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What the heck is wrong with me?

Thanks for the post!



I'm thinking that a stainless razor would make more sense for me from a maintenance standpoint, but they are obviously more expensive. Is there a good entry-level stainless, or should I just fo with carbon for now in case I don't like it?

I see that Vintage Blades has this entry-level package. Any thoughts?

http://www.vintagebladesllc.com/vshop/xcart/product.php?productid=886&cat=142&page=1



Honestly, I'm not really afraid of seriously hurting or disfiguring myself (I'm mroe afraid of my kids doig that if I leave the thing in reach). I'm more worried about having an unpleasant and somewhat painful experience, while getting crappy shaves and wasting money, and thus being frustrated at myself for going on a fool's errand.

Ultimately, however, it's also just my tendencey to research the hell out of things before I pull the trigger (as those who followed my thread on grills in the Speakeasy can attest to!). I am "Obsessed," after all. :biggrin:

Ach! You have not researched this nearly enough! You can't just go over to Vintage Blades and buy their off the rack beginners set up, even though it seems perfectly fine, and is not too bad a deal!

Entry level Dovos, which I think is what this is, get good reviews by virtually everyone. I do not even know what is better about more expensive Dovos other than the scales get more interesting and if you really get up the there starts to be various embossing on the blade.

It will be so much more satisfying if you really do research this to death!

I would be more inclined to buy something off someone on these forums or over at Straight Razor Place.com, or one of the other fora that I know less well. I do not think the sellers will steer you too wrong. Make sure you get it something that is shave ready though. And no wedges--too hard to hone if you ever get to that point. No spikes either. I would say either 5/8 or 6/8, although what I am about to talk about my actually be larger. I would also trust Ken Rup (whatever his full last name is!) to get you set up with sort of a beginners set. http://ruprazor.com/store/index.php Folks like his beginners strop for instance. I think he would sell you an appropriate razor and does great job honing. Shipping is included in his prices, if I remember, which is a good deal.

Now, all of this fairly recently, was a lot easier. One could just say find yourself a shave ready Wapienica I (stainless steel scales so a bit heavy) or Wapienica II (plastic scales, and probably a little lighter all around, thinner too, probably) or the so-called "Double Arrow," again, shave ready is important. Ken Rup himself must have sold hundreds of all three kinds. They, especially the Wapis, are reliably good razors, easy to come by, and quite inexpensive. (Read up on them. The history of the Wapi is in particular very interesting.) But the supplies of these seem to have dried up considerably. Still if one comes up on the fora or classifieds it is probably a good deal and will save you a little money over a Dovo, although the Dovo will have nicer scales. Right now, I do not thing there is a standard beginners straight. (Although believe me, the DAs and the Wapi blade were very good. Nothing particularly beginner about them.) I do think most sellers around here would not steer you too wrong.

Now for a strop. I bought something unbelievably cheap off EBay and have been completely happy. You can probably get this one for $12 delivered. I think it is the one I have. If you screw it up learning to strop, no big deal. I think for a hanging strop all you really need is a fairly even long piece of leather of some kind. I do not think you will be able to find such a piece of leather for as little as this costs. http://cgi.ebay.com/STROP-FOR-STARI...39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50#ht_549wt_955

Someone else may have good reasons why this is a bad strop. For $12 you can always toss it and get a better on after awhile. Seems to me though that leather is pretty much leather for this purpose. Another strop may have better draw, but at the most what does that mean? A few fewer strokes?

I never thought about stainless versus carbon steel and I do not remember reading much about any preference for stainless. I do not think I would pay anything more for stainless. I do not know if there are advantages or not. Dry your razor on a towel and try to put it away somewhere that is not damp and I do not think you are going to have corrosion problems. Maybe someone else has ideas on this. With modern pastes, such as diamond paste, I do not think the hardness of stainless is a great disadvantage.

So there you go. I have told you more than I know. I am sure others will have some ideas, too. I am not saying that the Vintage Blades deal is a bad one. You can probably have more fun shopping a little harder, since you seem to me into that. I am pretty much a cheap skate myself. Have fun. Folks know a lot.
 
Ach! You have not researched this nearly enough! You can't just go over to Vintage Blades and buy their off the rack beginners set up, even though it seems perfectly fine, and is not too bad a deal!

