Shaving with a straight razor

M

MrOverkill

Joined
Nov 7, 2010
Messages
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Hi, I'm new to the forums and high end knives in general, and after growing a beard for the last year or so I've decided it's probably good to try to learn to shave with a straight razor. All my previous shaving experience has been with an electric razor, so I will need a lot of help. If you guys could point me in the direction of all the gear I will need to start and some good instruction on how to I would be much obliged.
Thanks,
MrOverkill
 
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mantic59 on youtube has everything you need to know about shaving. he does safety razors rather than straight razors. http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59

You will need some pre-shave face wash, a shave brush, shave soap and some sort of post shave lotion or aftershave. additionally you will need a strop and a sharpening stone to sharpen your razor.

I use nivea for men for both the pre-shave wash and post shave lotion, both for sensitive skin. As for the shave brush i've got an expensive fine badger brush but you can get away with something less expensive.

http://www.niveaformenusa.com/products/sensitive.html#!product11607
http://www.niveaformenusa.com/products/sensitive.html#!product11615/

Check out westcoastshaving.com and knifecenter.com both have good selections and prices.
 
YouTube has quite a lot of how-to-shave videos including straight-razor.
 
MrOverkill said:
Hi, I'm new to the forums and high end knives in general, and after growing a bear for the last year or so I've decided it's probably good to try to learn to shave with a straight razor.
Click to expand...


I'd make sure the bear is well sedated first.

You can make your own pre-shave oil using castor oil and olive oil with a fragrance oil of your choice (I like tea tree oil with some lavender oil).

You could also buy a pre-shave oil. "Slick Water" by John Allan is very very slick albeit a tad expensive but a little goes a long way with this product.


There are many places to find a good shave soap. I have made my own from raw ingredients with luck but Mama Bear's Soap has come nice products (and may be perfect for your bear -- pun intended).

Brush --- this is largely personal preference and usually beard type dependent. A coarse haired beard may be better served with a boar hair brush. Fine beards may be better served with silver tip badger hair. I have a travel silver tip brush that works very well for me for developing lather as does my home silver tip.

Aftershave --- I use bay rum (Ogallala) , have used straight witch hazel (which is inexpensive enough) with add fragrance oils and/or patchouli oil.
 
If you havn't shaved with anything but an electric razor in awhile, its probably a good idea to start off with a DE razor. Learning to make good lather is very importent. I just had my first straight razor shave this morning and really felt that the DE razor helped. No way I'd be able to get BBS in 2 passes (cheeks) without irritation first try without it.

whippeddog.com is probably a good place to look, he has some instructional PDF's and of course everything you'll need to get going except for soap.

Gollnick, do you have any recommendations for a straight razor video? I was looking and theres really not much. There are a few clueless people giving a tutorial, and then some knowledgeable people just shaving, but not really instructing.
 
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