Razor Pass Around--EdG's adventure: The Cutthroat Chronicles, chapter uno.

Hey ya'll.

Steve here. (-EdG is a nod to Grandpa, Edward G. - supposed to sound like "edgy" but some of you think I'm Ed. Guess I didn't really think that one through.)

I joined this forum and started traditional wetshaving little over a year ago. In that time I've only used DE's. (The exceptions being trying a Weck shavette and a Feather kamisori for a few shaves each) I gave myself a full year before I would venture into the world of straights, and that time has arrived!

Anyhow, I'm "on deck" as it were, the next beneficiary of [MENTION=110007]doc47[/MENTION] 's incredibly generous straight razor passaround that can be viewed here: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/495257-Want-to-try-a-straight-razor

Doc's big box of shave ready straights (Big thank you the honemeisters who made them so! ) should arrive this afternoon and I plan to have my first honest to goodness old school gentlemanly straight razor shave this evening.

I'm pretty excited about it. I enter this experience without trepidation. I am ready. I've put in my time with DE razors and have pretty much mastered my technique and skillset in that regard. I shave my thick, fast growing beard almost daily and I get excellent results nearly without exception. I have my preparation routine sorted out, and I know which products I can trust and work best for me. Since we know Doc's straights are truly shave ready, the only factor here will be my own technique and skills - or lack thereof.

I'll be switching over to night shaving during my time with the straights. Primarily so I can take my time with the shave, but also have the night to recover should something go sideways. (Not the blade... NO sideways motion!) Maybe a nick, small cut, or irritation.

I've made good use of the time since signing up for the passaround to immerse in self education of the subject. Both from the incredible wealth of knowledge and experiences from the fine folks on this forum and by watching YouTube videos.

Like I said, I am ready!

Will be posting again soon... c'mon mailman!

Great prologue to your new journey, and you sound as ready as it is possible to be for the beginning of your straight razor adventure. Good luck tonight!

Awesome intro Steve. Can't wait to read about your experiences!

I'm excited for you to begin your journey, and I look forward to reading about it. I hope you fall in love with it the way that I did.

If only you could have heroic sounding music playing in the background, the prologue would be almost cinematic!

Thanks fellas,

Well, the mail carrier has brought some joy to the den!

Doc's box has arrived and it's filled with straight razor goodness! Tell ya what, this is quite immersive. Just a few weeks ago, I was only just thinking about trying a straight, venturing into the section of the forum I'd not dared to tread prior, when Doc posted his timely offer. Had never so much as held one before, but here I suddenly find myself with multiple razors laid before me in all their splendor.

Which shall I choose to start with? Hmm.... I've read a few things about a round point 5/8 being the standard suggestion for newbies. Will I heed that advice? Or is there another calling out to me... one that just feels like the right one to start with? Standby to standby fellas, a shave is soon to take place!

I'll just leave these here for ya'll to "ooh" and "aah" over.

Very nice! There are some nice razors in that bunch.

-EdG said:

Thanks fellas,
Which shall I choose to start with? Hmm.... I've read a few things about a round point 5/8 being the standard suggestion for newbies. Will I heed that advice? Or is there another calling out to me... one that just feels like the right one to start with? Standby to standby fellas, a shave is soon to take place!

Click to expand...

Nice looking razors. I picked my first one by holding all of them in various grips and deciding which one felt right in my hands. The way I might test a new chef's knife for balance if I found myself at someone else's home. The two razors I ended up liking the most were the ones that ended up shaving the best for me, and I ended up adopting one.

I really like the look of the German razor. I have a thing for the way the point is juts out slightly in front of the spine. I found that it makes it easier to use the point, and that I'm less likely to cut myself then with a square point.

Ok, It's official. -EdG has officially had his first official straight razor shave!



