Recommended SR Starter Kit - Titan ACRM-2 for about US$22 including shipping worldwide

[Eastcoast30]

@gpjoe "Honestly, the Titan gained me experience with a strop and is a perfect, inexpensive razor to experiment on with no risk."

Yes, that is how I see it - a practice razor for little bucks. You can practice stropping and honing. But as a starter razor for new SR shavers, I don't think it is a good idea at all. I believe it will give the new shaver a false impression as to what SR shaving is like.

 

[rbscebu]

Arrived home in the evening of 02 May. The pasted stop T.H.60 by then had 40 three-pass shaves on it. Once the edge stopped noticeably improving, its maintenance consisted only of about 50 to 60 laps on the pasted denim strop before each shave. No further paste was ever added to the strop.

The following morning was a comparison shave using two identical SRs. One was the T.H.60 with pasted denim strop edge (blue tail) and the other T.H.60 was finished on 1μm lapping film (white tail) and leather stropped.

​

BTW, the Palmolive cream (highly recommended) was about US$2 for 65g locally and the brush (my most favoured) was well under US$5 including shipping on AliExpress.

The results from this comparison shave were that the 1μm film edge was shaving closer than the pasted denim edge, not by much but it was most noticeable in the CdM (against the grain upper lip). The pasted denim edge was still shaving, just not quite as well as the other and definitely more forgiving (comfortable?) of the two.

If should be remembered that most beginners will be be shaving ATG during their first few weeks of daily SR shaving. It would probably be best if they only tried this once they had a properly honed SR.

If I was a beginner, just with this kit and wanting to continue on in learning this gentlemanly art, I would now be considering spending more money. This would entail getting a professionally honed SR if possible or putting a lapping film kit together and learning to properly hone a SR.

Since starting this thread, there have been many knocking the suggestion without ever trying. Some of those suggested that you don't even try SR shaving unless you are prepared to spend a lot more. One or two who tried but couldn't/wouldn't follow the instructions and some who tried but didn't report back. I hope we get some (beginners?) who try, follow the instructions and report on how they went. At least @gpjoe was encouraged to give SRs a go. @wlshephard might also be happy with his next T.H.60 and following the instructions. Titan are pretty good when a replacement is requested.

From my experience in this thread, I would recommend this Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR kit for a beginner if;

• he has a limited budget of under about US$50 to get into SR shaving,
• does not have ready access to a recognised experienced SR honemeister, and
• can and does follow the instructions.

If you have a higher budget and/or access to a honemeister, you can do better. Then I would suggest that you start with a truly shave-ready SR or two and leather strop. That of course is going to bring your budget up to well over a hundred dollars or a lot more.

 

[wlshephard]

Arrived home in the evening of 02 May. The pasted stop T.H.60 by then had 40 three-pass shaves on it. Once the edge stopped noticeably improving, its maintenance consisted only of about 50 to 60 laps on the pasted denim strop before each shave. No further paste was ever added to the strop.

The following morning was a comparison shave using two identical SRs. One was the T.H.60 with pasted denim strop edge (blue tail) and the other T.H.60 was finished on 1μm lapping film (white tail) and leather stropped.

View attachment 1652623
​

BTW, the Palmolive cream (highly recommended) was about US$2 for 65g locally and the brush (my most favoured) was well under US$5 including shipping on AliExpress.

The results from this comparison shave were that the 1μm film edge was shaving closer than the pasted denim edge, not by much but it was most noticeable in the CdM (against the grain upper lip). The pasted denim edge was still shaving, just not quite as well as the other and definitely more forgiving (comfortable?) of the two.

If should be remembered that most beginners will be be shaving ATG during their first few weeks of daily SR shaving. It would probably be best if they only tried this once they had a properly honed SR.

If I was a beginner, just with this kit and wanting to continue on in learning this gentlemanly art, I would now be considering spending more money. This would entail getting a professionally honed SR if possible or putting a lapping film kit together and learning to properly hone a SR.

Since starting this thread, there have been many knocking the suggestion without ever trying. Some of those suggested that you don't even try SR shaving unless you are prepared to spend a lot more. One or two who tried but couldn't/wouldn't follow the instructions and some who tried but didn't report back. I hope we get some (beginners?) who try, follow the instructions and report on how they went. At least @gpjoe was encouraged to give SRs a go. @wlshephard might also be happy with his next T.H.60 and following the instructions. Titan are pretty good when a replacement is requested.

From my experience in this thread, I would recommend this Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR kit for a beginner if;

• he has a limited budget of under about US$50 to get into SR shaving,
• does not have ready access to a recognised experienced SR honemeister, and
• can and does follow the instructions.

If you have a higher budget and/or access to a honemeister, you can do better. Then I would suggest that you start with a truly shave-ready SR or two and leather strop. That of course is going to bring your budget up to well over a hundred dollars or a lot more.

When I get to feeling better and get back home for a while, I will follow the directions exactly and let you know how it goes.

 

[rbscebu]

When I get to feeling better and get back home for a while, I will follow the directions exactly and let you know how it goes.

Thank you. At present it appears that I am the only one to give it a serious go. Don't expect a perfect shave-ready edge. Hopefully you will achieve an edge that is shavable enough to encourage a beginner to explore more into the gentlemanly art.

The purpose of this exercise is to allow a beginner to start out in SR shaving on a very limited budget (say well under US$50) without access to an outsider who could properly hone his SR. With my trial in this thread, I believe that it can be done.