On The Fence About Going to Straights; Can Anyone Answer Some Questions?

[georgekaplan1]

I am becoming more and more interested and intrigued by straight razor shaving. I think that it is, for lack of a better or more mature word, cool. I like the manliness and the niche-ness of it.

I have read some of the sticky's and how-to's on these forums to try to get a better idea of what I would be getting into and what is all involved in making the conversion from DE to straights. The one area that is still shrouded in some degree of uncertainty is honing. I mean, how necessary would it be for me to learn to hone? I know that there are honing services out there. How many of you hone yourselves and how many send their blades out? I would imagine that if one sends it out that they would need another blade to use while the first is away, yes? I also know that there are many factors which affect this (the blade itself, one's hair, the angle or aggressiveness with which one shaves), but how often does a blade need to be honed?

I am sure that I would be able to pick up stropping and get the hang of it. But, I know that honing is of such vital importance to an effective shave that I feel that I would trust a professional more. How intuitive would it be for me to pick up? Or, is it just not necessary and I would be better off sending my investment to a professional?

As I am sure you can see, this is a major hang-up in my mind. I am just leery that this might become a hassle and I want to hear from those in the know if this is necessarily the case. Not that it will prevent me from going to straights, I guess that I just need someone(s) to shed some light on the topic. For example, one hang-up used to be that a straight was deadly sharp and that one would need to pay the absolute and utmost attention to prevent a bloodbath. But, after having read posts and seen videos, this is not necessarily the case I have found. So, that is no longer a hang-up.

I am sorry that I have rambled on like this, and I thank any and all who are patient enough to read through this whole thing and am most thankful to any and all who can provide some valuable insight. I am really excited about the concept and idea of straight shaving and I hope that I can alleviate these apprehensions to allow myself to make the move.

 

[Pkrankow]

I just sent my first razors out for honing. I will learn to hone my own at some point if I stick with it.

Phil

 

[DavyRay]

Your post is well-presented. I quite understand your questions. I would recommend that you purchase a couple of straight razors from Larry Andro at whippeddog.com. He restores vintage razors to keen sharpness and sells them at quite reasonable prices. They are shave-ready (truly), but may cosmetically-challenged. In other words, average-looking straights delivered with a great edge.

If you get two inexpensive razors, you can always ship one off for honing while using the other.

There are other people who hone to honest shave-ready condition, and others who have vintage razors for sale, I just can't think of any others right now.

I do think that it is a bit much to learn to shave with a straight razor while learning to hone at the same time.

 

[Luc]

I strongly recommend to have a pro honing your first straight razor. It will give you an idea on how sharp a straight can be. Keep in mind, because no honemeister use the same setup, you will get a different edge, some will be smoother, others sharper, others less sharp, etc.

Do you really need to hone them yourself? No.

• You can either have a honemeister doing them, always.
• You could get some pastes and strop with the pastes, this should keep the blades sharp for much longer.
• You could get a barber hone and maintain the edge yourself.
• You can buy a higher end stone and maintain the edge yourself.
• Finally, you can buy a full set of stones and do the whole process yourself.

It depends what you want to do.

Myself? I had most of my straight honed by a honemeister, I bought a high end stone and I maintain the edge that way. I can reset the bevel if I have to and re-hone the straight to a smooth shave ready but, it will take me a while as I don't have the stones in the middle. I could invest what I need to buy them but I don't think it will be worth it for what I want to do...

 

[Wid]

When I first started with a straight razor I bought them from Larry at Whippeddog, they came with a very nice edge. With that came a poor mans strop and a barbers hone. Most likely I could have kept the razors in good shape with just this stuff.

I then bought a few antique store razors and sent them off to be honed. When the razor count went up I figured it was better that I learned to hone so it would be cheaper in the long run compared to getting the razors honed.

It took some trial and error but now I can get a very good edge on a razor without the cost of someone else doing the work.

 

[professorchaos]

Get someone to hone at least your first razor, possibly your first few. With a benchmark in hand, you can learn to hone (it is quite rewarding). If I can learn it, anyone can.

 

[kg4ghn]

While you absolutely should have your first straights honed by somebody else so you can take that variable out of learning to shave with a straight razor, there is no reason why you can't learn to hone when you get ready to. It, just like shaving with a straight, isn't really hard it just takes some practice and concentration on technique.

And, since your straights will be shave ready to begin with, you can start with just a high grit finishing hone for touchups and keep your razors maintained that way indefinitely as long as you don't drop them or ding the edge on something.

A couple of examples of finishing/touchup hones:

coticule
naniwa 10k or 12k
shapton 12k
chinese 12k

You could also use a barber hone for touchup. Alternatively you can use pastes such as Chromium Oxide(CrOx) to keep your straights ready to shave although eventually you will have to have them re-honed this way(could be a year or more...)

 

[mdunn]

I hone the easy ones myself, and send the tricky ones out. All touchups are done by myself.

Bsically, send it out if it's new, touch it up yourself if it dulls through normal use it's dead easy to touch up yourself

 

[StillShaving]

This is not the best analogy, but imagine you are 16 year old boy wanting to drive a car around city traffic or the dirt track. At the beginning stage it is more important to learn the controls of car, how to steer, go, stop, and manually shift gears properly. That itself is enough to concentrate on and master without worrying about what is going on under the hood. Which is analogous to learning to shave and strop (i.e. shift gears, if you can't strop you will be stuck at first shave ).

Later on, the young boy can benefit from learning to change the engine oil, rotate the tires, keeping the tires at proper pressure, and doing other basic periodic chores which would be analogous to honing. He would not have to learn these things to be an expert driver, but surely they help him understand the machine.

