Newbie help

[nofeardiver]

I have been DE shaving for a couple of months now, i absolutly love to shave now, love the brush the razor the creames, and so on. I am dying to try a straight razor, but want to know a few things up front.

1. How to find a good razor and strop at decent price, beer budget, if you get my drift.

2. Do i need my own honing stones (i don't know the technical terms)or is stroping enough?

3. If so how often do i need to hone, after every shave? Or just stroping

4. How often do i need to strop?

Thanks for the help up front guys. I love this place, this is one of my first posts, i appreciate the help.

Dan

 

[Blaine]

I have been DE shaving for a couple of months now, i absolutly love to shave now, love the brush the razor the creames, and so on. I am dying to try a straight razor, but want to know a few things up front.

1. How to find a good razor and strop at decent price, beer budget, if you get my drift.

2. Do i need my own honing stones (i don't know the technical terms)or is stroping enough?

3. If so how often do i need to hone, after every shave? Or just stroping

4. How often do i need to strop?

Thanks for the help up front guys. I love this place, this is one of my first posts, i appreciate the help.

Dan

Consider my answers preliminary since I'm not much further along than you:

1) Ken Rup sells Gold Dollars and Filly Strops in a nice set. Ruprazor.com
I bought a Gold Dollar from Seraphim and a strop from Ken. Very happy with the results. $60 or so.

2) You don't NEED stones. You might WANT a finishing hone (8k grit or so). Eventually your blade will lose its edge and need a touch up. You probably won't need to actually hone or set a bevel for a while/unless you damage the blade. I went with a Spyderco Fine stone. $30.

3) Just stropping each shave. Strop everytime. If you get a Filly, you'll have a rough side with paste. You can use that for touch ups occasionally. You'd use a finishing hone even less and you'd do an actual hone even less than that.

4) Every time.

Again, I'm highly newb too so... I could be wrong.

But what you CAN do is:

1st, get a shave ready razor and a strop.

A couple weeks later get a finishing hone.

Even later get other stones.

It's not expensive if you only buy what you need when you need it. Sure a Diamond Lapping Stone is costly... but you won't be using it anytime soon! If ever. That's my advice. Get your razor & strop. Next paycheck, get a finishing hone.

You might not even decide to hone your own blades when the time comes.

 

[profsaffel]

Glad to hear you've found the best way to shave!!! Welcome to B&B.

 

[sapito318]

First and foremost, read this thread:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=33718

As to your questions:

1. How to find a good razor and strop at decent price, beer budget, if you get my drift.
B&B BST, Straight Razor Place and eBay are all goo places to start.

2. Do i need my own honing stones (i don't know the technical terms)or is stroping enough?
No, honing stones are NOT a requirement. They are only needed if you want to sharpen you own razors. I do not recommend starting out on the road to straight razor shaving by buying your own set right away. Send it out to be honed, IMO.

Stropping is all that is necessary for several months after a fresh hone job. Maybe some crox paste for touch up in between.

3. If so how often do i need to hone, after every shave? Or just stroping
Honing only needs to be done when stropping no longer gets the job done.

4. How often do i need to strop?
Strop before every shave, and after if you have the time.

 

[nofeardiver]

Wow, guys thanks for the quick response, so far i am loving my DE Razor, but just something is calling me to try the straight razor, i allready freaked my wife out with the DE, and she is like what the heck when i told her i wanted to try a straight... Thanks i am def going to check all these links out and sources...

Thanks again

Dan

 

[Hughies_online]

Welcome to B&B! The guys have you covered

 

[Luc]

+1 good answers up here!

You could find something on BST for cheap too... You need to make sure that you get a 'shave-ready' blade! If it's not mentionned then, it's not shave-ready. You will need to have it honed by someone. One of the Gents on this forum will be able to help you with this.

 

[Mr Peat]

You can also find some goodies at Antique shops. I got my Straight edge for a tad over $28. I had no idea that I actually found a company that made awesome razors and cutlery knives.

So I was really happy that I got a good one right out of the gate. You can see the pictures I posted in how it was restored by someone else. Of course this isn't cheap to have done. But you have to ask yourself when it comes to things like this in life. Do I want to use a $1 razor to shave my face or would I rather have a razor of quality shaving my face?

This applies to all things in life. As you already have DE razors, why not save some money and do it right the first time? Thats my opinion on the matter. I was lucky to find the one I did in such great shape. Referring to the blade having no nicks and relatively no pitting. Nothing that will hurt it at least. I can honestly say I didn't read much about Straight razors. I just picked it out but I could tell by looking at it that I had a winner. But I also have like 15 Gillettes before 1965. Plenty of other razors to shave with till I had my Straight razor restored the right way.

 

[mdunn]

I have been DE shaving for a couple of months now, i absolutly love to shave now, love the brush the razor the creames, and so on. I am dying to try a straight razor, but want to know a few things up front.

1. How to find a good razor and strop at decent price, beer budget, if you get my drift.

2. Do i need my own honing stones (i don't know the technical terms)or is stroping enough?

3. If so how often do i need to hone, after every shave? Or just stroping

4. How often do i need to strop?

Thanks for the help up front guys. I love this place, this is one of my first posts, i appreciate the help.

Dan

1. Get the razor in the BST, get a filly strop from ruprazor
2. Nope. Just a strop (though you'll want a barbers hone or pasted strop down the line)
3. No, only hone every few months when it starts to degrade
4. After every shave.

Good luck!

 

[nofeardiver]

Ok guys, thanks for all the advice, i decided to order the gold dollar combo with the filly strope, i figured if i just couldn't get the hang of it i wouldn't be out much money. But if i love it i want to find a really nice one and have it restored.

Thanks again guys, i will let you know how it goes.

Dan