Thread: Greetings to all!

Hello, everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself and thank you all for this invaluable wealth of knowledge here.

I have just joined SRP a few days ago. I have always been interested in straight razor shaving. Not so much for being manly, but more so for being refined and classic. I also loathe the thought of spending well earned money on disposable products (cartridges, handles, et al).

So I decided to cross over the the light side and become a traditionalist. I recently purchased (after great research, mind you) a Dovo 5/8 Full Hollow razor, some shaving soap, brush, etc, etc. This I found from SRD.

Anyway, I had my first shave today:

Prepped with two hot towels, lather in between and after. Two passes later, WTG and ATG, and I am one happy camper. No cuts, no nicks. Some irritation from a newbie trying his best, but all-in-all a wonderful and satisfying shave.

Before my next shave, I will need to strop, I know. And I have the technique down. However, having a leather strop and a canvas layer, I am looking at a 0.5 micron grit for one side of my canvas. I have read the library and perused the forums for suggestions. This is what I'm looking for to keep up my edge between honings.

Any additional advice you believe I should know for the new guy would be well received.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

Welcome! I hope you continue to enjoy wet shaving, it certainly sounds like you're on the right track. I just started about a month ago and so far I haven't needed to do more to my razors (yeah, RAD already) than do several laps with my palm on my leather strop and strop the blade before I shave and after to dry it. That is just what is working for me, YMMV. Good luck and good shaving!

Welcome to SRP! Sounds like you're off to a great start. Even though I'm a newb myself, everything I've read about pasting strops seems to indicate that you want a separate strop to paste- that way you have a clean one for everyday use and a pasted one for touch-ups. You could also apply some chromium oxide to a piece of balsa and use a stropping motion on that for touch-ups. I actually decided to buy the "poor man's strop kit" from whipped dog for this purpose (I already had a strop but I now use the strop from this kit for travel). As they say, "YMMV," but most guys seem to think that one should not paste their only strop. Enjoy!

To go along with MBR1965's suggestion of a separate pasted strop, you could go to your local thrift store and buy one of the cotton belts that loops through two D-rings to "buckle" it. You could then paste it to your heart's content and keep it isolated from your normal strop. The belt will be on the narrow side, 1.5"-2" at most, so you'll have to really practice your X-strokes, but having a longer stropping surface means you can take your time going from side to side on the X-stroke and hit the entire edge. To hang it, just tie a loop of either paracord, leather cord, an old shoe lace, rope, twine, etc. through the D-Rings. Since it has no handle, just put the belt between your index and middle finger to reduce cupping and pull taught as normal.

I just last week bought a new SRD strop (3" Black Latigo) and ordered some CrOx spray as well to try pastes for the first time (I've been using my barber's hone for touch ups). I did exactly what I suggested above and the results were pretty good. The belt may not hold the CrOx as long as an actual linen or canvas strop, but for just trying it out as well as something I don't anticipate using often, it did the trick. I think the belt was only 2 or 3 dollars.