If he was super interested then he could tackle major repairs, analogous to straight restoration, which is not a critical skill, only learned if one is truly interested.

What I am trying to say, is that you will be fine learning to shave without worrying about honing, but learning that at a later point is beneficial.

 

[Alacrity59]

I took the hard route. I learned how to restore an eBay special, hone, strop, and shave simultaneously. There is definitely a lot of doubt and guess work in trying to figure out which variable to change to get a better shave. It was not until I purchased a shave ready straight that I knew for certain that my honing was up to snuff. It was a puzzle . . . and I like puzzles.

Mike

 

[georgekaplan1]

Would you suggest getting the "Poor Man Strop Kit with Leather Strop" from Whippeddog.com? It includes: balsa wood with 0.1 micron ferrous oxide and 0.3 micron chromium oxide abrasives applied to the sides of the wood, and extra abrasive powder, hanging leather strop and hook.

http://www.whippeddog.com/-----$19---Poor-Man-Strop-Kit-with-Leather-Strop/

 

[StillShaving]

Would you suggest getting the "Poor Man Strop Kit with Leather Strop" from Whippeddog.com? It includes: balsa wood with 0.1 micron ferrous oxide and 0.3 micron chromium oxide abrasives applied to the sides of the wood, and extra abrasive powder, hanging leather strop and hook.

http://www.whippeddog.com/-----$19---Poor-Man-Strop-Kit-with-Leather-Strop/

Yes, looks like a great setup. I have not seen a better deal anywhere.

 

[kg4ghn]

Would you suggest getting the "Poor Man Strop Kit with Leather Strop" from Whippeddog.com? It includes: balsa wood with 0.1 micron ferrous oxide and 0.3 micron chromium oxide abrasives applied to the sides of the wood, and extra abrasive powder, hanging leather strop and hook.

http://www.whippeddog.com/-----$19---Poor-Man-Strop-Kit-with-Leather-Strop/

Larry at whippeddog is a member here, and a great guy to deal with.

 

[georgekaplan1]

Mentioned to the girlfriend that I am considering trying a straight razor...to say that she freaked out would be an understatement. I did do my best to ease her concerns and spread some "truthiness" to dispel the myths that I am sure she is falling back on.

 

[kg4ghn]

Mentioned to the girlfriend that I am considering trying a straight razor...to say that she freaked out would be an understatement. I did do my best to ease her concerns and spread some "truthiness" to dispel the myths that I am sure she is falling back on.

Show her some videos on youtube of people using them safely.

 

[georgekaplan1]

Show her some videos on youtube of people using them safely.

Oh believe me, I offered to do that. I offered to show vid's, show her some of the sticky's and wiki's around here, etc. She was having none of it. She is basically scared of knives, so she says that she does not want to watch videos of someone putting a "knife" to their face. She is just creeped out by the idea, I suppose. Again, it is this "idea" that I am trying to defeat or at least mold into a more educated, correct reality.

 

[Seraphim]

I never asked The Wife if I could get a straight. After a week or two of using it, I shared my "little secret" with her. She had wondered why my shaving sounded so loud in there.....

She watched me take a couple of passes, and she kind of cringed and then left. The rest is history.

Get a razor.

With a permission slip, or not!


EDIT:

And don't get too hung up about honing before you even get a razor to start with. I was a little freaked out by all the grits, naturals, synthetics, 1k, 12k, 0.5 microns, ad infinitum.....

Start with simply a shave reaqdy straight and a strop, and that's all you'll need for a month or so, and if you have the pasted stuff also from Whipped Dog, it'll be alot longer than that before you really need to worry about honing at all.

C'mon in, the water's fine!

 

[kg4ghn]

I never asked The Wife if I could get a straight. After a week or two of using it, I shared my "little secret" with her. She had wondered why my shaving sounded so loud in there.....

She watched me take a couple of passes, and she kind of cringed and then left. The rest is history.

Get a razor.

With a permission slip, or not!


EDIT:

And don't get too hung up about honing before you even get a razor to start with. I was a little freaked out by all the grits, naturals, synthetics, 1k, 12k, 0.5 microns, ad infinitum.....

Start with simply a shave reaqdy straight and a strop, and that's all you'll need for a month or so, and if you have the pasted stuff also from Whipped Dog, it'll be alot longer than that before you really need to worry about honing at all.

C'mon in, the water's fine!

+1

I had a similar response typed out but it sounded more harsh than I intended so I didn't post it.

 

[georgekaplan1]

Haha. No need to worry about hurting my feelings with the harshness of your response. I don't need her permission. We don't live together so I could get it and she would never really know, not for awhile at least.

I told her because I wanted to see how'd she'd react. I didn't expect her to accept it with open arms necessarily. But, I only thought there'd be something like, "Why?" or "Really?", but "OK, if you really want to."

As I said, my only real apprehension is the extra legwork that goes along with using a straight and if I would grow tired of it if it became a hassle. I know that it comes back to in order to get more out of the shave one must put more into it. The same is true of going from catridge to DE shaving. But, to me that decision was more a no-brainer than the DE to straight conversion. That's why I wanted to know whether, again, I am succumbing to the myths of straight razor shaving and what the realities are.

 

[Pkrankow]

Oh believe me, I offered to do that. I offered to show vid's, show her some of the sticky's and wiki's around here, etc. She was having none of it. She is basically scared of knives, so she says that she does not want to watch videos of someone putting a "knife" to their face. She is just creeped out by the idea, I suppose. Again, it is this "idea" that I am trying to defeat or at least mold into a more educated, correct reality.

You need to get to the root of the phobia, and then decide if this battle is worth fighting. This could be a make or break in your relationship.

Phil