Getting started, new to straight razor

Hi I am new to straight razor shaving. My friend has had a straight razor for a while, but he's not the kind of person I would take advice from. I've never used one before but I've always wanted to use one since I was a kid. I have done a little bit of research and still haven't found one that I'm set on buying. The only thing I'm 100% sure that I want is a 6/8 straight razor. As for brand and price, I'm really not sure. I found this site and figured I would ask for help here and see what comes up. All advice is appreciated.

Hi, Im Andrew. Im in a similar situation to you, new to this and have only ordered my first razor (hasn't arrived yet). Its great you have found this forum... I have found the members to be so helpful, and very generous with their time and knowledge.

I was wondering, why are you sure you want a 6/8 razor? Not asking because I question your choice, only because I am still looking to buy a good razor (the one I ordered is just basic to start, learn how to hone, shave etc)

I read somewhere that 6/8 is basically in the middle. Most people start with 5/8 from what I read but 6/8 seems to be something I would start with instead. I haven't ordered mine yet so I'm open to other opinions still. I plan to order mine within a day though so I'm trying to learn all I can before I decide. Even though I can't ask my friend for buying advice, he does sharpen all of his knives and his razors so I can ask for help on that. That is probably the only thing I would trust him with lol.

He's good at carving things and such but not good at making good decisions/buys if ya know what I mean. Normally I would go to my roommate for this sort of thing but he doesn't grow any facial hair, maybe a few whiskers every x amount of months but I've never noticed any. On top of that he seems to be scared of sharp objects like this.

Hi jerkface38 for new razors dovo, Ralf Aust, theirs issard and revisor are all well respected known brands, or there is usually a sellection available through the classifieds / vendors corner here.
Whatever you get ensure it has been hand honed.
You will also need a strop, soap/cream, brush as a minimum.

Do you think the classifieds are a good place to look? I was considering buying one from there but I'm always a little bit weary of things like that. I was thinking about getting the 6/8 Charlex 'Charles Hake' Solingen or the 6/8 Hugo Köller Solingen. It seems like dovo is also a good choice though so I'm considering one of theirs just to start learning. Would you be against me learning with one of the razors I listed or do you think it would be about the same?

For new razors your choices are Boker, Dovo, Thiers-Issard, Ralf Aust and Revisor. While a 5/8 round point is the razor many start with over time you will want to try them all. Over the years I have used everything from a 3/8 to a 12/8 but now mainly use razors in the 5/8 to 6/8 range with 11/16 being my favorite size (DD, BB and Bokers)

The razors you mentioned from the classifieds would be fine choices as well. contact the sellers before purchasing and ask any questions you might have. the classifieds here are generally pretty good and if the sellers says they are shave ready you have a real good chance of it being true, at least to that persons standards, YMMV.

enjoy,
jim

Thank you very much, I will try to keep up with the thread. I can't wait for my first shave I'll probably take an hour to do it though because I don't want to cut myself. I will contact the sellers first and see what they say about it.

The classifieds here are a great place to buy razors; most of mine have come from there, and I've never had a problem. One of the bonuses of dealing in the classifieds is that most of those guys are experienced straight shavers, so you can reasonably trust their claims of "shave ready" (unlike ebay, for example). But, as suggested before, just ask questions when you have them. Good luck!

Welcome to the forum. I recently found this place also and find it to be a wonderful place to with lots of knowledgeable members. I'm also new to this, but have been using a shavette and have just recently scored a Shumate in a trade elsewhere. I've had a pretty good experience with the shavette so far, but am really looking forward to using the Shumate. I kind of dove straight in and did minimal research and now wish I would have found this place before. I would say just to browse through the forum and do lot of reading and ask questions. Good luck on your quest for your first razor.

It sucks that I can't purchase because paypal can't verify my phone number even though I've used it in the past. I'll keep trying but if all else fails I'll just use Amazon.

Try several! My first was extremely small and it worked like a champ. Still use it in rotation. I do have a very large one and the adrenaline rush is great when I use that one. It is probably one of the sharpest I have and it is neat to watch that large blade. It is a bit much under the nose though. I have about a dozen (all different sizes) and I find the variety to be very refreshing. Over the past month I have focused on one (about 6/8) so I can work on my technique a bit. Enjoying that quite a bit. I would pick something middle of the road to start with than pick something significantly different for your second. One is enough unless you need to send it out for sharpening. Then, having a backup works great. Several here on the board have developed a strange disease where they simply cannot stop purchasing/acquiring either razors, strops, or other 'stuff' associated with wet shaving.

