5 Straights in 10 Days

[MENTION=110007]doc47[/MENTION] Generously started the thread Want to try a straight razor. This journal will record my decent into the world of straight razors. Since starting wet shaving a few years ago, I've only used SEs. I've been very curious about trying out other razors.

My box arrived last night, and I was able to shave this morning for the first time with a straight.

Doc sent straights from the various brands:
Wade & Butcher
Glenco Henrys XX
Ribbon
Frederick Reynolds
Friedr Herder

When the box arrived yesterday, I gently removed each razor from the packaging and practiced various grips on them as I had seen in different guides. I tested the weight and balance of each in my hand, and tried to decide on which razor to shave with.

I decided on the Wade & Butcher for today. It was the heaviest razor of the bunch and just felt reassuring. I've always been found of heavier SEs, and heavier knives in the kitchen.

This morning a little rushed. My grandfather is recovering in the hospital after scheduled surgery, and was helping to take care of my grandmother until visiting hours began. Everything seems to be going alright so far and he should be hopefully home by the end of the week.

I didn't have time for a shower. So, I washed my face with an exfoliating scrub and pine tar soap. After letting warm water soak in my face, I began. I decided on Proraso Red cream for today. I've always had good results with it. I face lathered well and let it sit on my face for a little bit. Then, I began with my sideburn.

I misjudged, and cut it just a little high. It'll take a few days to grow back. This blade cuts through hair so wonderfully. The first pass went really well. Nice and smooth. The razor had a nice sound to it. I found myself wiping the blade after strokes instead of the rinsing, as the lather just clung to the blade. Above the lip was challenging. I'll need to work on technique. I caught the blade on the edge of my lip and ended up with a minor nick that bled a little and made me reach for the a styptic pencil.

I was going to stop after the first pass, but it felt really good. I went ahead and did a second pass, across the grain. Stretching and technique seemed very important. I slowed down. Almost everything went fine. I caught the offhand side of neck at a bad angle and scratched it with the blade. Just a little blood and the alum block took care of that.

Embolden by the success of the second pass, I went for a third pass, against the grain. I made sure there was a good amount of lather. I really worked it in. No cuts.

Cold water rinse followed by alum block resulted in only minor irritation. Less than I normally have with a new SE blade on the first day. I used my modified Florida water (added a touch of glycerin, lemon EO, menthol, and a drop of patchouli EO) as an AS. Some moderate burn, but again better than a new SE blade.

I'm impressed with straight razor saving so far. This was a good shave. Almost a DFS. My chin and neck are generally my problem areas, and they feel more smooth than over 50% of my SE shaves. My first day SE shaving was much worse. I'm honestly pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be much more challenging.

I know I need to work on bettering my technique. However, I'm quite amazed at the quality of the shave. Tomorrow's shave will be with the Wade & Butcher again. I'll use my go to soap of Arko, and focus on technique.

Sounds like a great start! I saw that thread, and it was incredibly generous of [MENTION=110007]doc47[/MENTION] to set this up.

I'm not surprised about the smoothness of the edge, since [MENTION=102600]Devonmoonshire[/MENTION] honed the blades. From what I hear(and hope to soon experience), he puts a fantastic edge on them. Good luck with the rest of the shaves, and looking forward to seeing your results!

Outstanding Shave my Friend and I must say that having only been stropped after honing that blade should give you an even smoother shave tomorrow. Coticule edges tend to mellow over time and lead to extremely comfortable shaves after the first couple. When you do try and use that Big Ol' Square Point do be very mindful of where the pointy toe is at during your passes, those points go astray and bad things can occur. You did far better than I on my First run my Friend and I am very happy to hear you like the Blade

Awesome post! Glad to hear your first shave went well, my first try with a straight ended with me nearly taking a piece of my earlobe off. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your shaves!

Pretty cool. Hope my first attempt is as successful!

Very nice first shave - impressive! Nate does put a very nice edge on a razor and this is a great opportunity to try out a number of different blades that are all truly shave ready.

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Day 2

I did my usual routine of showering first and then shaving. Arko was the soap for today. I've always loved Arko, and I wanted to see how it would preform.

First pass started off well, and I decided to go ahead and make my sideburns even today. All of that went very well. I really like the feel of the razor in my hand, and the sound of it mowing down whiskers. It sounds very similar to when I've had barber shaves with a shavette. Just a wonderful, relaxing, & rhythmic sound. I've taken to wiping the blade on a towel between strokes. Rinsing just didn't seem to work.