I chose to start with the biggest, baddest dude of the bunch. Why? Well, the answer comes twofold:
1. My stubble was at it's longest growth that I'll have during this trial period.
2. I prefer heavier (and or aggressive) safety razors. My best shaves come when there's a heavyweight involved that can take my stubble to the mat post haste. Not sure how much of that logic carries over from DE safety razors, but it felt like the place I wanted to start.

The Diamond (half hollow, I think) is 13/16 and 51.5 grams in total. The edge is just under 3 inches. The toe is slightly rounded, so I felt pretty confident about being able to get in tighter with the toe, but not having to worry about inadvertent cuts or nicks with it.

I chose Proraso green as my software. It's not the slickest or most protective in the den. But it does give good performance, and is what I consider to be my "classic shave." It was there for my very first DE shave, and so shall it be for my very first straight shave! And yeah, it was 101 degrees here, so the menthol is a nice little bonus.

On to the shave!

Started at my dominant sideburn, blade flat to skin, lifted the spine about a spine's width away, then took short & quick(ish) N to S strokes down to my jawbone and the big Diamond took my stubble easily and cleanly. One thing immediately noted was the amount of audible feedback the blade produces. A sort of secondary indicator of your state of stubble. Helpful, I imagine, when I would get to areas where my vision might be somewhat obscured, either by my own hand, or the blade itself.

Repeated the same action at my non dominant sideburn (a little awkward feeling in my non dominant hand, but I expect that to be so until I get my skillset developed) and again had quick and clean stubble removal.

I've heard advice that a newby should stop there.. that's day one. But nah... let's do this thing! So, finished my cheeks, then pulled my jawline skin up to the cheek area and did that both sides. Got the neck. (chin to the sky) and was really kind of impressed with myself to that point. Now I had to get upper lip and chin. Hmm.. while I didn't have any mishaps, it is clear that these areas are going to be the most difficult. It's going to take time to develop the skillset for those areas - that's to be expected.

Did get complete with & across grain. Didn't attempt to go against, and had to call in the Gillette SC in the photo to knock down the stubble patches remaining under my nose and on/under/adjacent to my chin in areas where I felt I may have needed to give the blade a little bit of "push," moreso than I thought I wanted to, and was afraid of it suddenly cutting through and getting out of control. Not sure if that's a matter of building confidence, or finding a way to stretch skin or approach the area in a manner that I don't have to do using a safety razor.

No irritation, no nicks or cuts. A comfortable shave, overall, but t'was unsatisfactory at my chin and upper lip where some stubble patches remained. Definitely a more successful shave than my first ever DE attempt though. I know that it'll take some time to get accustomed to using my non dominant hand, and I'll probably have to discover a few new techniques as my adventure continues.
Let's call it a B-

Here's to them only getting better from here....

ciderguy said:

Nice looking razors. I picked my first one by holding all of them in various grips and deciding which one felt right in my hands. The way I might test a new chef's knife for balance if I found myself at someone else's home. The two razors I ended up liking the most were the ones that ended up shaving the best for me, and I ended up adopting one.

I really like the look of the German razor. I have a thing for the way the point is juts out slightly in front of the spine. I found that it makes it easier to use the point, and that I'm less likely to cut myself then with a square point.

Click to expand...

Genco feels the nicest to me, as far as just holding in the hand. The proportions, balance, jimps. Feels like it's the most favorable to the biometrics of my hands.

The German was second runner up in consideration for the first shave. That toe though... I don't think there's any forgiveness to be had there.

doc47 said:

It was hard to put that one in the box, but I have a nice one, enjoy! Steve, you had a very successful experience for your first SR shave. Great going. A fun write-up and great picture as well. Enjoy the box and the great shaves that were included in the box!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

And thank you so much for the invaluable opportunity. I look forward to enjoying these shaves to come from the wonderful assortment you've been so generous to provide.

Outstanding first run and a great looking razor choice for sure. That is one absolutely fantastic set to choose from. Rich and Dan BOTH know which I would choose LMAO I will leave that out though as I do not wish to taint your choices or results

Very impressive first shave for sure and excellent journal entries. For a first shave I thought it was very good. Like you mention - better than your first DE shave.