Pick one to get started. Spend several months with that one. Enjoy yourself and have fun!
Scott

From one relatively newbie to another welcome to the board. I can vouch that the members here are very helpful and very knowledgeable.

I started with a shavette, this is to practice the skills necessary for a straight razor shave rather than trying to learn a load of new skills at once (shaving, stropping, lathering the brush, honing etc.) and to concentrate on one at a time. I've written more about that in other posts.

Anyway good luck in finding your straight razor, there is a guy called Taylor1000 that sells vintage straight razors for beginners for reasonable prices and will hone them to shave ready grade before posting to you. I believe there is a US and UK dealer so contact him to find out. Kropp is apparently a good starter razor too. But he labels his razors "suitable for beginners" if you are unsure and also if your razor is over £50 the honing (shave ready prep) is free, if its under £50 then you only have to pay £5 to have this service.

Cheers,

Strops

Welcome to SRP! This might be obvious, but be aware when other posters says "classifieds," they mean the Classifieds area of this site (not some random, Craigs-list or local classifieds). Most of all of those selling in our Classifieds area have a community and reputation at stake and can be considered reliable.

I started with a new Dovo (the cheapest one) and with a used vintage razor from a trusted seller, and I still use them both (in fact, they remain my only two!). I had them both honed by one of the "honemeisters" here.

Welcome again, and good luck!

I suggest buying either a new razor from a source that will professionally hone it before shipment or a shave ready vintage razor from the classifieds section of shave web sites (not e-bay). I have obtained most of my razors from the classifieds with good results. Shaving hobbyists usually know about and care about what they are selling which is often not the case on e-bay where the sale may be the sole motivation.

The vast majority of vintage razors for sale are 5/8, a vote from the past on what is the "best" width. I often use 4/8 to 7/8 widths. I avoid spike points to help prevent "battle scars", but find round points or muted or slightly rounded square points to be OK. I find the 5/8 nimble, but not difficult to control while shaving, stropping, and honing. The 7/8 is less nimble but covers my face with fewer strokes needed.

The most important critical factor for shaving success is that the razor being used have a shave ready edge and that one learns how to keep that edge in a shave ready condition. There are many capable razors, but even the finest razor made will not shave unless it has a shave ready edge. Stropping is required after every shave so stropping is critical for shaving success. When stropping starts to lose effectiveness, touch-ups on a finishing hone or pasted strop will be needed to restore the edge to shave readiness. These skills must be learned because they have to be done too frequently for it to be practical to send out the razor for service. Honing will have to be done eventually when touch-ups no longer are effective, or if the edge has been damaged by striking an object.

The need to re-hone a formerly shave ready edge happens infrequently enough so that some SR users send their SRs out to a pro for this service. However, many SR users acquire a set of hones and learn to re-hone their own straight razors and reset the edges of newly acquired vintage razors which are not received shave ready.

A pro honed razor should not need stropping before its first use. Stropping a newly received pro honed razor (the pro has already stropped the razor) runs the risk of spoiling the edge by bad stropping. It is not possible to avoid the consequences of possible bad stropping after the first pro honed razor use because stropping is needed after every shave.

HTH

My personal recommendation is to buy vintage razors from members here in the classifieds, or Larry at Whipped Dog. Get three, of various sizes.
If you are able then to determine which you prefer, and avoid Razor acquisition Disease (RAD), you could then sell the other two for almost what you paid for them, assuming you took good care of them.

Souschefdude speaks the truth. Three cheaper vintage blades from whipped dog is a great start.

Unfortunately I still haven't found the perfect razor, and I have 2 dozen in rotation! But I'll keep looking!

Hi and welcome. Maybe start with a few cheaper razor's to learn with and once proficient get something better. This way you won't mind too much if you stuff it up. Good luck. Ed

Boker, Dovo, Thiers-Issard, Ralf Aust and Revisor. 5/8 or 6/8 round point is best to start. Not much difference between these 2 sizes. A good strop, soap or cream & brush will be all you need to get going. You can buy from many good sites including SRD and the classifieds here. Whatever you do don't buy your first from ebay and make sure you buy from someone who will supply it shave ready no a factory edge.

