Looking for a honemeister down under.

[ConcreteTurtle]

Hi All,

After receiving a super badger brush, some Truefitt and Hill shave soap, and an antique scuttle for Christmas, I'm looking at moving away from the annoying ingrown hairs of my Mach3 and buying my first straight razor.

I've read the great interactive guide by Joel, and it's answered a lot of questions about what I sould be looking for. Although I'm not entirely sure about what maintenance stuff I'll need day to day? As I understand it, a good quality strop is always needed, but do I also need a pasted strop?

From reading the guide, I think I'm looking for something with a 5/8" 1/2 hollow blade, round tip, preferably in stainless. There are a couple of Dovo razors which look quite good. So I'm looking for someone in Australia who can make it "shave ready" for a total newbie like myself. I'm more than happy to pay to make things right from the get go and make sure that I get the best possible start with straight shaving.

Many thanks, and it's great to see such a huge community keeping all this going...
CT.

 

[Bacchus]

After receiving a super badger brush, some Truefitt and Hill shave soap, and an antique scuttle for Christmas

Someone we know give you those?

Based on your specs, I'd go for the Dovo Special. Haven't tried it personally, but it's on my to buy list. You can get it sent to you shave ready, but I think that there is a Aussie honemeister listed on Straight Razor Place

 

[wedwards]

your best bet for honing would be oz (onimaru is his nick here i think). puts an awesome edge on a blade.

to start off with, you just need the razor and a strop. pasted strop can be used later on as a refresher, and you really shouldnt be messing with one until you have stropping technique sorted.

straightrazordesigns.com have some good deals going until end of this month (1 more day) for a razor and strop set and with the aussie dollar being up there, its fairly reasonable costwise (way cheaper than buying anywhere in the country). if you buy from there, the blade will come shave ready, so you just carefully wipe off the oil and shave. i am a regular customer, and have never had any issues - shipping takes up to 2 weeks (including being stopped in customs etc), depending on where you live - most tmes its quicker.

note that most people new to straight razor shaving will blunt a razor the first time they strop it, so make sure you do shave before stropping it, so that you know what "shave ready" actually feels like. if you order from srd, i would also add a note to your order to let them know its your first and that you want to be able to shave with it before stropping (just to be on the safe side - they seem to be very busy at present).

also, if you are completely new to straight razor shaving, it would be worthwhile checking out some tutorial videos by guys like jockeys at straightrazorplace.com - they are really good for showing you correct position, skin stretching in certain areas, angles etc.

anyway, welcome.....there arent a lot of aussie straight shavers around so gotta help out where we can

 

[ConcreteTurtle]

Someone we know give you those?

Nothing quite like that... My sister must have overheard me talking about wet shaving and had a look in the forums .
A very nice christmas surprise for sure!

Thanks for the razor reccomendation, I'll look it up and try to find a local distributor. I also found the honer in the classifieds at SRP, thanks for that.

Cheers,
CT

 

[azmark]

I think Luc does.

 

[ConcreteTurtle]

Thanks wedwards, I wasn't aware of straightrazordesigns, and the prices compared really well.

I just ordered the DOVO 5/8 tortiseshell and 2" black leather strop with herringbone cotton backing. I also let them know that I'd like to shave with it straight out of the box, many thanks for that bit of advice...

This looks to be a good starting razor, and in the meantime I'll watch some how-to videos and try to learn some more.

Thanks to everyone, and I'll let you know how I get on.

CT.

 

[LaughingAtFate]

heya From another aussie!
Yeah, theres a few of us aussie Wet Shavers (and even one or two of us who do the straight razor thing.
There's a forum posted in GSL (link to group in my sig) about Aussie Homemeisters, There's a couple in sydney that I know of. Etc.
So anyway, Hope that your journey is a fun one

 

[Big_Fuzzy]

Give Oz in Sydney a call on 0414 761 611 oremail at [email protected]

Incredibly nice dude who will hone a razor for 20 bucks plus the shipping to him, the man is an expert and arguably the best man for the job in the country.

Good luck!!

 

[Luc]

I missed the thread...

Welcome to B&B!

Nah, I do not hone any razors myself but Oz will do a great job... He's working on a few of my razors and it's going well...

There's also Buckler on this forum.

JimRoo on the SRP also hone...

 

[mdunn]

os is the man

 

[ConcreteTurtle]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, I've been in touch with oz, so now I have someone to send my razor to if I make a newb mistake with the edge..

Just waiting on straight razor designs to ship my dovo out to me now, and trying to resist the urge to buy a wedge razor for comparison .

 

[Bushranger]

make sure you join great southern land social group if you haven't already and welcome