Trumpers Straight Shaving Lesson

My Dovo Bismarck straight razor should hopefully be arriving this week, and whilst I'm confident about trying the easier parts of my face (cheeks etc.) I'm still pretty apprehensive about tackling the rest of the face/neck.

So after a friend popped into Trumpers last week and picked me up some of their leaflets; I have just phoned to book a straight razor shaving lesson on Friday 29th September. It's going to cost £75 and is for 2 hours, 14:30 - 16:30, with a Mr Melvyn.

He's told me to bring along any equipment that I'm planning to use, so hopefully my straight will arrive before then, I think it's stuck in customs at the moment.

I'm really looking forward to this, I've taken a days holiday off work and I'm looking on this as a special day off / treat for me.

After the lesson I get 20% off all purchases made in their shop on the same day. So I'll probably pick up a tub of their Rose shaving cream, there isn't much else I need from them at the moment as I just bought a few of their products recently. Maybe I'll stock up on a litre of Coral Skin Food, as that's about the one product I use every day without fail, I like it a lot!

Anyway, when I've had the lesson I'll post a full report/review here. Hopefully they'll let me take some photo's too, I'll tell them it's to be posted on Bagdger & Blade.

Cheers,

Iwan

That's excellent. Have a fantastic time there and absorb the atmosphere. You should get some orders from your friends at B&B for the 20% discount.

Jonnybc said:

That's excellent. Have a fantastic time there and absorb the atmosphere. You should get some orders from your friends at B&B for the 20% discount.

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Yeah I was thinking about that, when they ask what I want to buy afterwards I could say "actually i need 50x Coral Skin Food, 100x Coconut Cream, 100x Rose Cream, 100x Sandalwood Cream" etc.

If they are good businessmen they'd gladly do it!

Iwan said:

Yeah I was thinking about that, when they ask what I want to buy afterwards I could say "actually i need 50x Coral Skin Food, 100x Coconut Cream, 100x Rose Cream, 100x Sandalwood Cream" etc.

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Don't worry about that. They'll simply say, "Sorry, Ron. Didn't recognize you."

Damn, I just spewed my coffee on one of my cube walls.....

ouch said:

Don't worry about that. They'll simply say, "Sorry, Ron. Didn't recognize you."

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What ever happened to "Don't ask, Don't tell?"

Well I just got back home from a trip to London, where I had my straight shaving lesson at G F Trumpers shop in Curzon Street, London.

I don't know how many of you folks have been there but it's quite a small looking place from the outside, when you get inside you find it's quite a long thin shop and has 2 floors inside. The front part of the ground floor is the shop, and has an amazing range of creams, soaps, brushes, razors, colognes, strops, and many other things. I could have spent a couple of hours browsing the shelves, it's like an Aladdins Cave!

I met Melvyn who was giving me my lesson, he took me downstairs to another room full of shaving cubicles. The place has wood paneling on the walls, deep carpets, and thick red curtains round all the cubicles. Each cubicle (and there must be about 15) has a proper old barbers chair, and alll the bits and bobs each barber needs.

Melvyn took a look at my gear and was immediately looking a bit peeved to see I had a spike point razor (5/8 Bismarck spike). He wanted to teach me with a shavette type straight he had, but I insisted on using mine as this was the razor I'd be using every day. He also started on the hard sell, trying to get me to buy a shavette as they're "great for learning on" apparently. I firmly declined and we started the lesson.

He was very impressed with my strop, a No1 Best Heirloom hanging strop from Tony Miller. He was so impressed with the quality that he called the manager of Trumpers downstairs to have a look at it. They were amazed when I told them what it cost (approx £35 British Pounds), as they sell their own really cheap-looking thin and flimsy Trumpers hanging strop for about £85!

In fact 2 managers came to look at it and were almost drooling over it, and raving about the width and thickness of the leather, and the quality of the workmanship. So I wrote the address of Tony's website down for them, maybe they'll place some orders!

Anyway we started the lesson with some stropping, and Melvyn put some french paste on the canvas side of my strop. It was just a kind of tacky paste, not an abrasive paste as such. Then, standing next to me in front of a big mirror he showed me how to hold the razor, and showed me the different strokes for different parts of the face - using both right and left hands. When he was happy I had grasped the concepts ok, he sat me in the barbers chair and gave me the hot towel treatment. After the hot towels he rubbed a generous amount of GFT Skin Food into my beard, before lathering up the right side of my face with GFT Limes Cream. He then shaved the right side of my face slowly, explaining each stroke. He did 2 passes, with and against the grain, and it was pretty smooth afterwards. He only nicked me once with the spike point, I just laughed as he looked a little worried!

