Thread: Basic Questions for the new guy

My condolences for your purchase. Sadly that company has earned its bad reputation. A quick search on this forum will show the issues.

Welcome to SRP

Jonathan

I am not familiar with Star Customs but the one I just viewed on the straightrazorrs.com website has the look of a Pakastani made, junk steel, pseudo razor. Based on what I saw on the vendors website I do not believe that the razor you bought will ever provide a proper shave. No amount of honing or stropping will fix poor quality steel. I hope you are not offended, but thought honesty was best. If you use the search function here to look up straightrazor.com you will see more of the same.

The good news is that there are many members of SRP in your area. I believe they even had a meetup recently. It would be very beneficial if you could have a local mentor show you the ropes, especially if you want to learn to hone. Also the library at SRP has articles covering the basics for guys just getting started.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...eginners_Guide

Originally Posted by feltspanky

Welcome to SRP Scott: I hope your razor is truly shave ready when it arrives. Give it the thumb and fingernail test for starters. You should be able to maintain the edge with a good stropping after each shave. No honing required. If you see it's not shave ready there are plenty of folks on the forum who can help you. Keep watching those youtube videos.

Only do the thumb and fingernail tests if you want to get your razor honed again. These tests are done during honing to establish where you are at. Please do not do these tests on a shave ready razor.

Scott welcome to SRP. The advice given in the last few posts is exactly correct. I took the same advice when I started and had very good shaves soon after starting, these guys know what they are talking about. I was able to get to a meet-up in my first week and I spent a day with Pinklather a week after that and the mentoring was awesome. Having one on one instruction will set you up for success in a hurry, I can't recommend it any more strenuously,do yourself a favor and reach out to a mentor in your area.
As far as razors are concerned this has been my experience after purchasing many razors in the last two months. Good user grade straights are available shave ready from many folks right here on the forums. If I were to do it over again I would purchase two good inexpensive razors and make sure to communicate to the sellers that these are your first razors. When I did this the guys selling them bent over backwards to give me good honest advice and recommendations on the razors they had for sale and I received very sharp razors to start with and I also was gifted a brush and soap samples. The generosity of the most of these guys is just awesome, so two razors a brush and strop, a little soap and some mentoring sounds like a recipe for success.
I hope you have as good a time as I have had in my shaving, please keep us informed of your progress and have fun.
All the best FrankC

Hi and welcome. Bad luck with your razor. Many have found there way here after starting out the same way. Good news is everything you need to get shaving is here. If you do run into problems the people here will be sure to help as much as possible. Good luck making a start.

Honestly I had a bad feeling about the razor because I found a quality website after I made the purchase, if I cannot get a good shave I will let you all know. If only I had not been so impulsive and purchased what I saw and did a bit of research first. I have learned my lesson. How does one go about buying a straight razor off a forum? You don't have to exchange credit card information do you because I am not down to do that. How does one find a mentor?

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

Honestly I had a bad feeling about the razor because I found a quality website after I made the purchase, if I cannot get a good shave I will let you all know. If only I had not been so impulsive and purchased what I saw and did a bit of research first. I have learned my lesson. How does one go about buying a straight razor off a forum? You don't have to exchange credit card information do you because I am not down to do that. How does one find a mentor?

Hi Scott,

Sorry to hear you started out with what is most likely an RSO. If it doesn't work for you, PM me your address and I'll send a shave-ready razor your way. It just bugs me the way some sites rip off people starting out on this straight shaving thing.

Anyway, good luck with it. If it works - GREAT! If not, we'll get you heading in the right direction one way or another.

There are lot of great vendors on here.....I spent about one hundred on my first razor from Straight Razor Designs and it absolutely arrived shave ready.

Cangooner what is an RSO? I was very naïve when choosing my razor since I did not know what would constitute a good razor, but being a young male (that thinks he knows about things after reading one article) made a poor decision, if only I found SRP sooner. Thank you though that would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

Cangooner what is an RSO? I was very naïve when choosing my razor since I did not know what would constitute a good razor, but being a young male (that thinks he knows about things after reading one article) made a poor decision, if only I found SRP sooner. Thank you though that would be greatly appreciated.

RSO= Razor-shaped object

a.k.a. letter opener.

Sorry, we have a tendency to get carried away with the acronyms around here...