Well, decided to get my artist club from West Coast Shaving and take my chances with customs....got caught...£11 charge and the usual outrageous £8 fees from royal mail!!

all in a great deal though, nice new Feather Artist club for under £85 delivered to my door!

if i'd got lucky with customs, would have been the bargain of the year!

Thanks to Al H I received my Gillette Super Speed Flair Tip with a few blades too.

I put in the Astra superior platinum in and took it for a spin as it were.

After a shower, and a good lathering with the brush and body shop shaving cream I did 3 passes.

On the whole I only managed to get nicked twice but some questions did arise. On the whole I started off like I would a normal razor, but then remembered I shouldn't be doing that and changed to what I'd seen in videos on youtube to short strokes with no pressure.

How does one know that the angle is correct? For the first pass it was a bit obvious because you could clearly hear the stubble being cut, but it was much harder with the second pass because you couldn't hear the stubble as well.

Secondly, how does one go about shaving around spots? I had a bit of a break-out in the morning around my chin and wasn't sure how to go about shaving so went over them, subsequently it hurt.

Thirdly, how do you do the chin? I got a better shave than I normally do in that area but it still isn't great.

On the whole though my shave was much closer and there was a bit less irritation but there was still irritation by the neck. I really need to work on my technique.

So I took the plunge. Hello you handsome devils.
I've recently acquired my Great-Grandads old, beat-up, Gillette DE razor, and decided to move onto DE like I'd been promising myself for years (I also got the obligatory Rolls Razor, which is cool to show off but not much use). I just got hold of some Bluebeards Revenge soap and pre-shave oil as I heard their stuff is good for coarse beards like my own.

Where my problem lies is that the grain from my jawline flows down and where it stops on my neck flows 'up'. Where they meet it weaves all over the place, making shaving a nightmare usually, so I'm a little apprehensive over getting a DE on there.

I've been trimming it to a stubble for a while now, can I get any tips on dealing with the necktastrophe?

There's a beautiful old Simpson AS2 brush for sale on the Bay. Offered by a US vendor, and bid up to £22.91 at time of posting.

I have a few razors in rotation but find when I switch from the progress (setting 2) to the ej89 the angle (same blade) is very much different. I know mantics approach of rolling the head so that the blade just catches your stubble is quite good. But I was just wondering are the blade angles from these two razors meant to be so different?

I was wondering what members' best deals on hardware have been?

My best buy was 2 fatboys for £15 plus minimal postage (part of a larger purchase) on B&B a year ago. One of them was a healthy user grade, which I'm going to send for replating having been in fairly heavy rotation since then, the other had taken a ding which had knocked one of the guards out of alignment, so I PIf'ed it on to someone who wanted to have a crack at a restore.

Even after a replate, the remaining one will still be one of the best valued razors I've ever bought.

came across this today.
Has anybody ever used them before.
Any problems?

thanks

http://www.shavingworld.com/

Novice back for more advice if thats ok?

I know there are lots of cheap straight razors which can cause an awful shave on ebay etc but does the quality of the strop matter? There appear to be many leather strops around on amazon/ebay for £5-£15, are these actually ok or is it necessary to invest in some of the better know strops for £30-50? Any recommendations bearing in mind i'm basically on a student budget?

Is it recommended to get a wider strop?

Is a paddle or a hanging strop better for a novice?

Any advice is welcomed and i would be very grateful.

Many thanks,

Stefan

Anyone else noticed prices for razors seem to be falling on ebay. Fatboy went today for £32

A frend on facebook got himself a gillette slim and I suggested getting a FatBoy just to compare and he did,but was having some trouble with it........ so I hepled him by telling him the trade secrets, of the fatBoy and to my suprise he posted a video (He does shaving videos for TBS)

http://youtu.be/ruTOQI2fJ4Y