Then I stood up and lathered the left side of my face, and shaved 2 passes of the left side by myself, with Melvyn making a few comments like "keep the handle higher", "keep the razor flatter to the skin there etc". There is a lot to think about when you'[re a newbie so it was nice to have him keeping an eye on my technique. I finished my two passes without drawing any blood, and my side was just as smooth as the side he'd shaved. 1 - 0 to me.

Then he gave me another hot towel treatment, and after that some GFT Moisturiser on my face. Considering it was just two passes it was a pretty nice shave, though still a little rough against the grain. I'm sure this will improve with time, and maybe a third pass.

I got the impression they were really trying to get me to buy as much stuff as possible while I was there. They kept suggesting things for me to buy, including a Bismarck round point razor, moisturiser, alum, soaps etc. But I explained I had a lot of those products at home anyway, and that I was on a strict budget. I just picked up some more GFT Coral Skin Food and a pot of GFT Rose shaving cream, which I'd planned to get anyway. I got the distinct impression they are used to rich folk going in there and coming out with about £1k worth of shaving products. I think they were also a little embarrassed to tell me the price of their strops when they'd seen Tony's one.

I'm not sure if the experience was worth the money really. If I hadn't had SRP for info and also Lynn's DVD to watch, then it would have been perfect, but I probably already knew 95% of what I needed to know before the lesson started. I guess that shows just how good the SRP ( and B&B )community really is.

I passed Penhaligons on the way back to the railway station so I picked up a bottle of 'Blenheim Bouqet' for myself and a bottle of "Malabah" for my girlfriend - I just hope she appreciates it!

If anyone wants more info about this please ask.

Cheers.

Sounds excellent, I'm really quite jealous!

Wonderful report!
Keep us posted on your next shave!

Great post Iwan, very informative. Encouraging as well....It makes me want to grab my straight and go at it right now.

How much skin food would you say they were rubbing on your face?

Thanks,

Sounds like a great time! I am very pleased you were able to show them Tony's strop. I have a few of his, and they are very hard to beat, and at the prices he charges, I've seen nothing even remotely close.
Way to stick to your guns on using YOUR straight, as well.
John P.

He used quite a large blob of skin food for each pass, I'd guess about the size of a UK 10p piece or a nickel in US money (a nickel is bigger than a dime yes?). It seemed to work quite well, though I wondered if using so much was a cunning ploy to make people buy gallons of skin food.

I ordered Tony's strop pretty much blind, having never really seen one in the flesh. I count myself lucky that I've ended up with a superb strop and at a great price. I'd recommend him in an instant.

Iwan said:

He used quite a large blob of skin food for each pass, I'd guess about the size of a UK 10p piece or a nickel in US money (a nickel is bigger than a dime yes?). It seemed to work quite well, though I wondered if using so much was a cunning ploy to make people buy gallons of skin food.

I ordered Tony's strop pretty much blind, having never really seen one in the flesh. I count myself lucky that I've ended up with a superb strop and at a great price. I'd recommend him in an instant.

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Thanks for the follow-up. Funny thing, the nickel is in fact bigger than the dime I would also have to wonder about them slathering the skin food on, but I might try it. Every time I've used skin food as a preshave (albeit in small quantities) it made the razor skip.

Something like this would be handy for a first time DE shaver as well. I would love to have someone standing by to tell me what things I'm doing wrong and how to improve. I guess in the olden days that's something your dad would have done for you, but it certainly didn't happen for me. I've never even seen my dad shave, I only heard him complain about how painful it was and how much he hated doing it. I grew up with a similar attitude because of that, and it also led to me being embarassed of shaving for years; until I found this site it was still a very private thing for me. It's such a relief to have a group of people that not only aren't shy about shaving, but ENJOY talking about it!

hey Steelforge,

I'm thinking to buy Dovo Bismarck straight razor but do u know any store in Central london where i can grab them?

Now i'm wondering - do they sell wide range of straight razor all brands name + "Dovo Bismarck"? at G F Trumpers shop?

do u have their proper address, maybe i'd like to go there one day with my wife

Best Regards
FiReDuCk

Hi there, wow I don't come in here often and was surprised to see someone had replied to this old thread of mine.

I don't live in London so don't know it very well, but Trumpers on Curzon Street definately had Dovo Bismarck razors in stock when I was there last year. They had probably 10 or 15 different razors (mostly Dovo's) if I recall correctly.

Other than Trumpers, I would assume that Trufitt & Hill and Taylors of old Bond Street probably sell straight razors too. There may be other places but I don't know of them.

Online, both http://www.gentlemans-shop.com/ and http://www.classicshaving.com/ sell Dovo Bismarck razors.

HTH

Iwan