Arko seemed to provide less glide than the Proraso Red from yesterday. This wasn't much of an issue until I got to my chin and neck. At first, I thought the lather was dried out, so I rinsed and relathered. That didn't solve it. I tried adding more water to my lather. Same problem. Perhaps Arko isn't the best thing for me to use with a SR. I went ahead and made a superlather with Proraso Green and the Arko loaded into my brush. That seemed to work. I don't want to confuse myself by changing too many things, so I think I'll go with Proraso Red for the rest of this experiment.

I didn't know exactly what I had shaved due to the lather issues. So, I just did a second WTG pass. No major issues. Rinsed. Did a XTG pass. My face felt a touch dry and irritated. I was at DFS above the neck and a CCS below. I decided to call it a successful day, I had a decent shave with no cuts and no weepers. Finished up with the alum block. A little bit more irritation than yesterday. Aftershave burned a little more.

I ended up applying a moisturizer, pure shea butter, after the shave because my face was a little on the dry side. Everything felt great after the moisturizer.

I'm pretty much in love with SR shaving at this point. I really enjoy it. The whole reason I started wet shaving is because I wanted to enjoy shaving. I used to have a beard. SR is enjoyable and relaxing. I feel I'm going to end up keeping one of these razors per Doc's offer under Rule 7. I'll have to see how they all shave before I decide.

I'm also trying to decide on a second straight to purchase, so I have something to use when the one I pick is honed. I guess I need to purchase a strop or two, as I've read many destroy their first one. I feel as if I'm descending into the madness of many ADs. I was set. I had my brush, soap, cream, razor, and blade. I could have comfortably shaved for the rest of my life with my SEs. Now, I've tried a straight, and I'm not interested in going back to SE shaving, unless I'm in a rush.

Feel free to vote on the next straight I should try:

• Glenco Henrys XX
• Ribbon
• Frederick Reynolds
• Friedr Herder

I'll tally the votes and go with the one with the most votes tomorrow morning. There will also be a picture tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

ciderguy said:

Day 2

I did my usual routine of showering first and then shaving. Arko was the soap for today. I've always loved Arko, and I wanted to see how it would preform.

First pass started off well, and I decided to go ahead and make my sideburns even today. All of that went very well. I really like the feel of the razor in my hand, and the sound of it mowing down whiskers. It sounds very similar to when I've had barber shaves with a shavette. Just a wonderful, relaxing, & rhythmic sound. I've taken to wiping the blade on a towel between strokes. Rinsing just didn't seem to work.

Arko seemed to provide less glide than the Proraso Red from yesterday. This wasn't much of an issue until I got to my chin and neck. At first, I thought the lather was dried out, so I rinsed and relathered. That didn't solve it. I tried adding more water to my lather. Same problem. Perhaps Arko isn't the best thing for me to use with a SR. I went ahead and made a superlather with Proraso Green and the Arko loaded into my brush. That seemed to work. I don't want to confuse myself by changing too many things, so I think I'll go with Proraso Red for the rest of this experiment.

I didn't know exactly what I had shaved due to the lather issues. So, I just did a second WTG pass. No major issues. Rinsed. Did a XTG pass. My face felt a touch dry and irritated. I was at DFS above the neck and a CCS below. I decided to call it a successful day, I had a decent shave with no cuts and no weepers. Finished up with the alum block. A little bit more irritation than yesterday. Aftershave burned a little more.

I ended up applying a moisturizer, pure shea butter, after the shave because my face was a little on the dry side. Everything felt great after the moisturizer.

I'm pretty much in love with SR shaving at this point. I really enjoy it. The whole reason I started wet shaving is because I wanted to enjoy shaving. I used to have a beard. SR is enjoyable and relaxing. I feel I'm going to end up keeping one of these razors per Doc's offer under Rule 7. I'll have to see how they all shave before I decide.

I'm also trying to decide on a second straight to purchase, so I have something to use when the one I pick is honed. I guess I need to purchase a strop or two, as I've read many destroy their first one. I feel as if I'm descending into the madness of many ADs. I was set. I had my brush, soap, cream, razor, and blade. I could have comfortably shaved for the rest of my life with my SEs. Now, I've tried a straight, and I'm not interested in going back to SE shaving, unless I'm in a rush.

