Newbies Initial Purchase

Hello All!


Woo-Hoo!! Well, I F-I-N-A-L-L-Y took the plunge! I'm officially joining your ranks as a straight razor shaver! Here's how it all happened:


I'm turning half a century in a few days and my wife wanted to get me something momentous for the occasion. I've ALWAYS been fascinated with all gentlemanly-type pursuits...especially the art of straight razor shaving!


As it happens, today we went into our local tobacconist to refill my empty pipe tobacco decanter and low-and-behold, they had straight razors! I'd "forgotten" how badly I've always wanted to do this and knew IMMEDIATELY what I wanted for my birthday! Rather than impulse buy, we decided to research the Internet and learn more about this endeavor first...


EIGHT hours later (and this forum!), I am about to be the proud new owner of my first straight razor and necessary accoutrements. I am so utterly excited!


Just for the sake of sharing (in case there are others about to take the plunge AND for those who already have, to compare their first purchases with mine), here's what I ordered:


1.) Dovo 5/8" 1/2-Hollow Straight Razor= $94.00 (honed/sharpened by SRD)
2.) 3" Red Latigo Strop = $36.00
3.) Razor Oil = $5.00
4.) Badger Brush = $35.00
5.) Brush/Razor Stand = $25.00
6.) Proraso Shaving Soap = $8.00
TOTAL = $203.00


I hope we did okay with these selections. Being a complete novice, I wanted basic (but new & quality) items. I already have some of the other suggested incidentals, such as:
- a nice SS bowl
- witch hazel/aftershave
- face towels


I'm a little trepidatious about purchasing a honing stone (for obvious "I'm-a-newbie-whose-never-sharpened-a-straightrazor" reasons) so I left that for later.


After all that research (and giddy excitement) I still have two questions (to which I'm sure the answers have been given a thousand times...LOL!):


1.) How frequently should I be stropping?


2.) Any advice about my selections/tips?


I'm am thrilled to be joining your ranks! This will be a Birthday that I will always remember. Thank you all for your wisdom, kindness and advice! It is wonderful to know there are others willing to trod in forgotten yet rewarding paths! Cheers!

Aggyhotep,

Welcome and hello from Hastings in the UK.

Yours selection looks good :)

The Dovo Best 5/8 half-hollow was my first new razor when I re-took up straight razor shaving.

It is still one of my favourite razors, and is in my rotation : it shaves well above its price point, and responds extremely well to touch-ups on CrOx.

For a lather bowl, I use a hemispherical 6" breakfast cereal bowl I got from my local supermarket - works a treat :)

You shoud strop before every shave : I also like to strop after the shave to ensure the edge is clean and dry.

Always rinse your razor with hot water after use, gently wipe dry, strop and leave open for 30 minutes to an hour - this will help prevent rust (the Dovo Best is carbon steel and the blade will rust if not treated appropriately). I also give my blades a wipe with Sentry Solutions Tuff Glide before storage.

The below stropping videos ate the best I have seen, and have helped me a lot :

HiBudGL

straight razor stropping - YouTube

Mr Davis

alan Davis - YouTube

Have fun :)

Best regards

Russ

Hello and welcome to SRP.

I strop before and after every shave. If you purchased from SRD you should be good for a long while with stropping alone and you can send the razor in for honing. It does take a while to ship there and back so you may be without your new shaver for a bit.

Watch stropping videos in the above post and go slow at first. Much better to go slow then to nick/cut your strop or worse roll your edge. No pressure is the key, focus on the spine not the edge. Speed will come with practice. Lots of practice.

Same goes for shaving. Watch all the videos you can and go slow

Good luck and enjoy

Definitely a good kit and will see you off to a good start. Stropping is recommended before each shave and a little after never goes astray. Watch not to get water in the pivot pin while shaving or rinsing the blade. The video linked by Alan Davis is a great one showing the flip and technique for stropping. The videos by Lynn Abrams and Gssixgun on YouTube are also very helpful. Any questions feel free to ask and you will find that you get plenty of answers.

great start , and do spend a lot of time learning stropping! if you do this right your edge will last a long time ,I,ve gotten a few months out of a honing and plus you will get 2 free re hones from SRD, only suggestion other than what has been said, try to pick up another razor to keep on hand while yours is out, there is usually a fair priced shave ready one that you can pick on our classifieds. and do watch the videos on shaving , take and do one area till your good at that before moving on , great advise Lynn also has a video that goes step by step. as for hones you don't need them now or as in my case at all ,,, a pro will do it for a whole lot less than a stone and most have a few of them,, so save your money good luck and if you can look up members in your area, they can sit down with you one on one. tc

Yes afdavis' video is very good, he has good technique and the demonstration is very clearly filmed. As you have probably/ will read it is worth practicing your stropping technique with something other than your razor for a while until you are comfortable with the flip, really really dont rush it, i dont think that fat stropping has been proven to be more beneficial for razor maintenance yet.
You can practice with a 3" wide strip of anything such as newspaper held with a bulldog clip, and a butterknife, this may be something to do while you wait for your stuff to arrive. This months beginners tips by jimbo is all about stropping, you can find the beginners tips on the home page of the site, just put your cursor over the razor at the top left of this page and click.

Hello All,

Thank you All for the warm welcome, helpful videos and fantastic advice!

Phatman: You mentioned that you "re-took up" SR shaving. How long were you doing it when you stopped the first time? I admire your experience. Thanks again for the advice!

Eddy79: I didn't realize the facts about getting the hinge pin wet! I'll definitely watch out for that. Thanks again!

tcrideshd: I wondered why (while reading through the forums) people talked about having more than one razor "in their rotation"...having more than one allows for honing service shipping time, etc. That, and I can feel an itch to try another style blade. Great advice!! Thank you.

edhewitt: I love your advice about practicing my stropping while waiting for my items to arrive! That's fantastic advice. Thanks!

Cheers!

*** do not strop after you recieve your razor for the 1st time ***

A lot of people make this mistake after getting a new edge from someone like SRD. Just wipe off the protective oil and shave with the blade (it is as sharp as it will get). Once you have used it and know what sharp is, you can then strop, if you stuff the stropping up IE: roll the edge or the shave is uncomfortable, you know it was most probably your technique not the edge.

If you havent got a bulldog clip, a wide belt fixed to the towel rail by its buckle would suffice, and yes, dont strop prior to your first shave.
Check out the videos section, there are quite a few, chimensch's 30pth aniversary shave one (spelling?) Is pretty good.

Welcome to SRP and to the wonderful world of straight razor shaving, the advise given already is golden. I'm pretty new myself as I've only been at it about a month,and I've made some of the common mistakes that new guys make. I dulled my first razor the first time I stropped it, to much pressure pushing down on the razor. Then I hit a strop screw with the edge while trying to strop, then I nicked my strop, do you see a pattern here. For me stropping was a journey, it took me a couple of weeks to be able to help my edges while stropping so use this wait time to PRACTICE. It really is a big part of maintaining your edges. Finding a meetup is another great way to improve your skills, I got to one in my first week and it helped allot. Perhaps you can reach out to a mentor in the Seattle area that is another great way to get some hands on help, it can make all the difference. Stay active on the forums and let these fine fellows help. All the best Frank C

Hello, and welcome to SRP!!