floss with the paper between the scales.

Before each shave I strop 40/40. You probably want to strop with a folded up sheet of newspaper for the first week or so. Fold it until its a 3" wide strip then loop it over a towel.bar. pinch the ends together an pull fairly taut. Everyone nicks or slices their first strop a few times. Better to do it to a piece of newspaper rather than your leather strop.

You shouldn't need to strop before the first shave most likely. Remember to keep the blade nearly flat against your skin and no pressure into your skin. Don't forget to stretch your skin either.

Good luck.

Thanks for the input Gentlemen, I promise to go very slow !! I am really getting kinda pumped up over trying a straight and I know that sounds silly, there is for me at least a lure/attractiveness to the beautiful straights especially vintage ones that have those beautiful inlaid scales and the blade all polished to a pristine mirror finish with the etched blade and some I've seen have custom work done on the spine.

Will keep you posted

^^^
Sounds like someone's going to be saving a lot of money by switching over to straights

Well Guys it came today and for a very inexpensive first straight it looks like it could do a good job if I do my part, and the basic strop is much more than expected, it's not a high dollar one but from my VERY LIMITED KNOWLEDGE it will do the job.

I carefully unwrapped it and wiped off the light coat of oil and just practiced holding it with both hands, and this is alittle different for me as all my DE/SE shaving has pretty much been done with my left hand, I figure Monday I will do a full face prep extra good and then whip up a bowl of a uber lateher and give my face a good even coat then start at the sideburn area and go very, very slow, more than likely will just do the sides for a week or two until I get the hang of it.

It was suggested that maybe for the for couple weeks to strop on some newspaper folded into a 3" wide strip over a towel bar to get my practice in to try to avoid cutting the leather right off the bat.

I am guessing I would then when comfortable go to the cloth strop followed by the leather and I assume finished side up is what I use so like the black side pictured is what I put the blade to ? and I guess it does not matter on the cloth as both sides look the same.

Well today was the day and I have to say all things considered it went well:

My brew of Tabac with a snurdle of C.O Bigelow to ensure a creamy blend


Afterwards, all good no bandages and did not have to use the styptic pencil at all, had 2 weepers but not enough to worry about. The blade seemed to easily cut thru 3 days growth but I have a light beard, after the first pass WTG I was feeling pretty good so I did a second pass WTG and still feeling pretty bold I attempted one pass ATG and that's where I got into alittle trouble as you can tell from the last pic, got me a bit of a rash just below the ears on both sides going ATG but no cuts

I have to say I am extremely pleased with this inexpensive GD 208 from Buca but I'm sure it has to do with him prepping the razor for me, the only other issue is how awkward the razor feels holding it in my other hand but I am sure I will get used to that.

I finished off with a good hot rinse then a cold one then a heavy splash of Clubman (yes it burned) and then a good Aveeno balm, I then proceeded to clean the razor with a good stream of hot water then carefully dried and then proceeded to do 20 strokes on the cloth strop followed by 40 on the leather, I paid particular attention on not applying pressure and tried very hard not to roll the blade down on the strop as I flipped it ( I am guessing my next shave will tell me if I messed up the edge) I then finished off giving the blade a very light coating of mineral oil to keep the rust away.

In closing I want to thank everybody for their help and suggestions in getting me going and I am sure I am going to have tons more questions later down the road especially if I decide to pursue this and get a more expensive razor and for what it's worth I have already been looking and I love some of those Vintage ones

Fantastic! Nicely done!!

Great first time! Take it slow, you will be fine. 100 years ago it was the only way. Keep plugging!

Warning: this is addictive.

Great start. Keep with it.

Try adding more water to your lather. Str8 razors seem to like wetter lather, especially if it feels like the blade is sticking to your skin. Might be helpful.

Yep, sticky shaving means more water needed, and as noted, straights like slick lather. The razor burn is usually caused by too much pressure and/or too high an angle to the razor. A straight exfoliates extremely well, and too much exfoliation is razor burn. It can also be caused by an edge that's just not sharp enough, though with a fresh edge from Bill you don't have that issue. If you're lather is sticky, you may be pushing too hard.

The nicks and weepers are caused by allowing some lateral movement of the blade. It's like learning to ride a bicycle, it takes a bit of eye-hand-brain coordination. And when you first begin, not getting that lateral movement is a bit more difficult than it might seem. But you'll get there, good luck!

Cheers, Steve

I do have a question about the strop that Bill included, its a two piece leather/cloth along with a balsa wood with paste, well one side of the leather is untreated/rough and the other side is smooth finished black, I assume I use the finished side ? also the cloth one has a seam in the center on one side and not the other so does it matter which side I use.

Again thanks for all the help guys

alpster said:

Try adding more water to your lather. Str8 razors seem to like wetter lather, especially if it feels like the blade is sticking to your skin. Might be helpful.

Click to expand...

plus one

Nice start.

Yes, use the finished side. Just go slow when learning to strop. Most cuts happen when changing direction and the blade has not been flipped yet.

Well guys just a quick update, has been going okay until today, I had a sample of Sterling soap and had tried it before and not much luck and should have stopped when the razor starting skipping and got a slight cut high on my cheek but I kept going and after the third nick I finished off with a Schick injector and can only attribute the bad shave to the soap. Others have reported good results with Sterling but today not for me.

i still am struggling with the neck area just below the ears and doing an ATG on my cheek area but for the most part with the exception of just below my ears the WTG is going well and XTG is about 50%, I still have trouble with the 30 deg angle as sometime I catch myself with it at a 45 and I am sure that's where the irritation is coming from.

The stropping is going fairly well and I am going pretty slow on the strop to ensure good technique and I guess you don't have to go fast to get good results and after I get done stropping I do the hair test or what I think is a hair test by holding the blade slightly above my arm and it pops off hairs without pulling them, I do have a balsa wood strop plank with a green paste on it I got from the seller and am curious when I would use this and I assume when I do I lead with the spine to keep from cutting into the wood also how long before I would have to hone it and no I don't have any knowledge of this process but want to learn

You typically won't need to apply CrOx until you find the edge to have deteriorated noticeably.
I use a suede strop for crOx so obviously it is spine leading for me. On balsa, I assume it is the same.