Entry level Dovos, which I think is what this is, get good reviews by virtually everyone. I do not even know what is better about more expensive Dovos other than the scales get more interesting and if you really get up the there starts to be various embossing on the blade.

It will be so much more satisfying if you really do research this to death!

I would be more inclined to buy something off someone on these forums or over at Straight Razor Place.com, or one of the other fora that I know less well. I do not think the sellers will steer you too wrong. Make sure you get it something that is shave ready though. And no wedges--too hard to hone if you ever get to that point. No spikes either. I would say either 5/8 or 6/8, although what I am about to talk about my actually be larger. I would also trust Ken Rup (whatever his full last name is!) to get you set up with sort of a beginners set. http://ruprazor.com/store/index.php Folks like his beginners strop for instance. I think he would sell you an appropriate razor and does great job honing. Shipping is included in his prices, if I remember, which is a good deal.

Now, all of this fairly recently, was a lot easier. One could just say find yourself a shave ready Wapienica I (stainless steel scales so a bit heavy) or Wapienica II (plastic scales, and probably a little lighter all around, thinner too, probably) or the so-called "Double Arrow," again, shave ready is important. Ken Rup himself must have sold hundreds of all three kinds. They, especially the Wapis, are reliably good razors, easy to come by, and quite inexpensive. (Read up on them. The history of the Wapi is in particular very interesting.) But the supplies of these seem to have dried up considerably. Still if one comes up on the fora or classifieds it is probably a good deal and will save you a little money over a Dovo, although the Dovo will have nicer scales. Right now, I do not thing there is a standard beginners straight. (Although believe me, the DAs and the Wapi blade were very good. Nothing particularly beginner about them.) I do think most sellers around here would not steer you too wrong.

Now for a strop. I bought something unbelievably cheap off EBay and have been completely happy. You can probably get this one for $12 delivered. I think it is the one I have. If you screw it up learning to strop, no big deal. I think for a hanging strop all you really need is a fairly even long piece of leather of some kind. I do not think you will be able to find such a piece of leather for as little as this costs. http://cgi.ebay.com/STROP-FOR-STARI...39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50#ht_549wt_955

Someone else may have good reasons why this is a bad strop. For $12 you can always toss it and get a better on after awhile. Seems to me though that leather is pretty much leather for this purpose. Another strop may have better draw, but at the most what does that mean? A few fewer strokes?

I never thought about stainless versus carbon steel and I do not remember reading much about any preference for stainless. I do not think I would pay anything more for stainless. I do not know if there are advantages or not. Dry your razor on a towel and try to put it away somewhere that is not damp and I do not think you are going to have corrosion problems. Maybe someone else has ideas on this. With modern pastes, such as diamond paste, I do not think the hardness of stainless is a great disadvantage.

So there you go. I have told you more than I know. I am sure others will have some ideas, too. I am not saying that the Vintage Blades deal is a bad one. You can probably have more fun shopping a little harder, since you seem to me into that. I am pretty much a cheap skate myself. Have fun. Folks know a lot.

I'm with you on all of this except the strop. The reason not to get it is I believe it to be the same strop Zeepk uses. It may be a bit plastic-like in it's consistency and frankly it's not worth it. For 20 bucks you can get a Filly from Ken Rup, and it's going to be miles ahead of it.
 
Obsessed,

You can get a razor professionally honed, buy a red latigo from Tony Miller and a 4 sided pasted strop and have a setup that will give you great shaves for 20 years. Advice directly from Joel to me when I started this journey. Good luck, and get with it:cool:
 
I'm with you on all of this except the strop. The reason not to get it is I believe it to be the same strop Zeepk uses. It may be a bit plastic-like in it's consistency and frankly it's not worth it. For 20 bucks you can get a Filly from Ken Rup, and it's going to be miles ahead of it.

It is actually not plastic-like at all in its consistency, although I can imagine what you are talking about there. What what I have seems like is a somewhat roughed up piece of belting leather such as one can buy from Tandy or any number of places, except as far as I can tell you would have to pay quite a bit more for just the piece of leather with any of the hardware and without what seems like a perfectly usable--to me--canvas strop. Not that I have ever quite figured out if I had a need for a canvas strop, at least assuming that I am not going to put paste of some kind on it.