Feel free to vote on the next straight I should try:

• Glenco Henrys XX
• Ribbon
• Frederick Reynolds
• Friedr Herder

I'll tally the votes and go with the one with the most votes tomorrow morning. There will also be a picture tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Click to expand...

Great write up for your shaving with the pass around!

Excellent shave and read.

I'm going to vote for the Genco. They get a lot of love around here.

Outstanding Read ans shave my Friend and as for the Vote, I vote for the Friedr Herder

I have some of my nicest shaves from a Frederick Reynolds 5/8" barber's point. It is not a full hollow grind , but a 1/2 hollow and it is very comfortable. I just picked up a Genco Henry XX that came in today.

I would not get too caught up in a particular make of vintage razor - just look for a good vintage razor in nice shape in the blade width you may like and grind that you like.

A Vorpal razor from Seraphim may be an option too - they are Gold Dollar stock that have been highly modified to make a very nice shaving and eye catching razor.

You are doing incredibly well!

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Very nice. You're setting a high bar for the rest of us on the straight boxes. I'd be very pleased to do as well as you have for your first couple of straight shaves.

Day 3 - Friedr Herder

This razor is beautiful to look at. I like the way the white of the scales contrasts with the blade. The razor itself seemed a little intimidating. The shape of the point gave me caution. It seemed to flare out just a little, and I was worried.

First pass seemed to go fine, except that the point touched skin twice. I thought I had cut myself, but there was no pain or blood. So I continued shaving. Both the second and third passes went well. Exceptionally smooth. However, I seemed to have trouble getting as close of a shave, or I was just worried about the point. I did go very slow today.

Very little irritation from the Alum block. Almost no irritation from my aftershave. While I was cleaning up, I noticed something curious. There was blood on my face. Apparently, the point did cut me. I applied alum to both cuts and they stopped. Neither seemed to sting much with the alum. This blade is so smooth that I cut myself twice and didn't bleed for 15-20min after. I'm intimidated. I think I'll try another blade tomorrow.

I'm still impressed with SR shaving. I really enjoy it!

I cut myself as well 2x today with a square point. Easy to do and it is more startling than any pain. Good thing is they typically close up quickly.

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That must mean that I got that blade extraordinarily keen and smooth my Friend. Do not be intimidated by them, just add a bit of extra caution when using these square points. I have toned down the points on mine by touching them to the bathroom mirror to take some of the spike off, not a lot of pressure, just a touch will decrease the slicing power of that point

Day 4
Genco Henry's XX


I'm not quite sure what I did wrong today. I ended up doing four passes, WTG, XTG, GTX, ATG. Each pass seemed to remove progressively more stubble. I had very little irritation and managed to only scratch myself once when I came in at too sharp of an angle. Yet, I still had quite a bit of stubble left all over, except for my cheeks, when I finished. I wouldn't even call it a SAS. I didn't have time to try for a fifth pass with the SR.

I ended up giving up and just doing a second ATG pass with a Gem G-Bar and a brand new blade. This left me with a CCS. Sting from Alum and AS was still minimal. The smaller size of the Genco did make it easy to reach under my nose. I'll try again with the same blade tomorrow.

Very interesting, this one was indeed a challenge to hone up. This much was for sure. It does have some interesting characteristics to the edge. Hopefully it treats you better tomorrow but a very good attempt indeed.

I figured it out! I wasn't keeping a nice close angle with the blade. I'm not exactly sure why. Even when I focused on making sure I had a proper angle, I still had trouble keeping it there. I'm just not ready for this particular blade yet.

After I figured it out, the shave went well. No cuts. Ended up doing 5 passes. WTG, WTG, XTG, GTX, ATG. Managed a DFS. Moderate irritation, but I'd expect that with 5 passes. There is so much to learn. I think I'll be able to get better at technique when I'm not constantly switching and can figure out one razor and get really good with it. I'll try the Ribbon tomorrow.

Awesome posts and reviews. Nice to hear you got the hang of that razor on the second try. Reading all of your experiences is making me anxious for my turn!

Excellent work my Friend and the learning part is definitely one that we all have to overcome. I do agree though that once you have settled on a particular favorite in blade grind and design, the shaves will get better much faster as you will have the chance to really focus on a particular blade for angles and it's shaving abilities. Then you will find that switching to other blades will be much easier as you will already know how to adjust the angle for the feel of what the blade should feel like against your skin