Shave With a Straight Razor: A Guide for Beginners

By John Davis

A basic guide to getting started shaving with a straight razor. Simplified, modernized instructions. Seventeen Photos included showing proper techniques for honing and stropping. "A picture is worth a thousand words" and this guide provides multiple photographs for illustrating what would take pages to describe in words. It is intended to be easily read, and, provide helpful photographs in lieu of extensive text. We hope you enjoy the guide and find it useful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Davis
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311689085

John Davis

John Davis is the author of two poetry collections, Gigs and The Reservist. He is a polio survivor and a Coast Guard veteran. Currently, he resides on an island in Puget Sound, Washington, and teaches high school while moonlighting in blues and rock 'n' roll bands.His poems have appeared in DMQ Review, Iron Horse Literary Review and many other literary journals.

Book preview

Figure 1 - A 19th century amber, hand blown and etched, barber's bottle with gold guilt; a badger hair brush with hand-turned ebony handle; a 19th century Bavarian coal scuttle shaving mug (hand painted); a contemporary razor with a Solingen blade and ebony handle; and a cake of shaving soap.

Copyright Information

Shave With a Straight Razor - A Beginning Guide

John Davis

Copyright 2012 Old Town Publishing

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Beginning Guide to Using a Straight Razor

What you need to Get Started

Acquiring your Razor

Acquiring your Strop

Acquiring your Hone

Acquiring your Brush

Acquiring your Shaving Soap

Using Your Straight Razor:

Honing and Sharpening

Safety

Hone, strop and shave

Honing

Stropping

Lathering

Shaving

After Shave

Shaving Luxuries

Hot Towels

Shaving Mugs

Barber Bottles

Rain Water

Your Personal Space

Epilogue

Table of Figures

Figure 1 - A 19th century amber, hand blown and etched, barber's bottle with gold guilt; a badger hair brush with hand-turned ebony handle; a 19th century Bavarian coal scuttle shaving mug (hand painted); a contemporary razor with a Solingen blade and ebony handle; and a cake of shaving soap.

Figure 2 - Straight razors with Solingen (German) blades and natural (ebony and bone) scales

Figure 3 - A horsehide strop with a linen surface