Does it have the draw of a real red latigo, much less the beauty of a real red latigo. Heck, no. Does it do an adequate job of stropping my straight razor? I think so. The draw is somewhat light, but the draw is not non-existent and is not at all plasticy. Probably could use some conditioner, among other things. It is a little "hard" perhaps. But the strop is fairly long and reasonably wide (unlike the Filly if I recall--but believe me I think the world of Ken R and his products!). Eventually I will probably spring for a real Illinois strop. Maybe even a # 827. (Love Tony Millers strops, and I am absolutely sure they are worth every dime he charges.) Just do not feel driven to do it yet though.

Just noticed that Classic Shaving.com is now selling "Classic Brand Balsa Bench Hones" for $24.99 a piece, pastes sold separately. The pitch is to "smooth an overly aggressive blade" with chrome oxide or "to take your edge one more step from your finishing hones, creating the sharpest edge ever" with whatever their "white lapping paste" is. Must be a real nice piece of balsa for that price! Judging by price it must be about 10x better than my pieces of balsa. <g> Wonder if one needs a two of them. One for the chrome and one for the white paste?
 
Wow... Is straight razor shaving creapy? Really? Is that what people think?
For me it was a natural change, from Crap3->DE->Straight Razor.
What most people don't know is that the straight razor is SMOOTHER than a DE or a Crap3.

haha right on Leon
 
No. It's too late. The Marathon bug has bitten. There is no cure. There is no antidote.

You are going to do a Marathon, you just don't know it yet.

I swore I would never do a Marathon, and I told my podiatrist friend he could bet his practice on that. And I added, if I was ever crazy enough to do one, it would not be New York.

Four NYC Marathons later, I can tell you it is the most fun you will have for 26.2

You will cross the finish line of your first Marathon, and immediately think, "Thank God! Never Again!"

Then they put the Mylar blanket on you. Then they give you a nice shiny medal. Then you start to feel good about finishing.

Then, this tiny crazy thought pops up. Out of nowhere it says, "Hey, you know, that wasn't so bad after all. And if you do one more long run, you can best your time!" And you think yeah.. yeah.. I can definitely do better next time...

You're hooked. You might as go over to http://www.marathonguide.com/ and start picking one out.

Sorry, but the marathon is a virtual lock for "not gonna happen." My wife ran NYC four times as well. It's such a cool event and phenomenal achievemant that it's easy to get caught up in the hype, but when it comes right down to it I just don't enjoy running enough to actually do it. Even when I was in great shape, I was not a very good runner, and now I'm really out of shape. I'd need to go on the three-year pre-training program before I went on the actual training program! :eek:
 
Do NOT buy cheapo strops!

Spend the extra $20 and get a Tony Milller "Barber's friend" or whatever he is calling them these days.

I tried one of those $20 strops to begin with and it ate my finely honed edge! Really,a true piece of &^%^$%#!

You may also find that the act of stropping is quite enjoyable as part of the shave. I know I sure do!
 
do not buy cheapo strops!

Spend the extra $20 and get a tony milller "barber's friend" or whatever he is calling them these days.

I tried one of those $20 strops to begin with and it ate my finely honed edge! Really,a true piece of &^%^$%#!

You may also find that the act of stropping is quite enjoyable as part of the shave. I know i sure do!

+1
 
Thanks for the post!



I'm thinking that a stainless razor would make more sense for me from a maintenance standpoint, but they are obviously more expensive. Is there a good entry-level stainless, or should I just fo with carbon for now in case I don't like it?

I see that Vintage Blades has this entry-level package. Any thoughts?

http://www.vintagebladesllc.com/vshop/xcart/product.php?productid=886&cat=142&page=1

You asked earlier whether you should buy the Vintage Blades entry level package, and I discouraged you. Not because it is a bad razor, those standard Dovos are surely very nice razors. Partly, frankly, it just seems too mundane, and you would not get the joy of really tacking down what you wanted, and maybe saving a few bucks, etc.

But what razor do I think you should buy? I think you should buy this razor http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=92005 and you should buy it before someone beats you to it.

Talking about you Seraphim!

Solves your honing issues, too, as he is throwing in some diamond films.

This is a reworked Double Arrow, as I understand it. To me if you never shaved with it it would still be worth owning. Seraphim would you agree with me that a DA like this is going to shave just about as well as any razor out there?

So why the heck not? You can have a mundane black handled Dovo, or you can have something like this work of art!
 
