Thread: Starter questions, more opinions the better :)

Originally Posted by Xyphota

I believe the second person to respond (thank you but i forgot your name , i should have quoted) suggested a revisor razor. Does anybody have any information on how they compare to the other three i suggested? looking on their website, it is very clear that they have some beautiful razors! unfortunately though the majority of the website is in german, and its hard to tell some of the details. Can some one tell me how to tell if the blade is carbon steel or stainless steel? I read in another post that the owner is a great guy, so maybe ill email him. does anyone know if they send out the blades pre-honed?

I'm pretty sure they arrive with quite good edges, not like the big productions. If nothing is mentioned about the steel you should assume it's high carbon steel, stainless is far rarer and will be noted. But stainless steel for razors is also high carbon steel - nothing to do with your stainless forks and will rust very easily, just not as easy as the high-carbon. Of course, for the best information on a razor contact the vendor for details.

Originally Posted by Xyphota

One last question on the strops? Especially on the SRD website, most of the strops come as a double set? and that the second is made of vinyl or something likewise? I watched Lynns video on the stropping and he most certainly had two back to back. im just curious as to what purpose the non-leather one serves and how much of an effect does it have on the shave?

It's essential for keeping the edge sharp long time. With only plain leather stropping you'll have to take the razor to the hone far more often. If there's any debate about it, it's from people who haven't really tested the difference. If you dig through the old threads from years ago you'll find experiments running for months and may be into years dedicated to exactly this issue.

The polymer fabric has a weird feel while stropping, especially at the beginning, like driving over those metal bridges, but with time it becomes more normal and may be one gets more used to it. It functions well though. Not that the fabric component on the illinois strops isn't weird when new, just in a different way.