Help a straight Virgin (Razor that is)

[BraveBlades]

So i am very new to traditional shaving, I was always a cartridge razor man but suffered badly from irritation and moved to electric shaving (i know, i know, don't stone me yet) well recently i tried my first DE shave and i have been truly bitten by the the shaving bug.

I am currently using a EJ DE89 and am loving it - however the more i research about shaving, the more I am drawn toward a straight razor.

So bearing in mind i have already blown a load of cash of shaving stuff (creams, soaps, blades, etc etc ) what would be peoples suggestions for a first decent straight razor and decent strop?

 

[fsturnz]

I'm very much like you...started shaving with DE in January...an EJ 89 barley. Then picked up several old Gillettes and have a pretty good collection. Then The idea of a straight hit me as well, and now I own several and am on shave 120 or so...and loving every minute of it.

I started with a nice razor off the B/S/T, or maybe the Hobbyist section. I also picked up a sight unseen razor from whipeddog.com. You can get your initial supplies pretty cheap from whippeddog, including a poor man's strop. That way you won't break the bank until you decide if you want to stick with it. As you get better, and want to progress, a big daddy strop is your next best bet...great strops for reasonable money...search ebay for them. I now have 2 new Dovo razors, and 3 other older/restored razors in addition to the two I described above...all shave ready.

If you do wander down this path, there's lots of good advice here and in the wiki that can make it enjoyable and safe.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[BraveBlades]

I'm very much like you...started shaving with DE in January...an EJ 89 barley. Then picked up several old Gillettes and have a pretty good collection. Then The idea of a straight hit me as well, and now I own several and am on shave 120 or so...and loving every minute of it.

I started with a nice razor off the B/S/T, or maybe the Hobbyist section. I also picked up a sight unseen razor from whipeddog.com. You can get your initial supplies pretty cheap from whippeddog, including a poor man's strop. That way you won't break the bank until you decide if you want to stick with it. As you get better, and want to progress, a big daddy strop is your next best bet...great strops for reasonable money...search ebay for them. I now have 2 new Dovo razors, and 3 other older/restored razors in addition to the two I described above...all shave ready.

If you do wander down this path, there's lots of good advice here and in the wiki that can make it enjoyable and safe.

Welcome to the addiction!

Thanks for the reply.

 

[temjeito]

Welcome to the dark side!! That's good advice from fsturnz. B/s/t and whippeddog.com are your friends. Make sure whatever you get is shave ready. You may want to get two razors if you can afford it, so you have something to shave with while the othe one is being honed. Of course, you could always use your DE, but where's the acquisition disorder in that?

 

[hillbilly pick]

+1. On whipped dog. I got my first straight and strop from them and have not looked back.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Razor... cheap? Not so cheap? High end? I will assume you want to go cheap but have a good chance of initial success.

RAZOR
1. www.whippeddog.com for a sight unseen shave ready vintage blade from Larry's big bucket of blades. Might not be purty but it will gitter done. Most are of respected brands and are good quality, just showing their age which might be well over 100 years old for some of them. But purty don't shave. Sharp shaves. And his are ready to rock for a good price. And you get the major cool factor from shaving with a blade that has seen a lot of history. Classy.
2. http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/361859-Gold-Dollars-66-22-shipped-conus-SHAVE-ready. Shave ready Gold Dollar #66. Again, not exactly a thing of great beauty but it is crazy cheap and ready to shave with.

Decisions, decisions. Get both. There. Fixed it for ya. You should have more than one razor, anyway, for obvious reasons.

STROP
1. Newspaper. Fold a sheet into a narrow strip, pass an end over your towel rod, pinch both ends together, pull tight, and strop. Works nearly as good as leather. You will hack and slice and slash your first strop shamefully and dreadfully, so even a cheap strop ought to be saved for after you get the hang of stropping, when you have a FREE strop just waiting to be used and abused. Use newspaper for the first week or so.
2. PMSK. Poor Mans Strop Kit, from Larry at www.whippeddog.com. very basic, cheap, and expendable. Comes with a pasted balsa strop, too.
3. Big Daddy strop from www.starshaving.com. This is a magnificent strop for the money. 3" wide and way long. Removable hardware. You can swap ends with the leather when the right hand edge gets nicked, or replace it altogether. Great value.
4. Pasted balsa strop. The PMSK comes with one of these, but I prefer one bigger and pasted with diamond instead of red and green paste. Buy a piece of balsa 3" x 12" from a hobby shop or online. Lightly glue a whole sheet of 320 grit sandpaper to an absolutely flat surface such as an old glass coffee table top and work the balsa across it until you have a completely renewed, smooth, perfectly flat surface top and bottom. Get .5u and .1u diamond paste from www.tedpella.com and apply half a pea worth of each to a side so you have a coarse side and a fine side. Normally you won't need the coarse. After each shave, strop 4 dozen laps on the fine side to keep your edge sharp. If after a few months the edge seems to be going a little dull, hit the coarse side first, as many laps as it takes, then wipe the blade very clean and hit the fine side as usual. If you do this correctly you should never need to re-hone your razor. Balsa AFTER shaving. If you like, a dozen on the leather, too. 4 dozen laps on the hanging leather strop BEFORE each shave to straighten and smooth the edge.

If you don't already have a badger brush, check out Larry's cheap silvertips. Great buy. A nice big monster one for less than $40 as I recall.

 

[5bassman]

So bearing in mind i have already blown a load of cash of shaving stuff (creams, soaps, blades, etc etc ) what would be peoples suggestions for a first decent straight razor and decent strop?

Yep, it seems to be a slippery slope, because I too have just started this adventure and seem to be buying all I see!

 

[one2mny]

Dovo or Ralph Aust can be bought for around $100 new. I went with a Dovo for my first and have since bought a Wade and Butcher to restore from the bay. As for a strop, I think I spent $15 on a no name strop from the bay. The strop was a 2 piece, so I pasted 1 side with .05 chromium oxide. Keep in mind that I have never used an expensive or name brand strop, but I am having no trouble keeping my razor in good shaving condition. In fact I use it almost everyday. YMMV as always, but at least you are on the right path by asking for help.

 

[Labowski]

One of the guys on here gave me some pretty good advice when I asked about buying my first straight (which was about a week ago, give or take a few days); basically, if the razor appeals to you then buy it. There's not really a "set in stone" razor for beginners since everyone is different and will handle the razor a little differently. I did notice there is a general consesus when it comes to razor size though, 5/8 being a little more ideal for beginners due to it being easier to manuever I guess. That's the size I bought adn I like it.

EDIT: noahpictures was the user name of the guy who gave me that advice. I think he sells shave ready straights in the hobbyist section too.

 

[BraveBlades]

All sound advice, sadly I'm not in the US and shipping can be a pain, but whippeddog prices are still appealing. Slash McCoy - lots of good info in there, many thanks.

 

[KI4TFT]

I think the EJ DE89 may be the standard "starter" razor. I love mine. Even though I now have several vintage ones I got at antique stores.

I have two straights, one is a Gold Dollar 66 from here: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/361859-Gold-Dollars-66-22-shipped-conus-SHAVE-ready

Even though you're not in CONUS, he may send you one inexpensively. Non shave ready Gold Dollars ship from Chine for about $6.00 each. My second straight was a Pride Cutlery straight bought for less than $20, again here in the US, which I honed to shave ready, and it works!

Inexpensive razors do shave and some shave well.