Shaving Update....

My 1st Razor came in yesterday. Its pretty basic, black bakelite looking handle, some pitting on the spine of the blade. I began honing it while Emma was asleep. In the process of trying to test the edge, I cut my finger, so I thought that was a good sign. Then I stropped it for like 30 times, and lo and behold it shaved arm hair off clean as a whistle. I looked in the mirror and went through "pretend" shave motions. Using my right hand on my left side of face seemed very do-able. Using either hand on my right side of face seemed very suicidal. I thought to myself, " How the hell am I going to do this?"



There's also the question of sharpness, just because it will cut my thumb and some armhair, will it cut facial hair? As I was about to find out, I have no idea and I suspect neither do you just how sharp razor-sharp is.

This morning, I took the blade upstairs lathered up and after working up enough courage took the blade in hand. Working backwards through the mirror, the simplest motion of getting the correct angle on blade to skin was harrowing. I put the edge on my cheek, tilted upwards and began a short, hesitatant stroke. I immediately stopped, removed my glasses and put in contacts. I felt I needed as wide of an angle of clear vision as possible. I rebraced myself. Put my first aid supplies at the ready, googled the location of any and all major facial blood vessels and re-assumed the position. And I can tell you, I shouldn't have so nervous or concerned about my vision, or any of that because it didn;t cut shit. It maybe pulled a few hairs out, but more than anything it just scraped and annoyed.

Later during the day, I honed some more, restopped, tried again - but just one little section. It actually did remove hair, but felt like it became dull again very quickly and still pulled like a mother.

Later during the day, after more honing and stropping, I tried again. (For anyone that cares, after the 1st time I only used the 8000 grit side of the Norton Stone) I think I ran that blade up and down the stone like 30 times, making a total of atleast 60-70 for the entire day. Upstairs once again, better but still like shaving with the worst razor ever made.

My assumptions and findings:

1) Razor not sharp enough and/or improperly stropped. No suprises here, since I don't know what I'm doing.

2) Razor sharp is a term grossly overused by our society. When I say or hear someone say Razor Sharp from now on, I'll have flashbacks to my facial hairs being plucked out by an antique version of the As Seen on TV Tweese and the sound of steel scraping endlessly on a whetstone.

More exciting, my second razor just came in. Perhaps I'll sharpen some more and try tomorrow.