You are going to get very comfortable with holding and using the razor with your non-dominant hand and your ability to get your upper lip and chin will rapidly improve.

Way to go!

Sent via Tapatalk from phone

-EdG said:

No irritation, no nicks or cuts. A comfortable shave, overall, but t'was unsatisfactory at my chin and upper lip where some stubble patches remained. Definitely a more successful shave than my first ever DE attempt though. I know that it'll take some time to get accustomed to using my non dominant hand, and I'll probably have to discover a few new techniques as my adventure continues.
Let's call it a B-

Here's to them only getting better from here....

Click to expand...

Sounds like you had a wonderful start! It might be different, but I don't switch hands when I'm using the straight. I just find ways to hold the blade and move my face around to keep it in my dominant hand at all times.

Sounds like a great start!

Can't wait to hear how the other razors go.

ciderguy said:

Sounds like you had a wonderful start! It might be different, but I don't switch hands when I'm using the straight. I just find ways to hold the blade and move my face around to keep it in my dominant hand at all times.

Click to expand...

I did try using my dominant hand for some portions of the other side in today's shave. Good results in doing so. I'd eventually like to become proficient with both hands, but that will come in time I suppose as skills and confidence increase.

Straight shave numero 2 is in the books!



Went with the Diamond for a second time. I was comfortable enough to use a little more force today, more purposeful in my strokes, maybe just a touch of pressure as needed. Spent more time than yesterday working on the tough areas and didn't have to call in the Gillette for cleanup either. I did take quite a bit of time, and who knows how many strokes in the tough places, but still got away without any irritation. (Spending that much time on skin with a safety razor would've had me irritated for sure.) It was a good shave. Relatively satisfactory results overall. Face and neck are feel smooth when rubbed with the grain. I didn't do any against the grain work, and can feel some scritch when rubbing against it of course. I figure I'm not going to push at this stage for a BBS. There's lot's more shaves coming and I'll eventually get there. By accounts of appearance, this shave is perfectly acceptable. I did have my first nick as I was fumbling to find a good angle, but it was so small it closed before the shave was even over.

I have some thoughts on the this razor, but being my first time using a straight, I'll reserve those until the end of the trial when I can use my meager amount of experience to draw comparisons and commentary.

Fantastic work my Friend and very much looking forward to your thought's on the GENCO especially

Great job. You will get comfortable with the straight with time, but you are doing really well, and very similar to my first experiences with the straight. There is nothing quite like a straight.
Good luck, and enjoy the rest of those blades. Very nice!

El Shavo numero 3!



Manhattan tonight. 43 gram, half hollow. 11/16" (Aren't straights typically measured in 1/8ths though?... not sure if we would call this a 5/8 or 6/8 in that case.) This one looks like it's seen very little use in it's lifetime, so I'll show it some love.

I found the smaller blade and the rounded tip allowed me to orient the blade in a bit more precise manner to the different areas of my face. There wasn't so much extra blade or pointy toe to keep an eye on. Could pretty much get this one positioned as the situation required. Might be my imagination, but I think this has a bit more subdued audible feedback compared to the Diamond. Was feeling pretty confident and had a good shave going, so decided to go against the grain on my cheeks. Almost baby butt... almost. Didn't have as much joy on my neck though. Started to get some irritation, and two weepers to boot, so I decided not to push further and threw in the towel.

The hair on my neck grows N to S from my jawline to halfway, S to N bottom to half up, but right in the middle, there's a band that grows flat, left to right. With a DE, I can bullfrog a sideways pass but with the longer blade of a straight I've been pretty much stretching chin to sky and making one N to S complete pass, then a S to N complete pass. Kind of broadsiding that band in the middle. I know I used too much pressure tonight trying to get those side growing hairs. Going to have to put some thought towards a better technique there I think.

So, I have a nice shave on the face, and a fair shave on the neck. Let's grade this one a B-.