Thread: New to the straight razor world

Hey everyone, my name is Troy and I'm American, currently living in Aix-en-Provence, France. I bought my first straight razor today as an impulse buy at an antique market, just because I've always thought it's such a cool idea. Now that I have one, I've been doing some research today, and came to the conclusion that this website is the best place for me to go to find some people with great advice on how to get started.
So, I've got a dull old razor and that's it. I know I need a strop, but what else? Send me any help/advice you have, because I know next to nothing about this topic.
Thanks, and I look forward to my future experiences as a member of the straight razor community!

Hello, Troy, and welcome to Straight Razor Place. Obviously, I don't know what shape your razor is in. Find a honemeister in the area and have him examine the blade. If it can be honed, fine, and if not, junk it and buy a new or vintage razor that is shave ready. Also, you need a strop, because your shave ready razor must be stropped before each shave.

Hi Troy,
As Obie mentioned getting it honed is #1. Then a quick read of the March 2014 Beginners tips is a good start.

Good luck and enjoy.

Kindestcut hit the nail on the head with the link to the beginners tips. Read that, then read a lot of the beginner posts here. You can learn a wealth of information from the gents here. As for what you'll need, the short list is: get your blade honed by someone who knows what they're doing, and a good strop. That's it really... Everything else is a personal choice after that, unless you are still using canned goo Then you'll want to get a boar/badger/synthetic brush and a soap/cream as well.

There's a much longer list for our hobby as well hahaha but that will come later on trust me

Oh and you should pick up some Martin de Candre shaving soap while you're out there! It gets rave reviews from everyone around. Top of the line stuff thats made in France!

Hi and welcome. Start by doing some reading in the library. Most all of the information you need is in there. The search up top is also great for finding info. Good luck and any questions feel free to ask.

Welcome. Roger

Hi and welcome to SRP.