Thread: Newbie prepping for first straight shave

Greetings all,

I now have all the equipment, as follows;

Wade & Butcher 6/8 medium hollow shave ready razor (restored antique)
Silver Tip Badger Brush
5" horn bowl
Taylor of Old Bond Street hard soap (Sandlewood)
Taylor of Old Bond Street Cream (Alvocado)
Pre-Shave oil
After-Shave
Styptic gel
Styptic pencil
Alum block
3" wide leather strop with canvas
Neatsfoot Oil
Strop dressing/compound
Williams Mug Shaving Soap (intended for strop)
Norton 4000/8000 waterstone
Naniwa 12,000 Super Stone
Norton Lapping stone
etc, etc, etc.

I intend to perform my first straight shave tomorrow, however. I have a question about the strop. It's brand spanking new, American grown/made Cowhide. Do I need to treat the strop with Neatsfoot, or Williams, or anything else prior to its first use, or just use it as is without any pre-treatment? Please explain why I should, or maybe should 'not' pre-treat my new strop. I'll truly appreciate all input on this!

You shouldn't need to do anything to that strop. Except be careful when you use it. Most of the stuff you have there you won't need for sometime. Hopefully not much of the alum or styptic. Looks like you got a life time supply of that :<0) Judging by what you have gathered I would say you have been doing some reading eh ? Just take it slow until you get your technique down. Making lather , shaving, stropping, is what you should concentrate on your first month or so at least. You have to get good at that before you can tell what your doing with the other stuff. You can do it all I just don't think you should try to learn it all at once. :<0)

Nice stuff by the way , but you should of bought a camera too. We love pictures with our stories :<0))))

Welcome to an Older but Better way of shaving.

I'm glad that you decided to take this long strange journey the trips well worth it.

You asked about your strop/however I have other questions and perhaps answers.

Where did you get the strop and probably more important is Who Honed Your Razor.

If the strop was made by a reputable maker then nothing should be applied! Hand rubbing before using will be satisfactory.

Is the razor truly shave ready? Did the honer tell you to just rinse the protective oil off and shave? I Always do as that way the entire honing/stropping is on me and not on someone's ability to or lack of stropping.

If all of the ducks are in a row hopefully you will get a 'decent' shave. No discouragement intended/it usually takes awhile to get the hang of the angles/lack of pressure etc

Please keep us posted on how it goes.

OH! As far as the hones go/you've got your hands full just learning the lathering/stropping and of course the shave. Leave the honing alone for awhile it's an Art of it's own! Once you've mastered the for mentioned take it slow/honing a razor is Nothing like Sharpening a Knife/I'm a former meat cutter/trust me.

Sanfte Rasur, mein Klingenbruder!

(Smooth Shaving My Brother In Blades)

Cudarunner speaks truth to reality. Follow his suggestions and you can't go too wrong in your shaving adventure. He's honed a few for me and is one of many giving me advice on honing, which I just started doing after a year of just shaving and stropping. Slow is really the fast path to success in this game.

I wish I listened more. But hey I got bit bad and I love honing as much as shaving. Maybe even more. But I will agree its best to focus on the shave.

Like what's already been stated the strop most likely needs no treatment.

Thanks for the greetings and feedback,
I actually 'have' read up a bit about this, however. Book knowledge vs hands on, well. We all know the difference. Yes, I went in with all fours and bought a bunch of stuff to get started. I figure that it's better to be well prepared, in advance, than to later find myself lacking in something needful due to my lack of knowledge. The razor will shave free standing hairs from my arm without the razor touching my skin. I also plucked a mustache hair and put it to the blade. Cut it clean in half without having to saw on it. It's a beautiful razor, wonderfully restored and I'd like to show it off, but. I don't know how. How do I post a picture of it?

Before you post look at the top where it shows Fonts etc and third from the right is a funky looking 'box' with 'dots' in each corner. Click on that then select where your pictures are/mine are in my computer/pictures. Then click on Basic Downloader/have fun!

It takes awhile for us old Mastodons to figure this Technological Terrors Out.

Originally Posted by TMJudd

Thanks for the greetings and feedback,
I actually 'have' read up a bit about this, however. Book knowledge vs hands on, well. We all know the difference. Yes, I went in with all fours and bought a bunch of stuff to get started. I figure that it's better to be well prepared, in advance, than to later find myself lacking in something needful due to my lack of knowledge. The razor will shave free standing hairs from my arm without the razor touching my skin. I also plucked a mustache hair and put it to the blade. Cut it clean in half without having to saw on it. It's a beautiful razor, wonderfully restored and I'd like to show it off, but. I don't know how. How do I post a picture of it?

Oh if I had the cash I'd have a kit like yours. I am an advocate of going for it all at once but only if you must. Are you using tapatalk on a phone or on the computer?

ncraigtrn, I'm on my computer.

Here it is. Restored Wade and Butcher with new cocobolo scales. I found this on ebay. It arrived today!