Basic Questions for the new guy

Hello, my name is Scott and I am brand new to the world of straight razor shaving. I have purchased a starter kit for wet shaving which includes a strop, only leather side no linen side. It also includes a straight razor, brush, soap and scuttle. I have been doing a lot of research and purchased a Styptic pencil as well in preparation for a cut which I will no doubt receive unless I am extremely lucky. I have also purchased a Belgian coticule. 8/4k Yellow and Blue combo for honing when the blade I purchased which I'm guessing isn't the greatest quality gets dull. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I have not received my items yet since I have only just ordered them online. I am very excited and from watching countless videos and doing a lot of research I think I have the basic idea about stropping the razor and the basic downstroke. I was just wondering for starters should I hone the razor prior to shaving with it? Maybe just a few basic x stokes with the 8k yellow coticule? It says it comes "shave ready" but I'm sure they haven't put a bunch of time into perfecting the bevel making it a beautiful cutting tool. Is the linen side of the strop absolutely necessary? I've heard some say yes and others say no? How long should a razor stay sharp for if I strop pre and post shave? Where can I get a quality razor that won't cost me an arm and a leg? If I need further advice how should I go about obtaining it? Sorry guys for the multitude of questions but I'm only a mere 20 years old therefor not having the opportunity like my father to watch his father shave with a Gillette safety razor and watch his grandfather shave with a straight razor. Also my father doesn't support my decision to Straight razor shave... oh well. Thanks


Scott

Hello Scott. Welcome to SRP!
It might help those who would answer you if they knew what razor you have on the way and what from what vendor you bought your set.

There are a few places for quality straights at a reasonable price. A lot of guys have used Larry at whipped Dog. He doesn't have many beauty queens but has truly shave ready generic blades with a little wear and tarnish. The big deals are usually on the classifieds here. The biggest thing you want besides a predictable blade is truly shave ready. Go slow in your learning to shave with a straight. The linen side has been long debated as to if it is needed or not. Some are purely leather stroppers, others do 20 linen before leather. The length of time you get out of a honing will depend on many variables. As a new shaver and stropper you may get a single shave or you may get a month or two. There are quite a few members in Ontario, if you are a little more specific in your location you might be able to find a mentor. have fun

Welcome to SRP!
Make you sure you go to the Library and look over the beginners info and feel free to get lost in all of the other material for hours on end if you like.

Where did you get your razor from? And what brand of razor is it?
From that we can tell you whether it needs to be honed or not before your shave with it.
If it needs to be honed, I suggest sending it out to be professionally honed (see the member's services in the classified area). Honing a razor isn't for the inexperienced.

The linen side of the strop isn't necessary, but most people prefer it to clean the blade and warm it up before stropping on leather and getting it dirty.
Stropping isn't as easy as it looks. Start practicing now with a butter knife on your pants leg. The quickest way to mess up your blade is with a bad stropping.

How long will the razor stay sharp? Well that depends on your beard, your shaving technique, your stropping technique, and the razor. To give you a rough idea though, when I started I had to use a pasted strop twice the first week and a 12k finisher at the end of the week. It got better, and after 2 months I was able to only have to hit the 12k once a month. I'm around 4 months in, I haven't had to use the finisher or pasted strop for about a month. For the experienced, they can go all year without honing, some longer.

You can get a quality razor from the Classifieds here. Usually there are a couple under $50. Or a lot of people start with whippeddog.com. I'm sure some other people will have more recommendations.

Lastly, if you have questions that you can't find the answers to using the Advanced Search in the upper right hand corner, then feel free to ask. This forum is full of some of the nicest, most helpful gentlemen and ladies that I've ever come across.

As has been said, we need to know what you've bought to give you much advice. For a cheaper but decent razor, the SRP classifieds can be a good bet.

I would absolutely say don't even think about honing now.

I would recommend learning all things pre-shave(soap, brushes and lathermaking) and stropping(videos, etc). I would make soap, brush and strop, my first purchases to practice before the blade arrives.

I would recommend also getting a pro-honed, shave-ready razor.

These small tips can take a lot of the guess work out of troubleshooting your beginning.

Welcome to SRP!

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.

Welcome to SRP SOLDIER. Just go slow and pay attention. It will all come to you faster if you do. Sounds like it doesn't make sense but it will. Your Father wouldn't do it for any reason so he doesn't understand why you would at all. Once you start talking endlessly about how you enjoy shaving he might get curious. He will at least smile about it. Forget honing for now and get 1 or 2 that are ready to go. 2 because you may loose your edge on 1 learning to strop or by making the average mistake of smacking the faucet with it or dropping it in the sink. I caught myself using the same old habits to clean the blade off that I used with a cartridge. Shake it, run water over it, handle it recklessly. Once you see one split a hair hanging in mid air you realize how delicate the edge really is. Just be careful with it and enjoy. Learning is a lot of the fun in it so don't rush it.


Nice guy trying to help but, if you run it across your fingernail your going to need a hone job and
if your honing and do that you have to back up a few steps. The thumbnail test is for bevel setting :<0)

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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.

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Fingernail test on a shave ready blade makes it not shave ready. A new guy would not know what a thumb test *should* feel like.

Solitary - I don't see your location on your profile, but you might be able to post - asking if there are any experienced guy within striking distance that could spend a couple hours giving some help. It would rocket you ahead in your learning.

If your travels bring you near Portland, OR - give me a hollar. Watch technique, have your technique observed. You'll find it eliminates alot of confusion.

However you proceed - I hope it goes well & that you have some fun at it. If the edge is not up to par (and new guys are *HARD* on edges), give a holler. Postage and bubble envelope would be the only cost. You may find you have more fun than when you first took razor to face.

Thank you all for the great advice. I got a Star Customs from straightrazors.com. I can honestly tell you that I'm not expecting much from this blade. It was fairly cheap and I've noticed from browsing other websites that the good ones are a lot more expensive. I am not going to hone it because I need to work on other things such as stropping, lather making, brushing and shaving first. Hopefully by the time it gets very unsharp I will have a new one so I can practice honing on the cheaper one. Let me know you're thoughts on the brand. Anyone used one before? How would an inexperienced one conduct a sharpness test? Will stropping alone keep my edge sharp if it is a poorly made blade? Its full hollow carbon steel if that helps any

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

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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.

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RSO= Razor-shaped object

a.k.a. letter opener. :)

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

RSO is Razor Shaped Object. Looks like a razor, but doesn't shave.
Sorry to hear about your purchase. I'd bread knife the edge and use it to practice stropping. Or reset the bevel to 30 degrees and use as a box cutter.

SOLDIER don't feel bad about the RSO purchase. I have one that has worked out great. It has opened more than 200 boxes and over 300 letters in 2 years and is just now needing a refresh :<0) Oh and I have never had to strop it ! There are many more lessons you can learn the easy way but many don't. For a better explanation of that put "cut of the day" in the search box. It's a gruesome thread but keeps you on your toes.