I got PayPal to work finally and ordered my first straight razor! Now I have to get the other stuff I need. I might hold off on buying some of it until I get off of vacation, but I just can't wait to start learning how to use it. My friends are all scared and told me not to get one but I did it anyways. I have a lot of time on my hands so learning this will take some of the excess time I have. Thanks for all of the advice and help it is all appreciated. Also what kind of cream/soap would you guys recommend?

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Originally Posted by jerkface38

I got PayPal to work finally and ordered my first straight razor! Now I have to get the other stuff I need. I might hold off on buying some of it until I get off of vacation, but I just can't wait to start learning how to use it. My friends are all scared and told me not to get one but I did it anyways. I have a lot of time on my hands so learning this will take some of the excess time I have. Thanks for all of the advice and help it is all appreciated. Also what kind of cream/soap would you guys recommend?

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Wow. Land speed record from first asking for advice to purchase. So what did you order? Is it coming to you shave ready?

I ordered a 6/8 Hugo Koller Solingen from the classifieds here. It's coming shave ready. I really liked the black handle and I think this would be a great one for me to learn with.

I'm a bit curious about stropping. I read somewhere that it needs to be done every few shaves and others have said after every shave. What strop would be good but also a good price? I'm also going to research how to clean my razor because I want it to always be in top condition. Any advice would be appreciated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerkface38

I'm a bit curious about stropping. I read somewhere that it needs to be done every few shaves and others have said after every shave. What strop would be good but also a good price? I'm also going to research how to clean my razor because I want it to always be in top condition. Any advice would be appreciated.

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Most people strop between every shave, either before, after, or a bit of both.
The whipped dog poor man strop is supposed to be good value, but how much do you want to/ can you afford to spend?
As for brushes, again a budget figure would help semogues are cheapish, but are very well regarded boar brushes, I have one on order, but it hasn't arrived yet. Even the cheap natural bristle brushes from your local chemist should be ok.

I got a badger brush from amazon that had some good reviews and I believe I saw it reviewed on another site as well. I have a bit of extra money at the moment so I figure I can spend some on myself. I like quality so I don't mind spending a bit extra on something I will continue to use in the long run. I will definitely be stropping after every shave. I spent an ok amount on the soap and brush. I've always shaved with soap ans have used cream but soap feels better to me.

I can probably spend 50-100 on a strop but wondering if that's recommended or not. I don't mind spending a little extra but I'm also just starting out and think it would be overkill to buy a strop that costs almost as much as the razor. Most strops seem to be much cheaper than that though. Also sorry about the larger paragraphs and possible spelling errors I'm posting from my phone at the moment.

Don't TE=jerkface38;1274756]I got a badger brush from amazon that had some good reviews and I believe I saw it reviewed on another site as well. I have a bit of extra money at the moment so I figure I can spend some on myself. I like quality so I don't mind spending a bit extra on something I will continue to use in the long run. I will definitely be stropping after every shave. I spent an ok amount on the soap and brush. I've always shaved with soap ans have used cream but soap feels better to me.

I can probably spend 50-100 on a strop but wondering if that's recommended or not. I don't mind spending a little extra but I'm also just starting out and think it would be overkill to buy a strop that costs almost as much as the razor. Most strops seem to be much cheaper than that though. Also sorry about the larger paragraphs and possible spelling errors I'm posting from my phone at the moment.[/QUOTE]

Dont worry I use my phone almost exclusively, and it gets stuff wrong all of the time :)
If it were me, I would probably spend $20 or so on the poor man's strop (or something similar, I only have homemades), then when my technique was good get something better, or get a decent strop from a vendor that sells replacement leather, then if you do damage it just replace the leather, or order a spare leather piece with the strop and save on postage.

Regardless of what strop you get do not strop your new razor before using it for the first time.

I think all the supplies will arrive before the razor itself lol xD
I can't track it either so I just have to hope it arrives before I leave from where I'm at.

I should be getting it this week though and I'm very excited to use it for the first time. I have very steady hands so I shouldn't have any trouble as long as I take it slow. If I enjoy it as much as I imagine I will then I'll probably buy another soon.