Hi all

I am pretty new here - and to the world of straight razors. I have a tendenct to ramble in posts - to please bear with me or just switch out if i start to bore you.

I want to let you know why I wanted to try it;

-I find cartrdge razors obnoxiously expensive
-I worry about the environmental impact of all those cartidges being trashed
-I believe that the cartridge razors are designed to worsen things like razor burn, so they can sell you their overpriced skin care products and make us all beleive we have sensitive skin, hence sell their upgraded product every 3-5 years.

My girlfriend bought me my first razor, that unfortunately was not a great product. It was an ebay job. I bought myself a Solingen made razor shortly thereafter, and have sent the original one my GF bought back - and it was replaced with another Solingen one. I think the guy must have sent her the wrong one or something...

I read and read and read, read some more, then found this place and read a bit more. The first shave with the (second) str8 was gr8, thanks mostly to the advice contained in this site. The razor was bought "ready honed" and I can't say that I would disagree too strongly with that. The shave was excellent - far better then normal - and almost without irritation.

However, it does not pass the "hanging hair" test, despite giving me a super shave. This is where the problem is - both razors fail the HHT, and yet i get a great shave already from one of them. I am a great advocate of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but at the same time if my experience can be improved, even better. I dont know whether to try the second one now or not, or to send it away to be honed...

...which brings me to my real question. Is there anyone in Europe that can offer honing? All the american experts on the site really look amazing and the price is good - but shipping from Germany to the USA will be expensive - both ways - dangerous and time consuming. Are there any pro-honers on the site from the EU - or even in Germany or the UK itself??? Failing that does anyone know where in Germany or the wider EU one can get Norton 4/8 stones as these appear to be the most popular.

Looking forward to many more wonderful shaves!

Sunsi