Thanks for the tip on that nice-looking razor, but investing in any of this stuff is not really in the budget for the next month or so. (All the more time to overthink it! :smile:)
 
You do want to try a straight razor. It is not difficult, and you can do it. B&B has not been a source of peer pressure. The members are your friends, and they are looking out for your best interests.

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Ok, so it's been five days. Can I stop staring at this now?
 
No. It's too late. The Marathon bug has bitten. There is no cure. There is no antidote.

You are going to do a Marathon, you just don't know it yet.

I swore I would never do a Marathon, and I told my podiatrist friend he could bet his practice on that. And I added, if I was ever crazy enough to do one, it would not be New York.

Four NYC Marathons later, I can tell you it is the most fun you will have for 26.2

You will cross the finish line of your first Marathon, and immediately think, "Thank God! Never Again!"

Then they put the Mylar blanket on you. Then they give you a nice shiny medal. Then you start to feel good about finishing.

Then, this tiny crazy thought pops up. Out of nowhere it says, "Hey, you know, that wasn't so bad after all. And if you do one more long run, you can best your time!" And you think yeah.. yeah.. I can definitely do better next time...

You're hooked. You might as go over to http://www.marathonguide.com/ and start picking one out.

I forgot to mention, nice job with the four marathons. You're a better man than I.
 
Depends. Do you have a straight and strop yet? :biggrin:

As I was sitting on the train to work yesterday barely able to keep my eyes open after two cups of coffee (which I'm not even supposed to be drinking, BTW), I realized that I need to wait until things calm down a bit before I can give this a try!
 
V

VR6ofpain

Well I just had my second straight shave. The first was pretty **** poor. One pass with the straight, not very close, and had to do the 2nd pass with a GEM to ensure I got a close shave. The only good part was I did not get any cuts (did get some burn though).

Today's shave (2nd) was better. I was able to do 2 full passes then a bit of cleanup all with the straight. Surprisingly I got a pretty close shave, with no cuts! It was very difficult to shave some areas though, including a portion of my neck. I think what I need to do is work on my left hand shaving, as I am not used to using my left hand for holding a razor and the coordination needs some work. Overall I am happy with the results. I'll have to try again later this week or next weekend. It simply takes too much time at this point to do this daily. I had to re-wet the lather from time to time as it was drying up on my face (the shave was very slow).

There is hope for us all (newbies to ST8's)!
 
Ok, I'm just going to put this out here, knowing full well that some of you will think I'm nuts: the thing that terrifies me more than anything about the idea of getting a straight is having it in the same house as my kids. Yes, we have sharp kitchen knives, etc., and yes, I'd obviously take pains to keep the razor well out of their reach, but I just have this vision of them getting hold of the thing and brandishing it around that just really freaks me out.

Responses?
 
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Ok, I'm just going to put this out here, knowing full well that some of you will think I'm nuts: the thing that terrifies me out more than anything about the idea of getting a straight is having it in the same house as my kids. Yes, we have sharp kitchen knives, etc., and yes, I'd obviously take pains to keep the razor well out of their reach, but I just have this vision of them getting hold of the thing and brandishing it around that just really freaks me out.

Responses?

I have that same concern. However, I think that the key is education. My daughter knows that seeing my straights means that she sees something that can really hurt her & she steers clear. Plus I typically keep it well out of reach.
 
Ok, I'm just going to put this out here, knowing full well that some of you will think I'm nuts: the thing that terrifies me more than anything about the idea of getting a straight is having it in the same house as my kids. Yes, we have sharp kitchen knives, etc., and yes, I'd obviously take pains to keep the razor well out of their reach, but I just have this vision of them getting hold of the thing and brandishing it around that just really freaks me out.

Responses?

You are not nuts and this should absolutely be a concern that is at the very front of you thoughts every time you shave, especially as you finish shaving and are putting things away. A straight razor could end up being a source of great interest to a kid. And in their minds how dangerous could it be? Daddy rubs it up against his face! I can definitely see a straight razor being a bigger child attractor than a kitchen knife and I do not even know all the reasons why I think that.

Also, try not to shave with the little ones under foot. I have never dropped at straight razor on the floor, but I sure as heck want to be able to step back and let it fall if I ever drop one.

This said, I am certain that you will remember to put your straight razor away where they cannot get it. I would treat it like a loaded weapon though around the kids.
 
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