Putting together a cheap shaving kit

Hi all, I'm new and this is my first post, and I've been reading about straight razors for about a week, and have been on this site for a few days.

I almost bought a few straight razors from ebay, but luckily I didn't win the auction, or I would have found out that I got a razor that wasn't sharp enough and that is very difficult to sharpen.

I'm trying to put together the cheapest shaving kit possible, partly because I don't have much money and partly because I don't like having too much stuff. Part of why I want to get a straight razor is that I don't like disposables.

So, I figure instead of a leather strop I can strop on a piece of cardboard.

Stones are definitely out of my budget, but I have very little facial hair (only around the goatee area), and only need to shave once every three or four days, so I think I can get away with not honing for perhaps a year or two at a time, at which time I can send it away to be honed, or at least can worry about purchasing stones in the future.

For a brush I will be using an artist's paint brush, which I remember being so soft that I used to enjoy rubbing it on my face. It is made of good quality hog's hair. It looks like this http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-supplie...bby-rounds.asp

Soap and mug are easy to take care of.

Take covers it, so I figure all I really need is to buy a shave ready razor from a SRP member and I'm set to go.

Does anybody think that this is a really bad idea?

I like the brush idea. Let us know how it works out for you.

I'm not sure cardboard is going to work as well for you as a strop. Even a leather belt would be better. Nothing ca can compare to real leather for stropping, even a piece of scrap from Courage My Love or something like that in Kensington Market would get you further I think.

Sorry I don't have a cheap blade to offer you.

X

You can get a boars hair shaving brush for the price of those paintbrushes, right next to the $1 Williams soap at the grocery store or drugstore. For a few dollars more you can even get a really good boars hair brush from Target.

Cardboard works well for stropping after honing in order to polish the edge some more, but I don't think it would work very well for daily stropping. And it's gonna disentigrate with use so you'll have to keep replacing it, hardly optimal for a non-disposable lifestyle. I'd use the cardboard with chrome oxide paste for occasionally refreshing the edge, and use a leather strop for daily stropping duties.

I can really relate to you. Disposable refills were one of the reasons that I switched to straight as well. I hated spending 12 bucks on a 4 pack of something I knew I was going to be throwing away. I know what you mean about the buy in cost for all this stuff. Still I would encourage you to consider getting a strop as I feel that this would really help you in learning the whole art of this. Tony Miller has a beginners strop for $22.95 on his site, http://thewellshavedgentelman.com. There isn't any linen backing on it, but I don't think you are really worried about that anyway. With a few bucks extra for shipping you are looking at a pretty good deal. Tony's strops are held in high esteem around here, so you couldn't go wrong. Your going to spend 20 on a decent belt for stropping. And just to put my money where my mouth is, I would be willing to donate 10 bucks towards the over all cost of the strop. If your interested, then let me know and we can work it out.

Matt

P.S. I agree with Mparker. As a novice painter, I would recommend that you don't use that paintbrush. If it's of any worth, then your better off getting a boars hair shave brush from CVS or Walgreens or some place. Unless it is a really large brush, I don't think it will be very good to build a lather with. You could try it and see, but it would have to be a decent size brush to hold enough water to build the lather.

Thanks for the reply guys.

I'll rethink the cardboard, and perhaps get a leather strop. I'm going to try out that paintbrush though, since I haved owned it for many years, I don't paint much with it because it is so big, and it is designed to hold a lot of water to cover a lot of canvas quickly. It is actually about the same size as a shaving brush.

Kentriv, thanks for the offer, though I can't possibly accept. I'm not that low on money, I just don't want to get carried away with equipment, so I figure I buy at little as I can get away with.

Xman, I see you are in Canada. I will be looking through the classifieds. Let me know what you may have avaliable coming up, my price ceiling is about 50 dollars.

The cardboard is a good idea for blade refreshes, you can use either fine abrasive pastes smearedon the cardboard or lay a piece of newspaper on the cardboard and strop on that - the ink contains a very fine abrasive that will help keep the razor sharp. You could give the razor 10-15 laps on newsprint-on-cardboard once a week and this would really help extend the life of the edge.

Edit: Use hard cardboard like posterboard or the backboard from a manila notepad, not the corrugated cardboard - that's too compressible and will dull your razor.

Ok, I'll admit it. I've used the flat side of a bi-fold wallet to strop when traveling. :)

I don't know gentlemen, maybe this is the way to the twelve step program:shrug: Just think of it all the cowhide that can be used for something else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Ok, I'll admit it. I've used the flat side of a bi-fold wallet to strop when traveling. :)

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That's usin' yer noodle.

X