New Razor and strop ordered!

I've been trying out my SR's lately and had some success, but none are professionally honed/Shave ready yet, so I am not sure if some of the troubles I have is from my edges themselves, techniques, etc. I prefer round point, but most of my razors are square point or smiling wedges. I've been looking to get a new strop to go with my Illinois 127 which has a "few" nicks in it from learning. I've wanted a Ralf Aust after reading the reviews, so I decided to go ahead and get one of SRD's RA 5/8" with the round tip and a Premier 1 SRD 3" wide strop. This will let me have a round point razor (hopefully less cuts from the tip on my fat face!), one with a truly shave ready edge and a new strop! Looking forward to trying it out!

I think it is a tough task to try to learn how to hone with out having a bench mark. I think Everyone needs at least one bench mark. I have several and I am always looking for another. You may want to try swapping edges with another member. Where you sharpen a blade and send it to someone, and you try each others edges, you can take it one step further and dull the edge and resharpen it and then send it back. A little report back and forth about the edges. It is a good learning experience, especially if you saw with someone more experienced. Pick someone close by as mail time can be brutal.

I ordered the same "kit" from SRD on 01-22-15 in the afternoon, after mail had been picked up. It was delivered to me this week on 01-27-15. Considering there was a weekend in the middle, I am pleased with the turn around/delivery time. You should have your items pretty quick. Enjoy

I am sure you know but remember when you get the new Pro honed edge
DO NOT strop it for your first shave - so you know how it should be in case you accidently dull it stropping
& remember to use a much Lighter touch when shaving than you have been, especially if you other blades are not fully honed up to scratch
enjoy the ne toys

Hoping it gets delivered today! Was supposed to be here 3 days ago, but the little snowstorm we had in New England hampered that.

Great Advice From SRP member Substance: When you receive your razor from SRD just shave. No chance of dulling the razor through improper stropping. Practice stropping after your first shave. Congratulations on your purchase from SRD.

Showed up yesterday finally! Cleaned off the razor blade and checked it out under my loupe; I wanted to see what a shave ready edge looks like! I noticed a difference between the razor honed by Lynn and mine and think I figured out why I am having difficulties. With Lynn's razor, I can tilt the razor under the loupe and not see any shiny line at the very edge at all going along the edge from any angle. On the razors that seem to work OK for me that I have sharpened, they have only a hint of a shiny line at some angles, but not others. Other razors have it more prominent and these are the ones that shave worse. So it looks like some of my bevels are almost set and others are not! Now I have an edge I can compare mine to under the loupe!!! Can't wait to shave with the SR from Lynn!!!

definitely helps to have a bench mark
any sign of a line is no bevel set for sure
hopefully your edges will improves immensely now you have a visual & practical standard to work to.

Really looking forward to my next SR shave and my next honing session now!

I just ordered a Ralf Aust 5/8 from SRD and had my first shave with it yesterday. It was awesome! I had been using a vintage "shave ready" razor for a couple weeks and found myself having trouble getting good shaves and making any real progress. It definitely helps to have a benchmark from Lynn. I now realize that my old razor needs a good honing. I probably dulled it while stropping. Oh well. I guess that's all part of being a newb. Good luck and I hope you enjoy your Aust as much as I do!

I ordered that same strop from SRD. It's a beaut! If you keep rubbing it with the palm of your hand before and after each stropping it will condition quite nicely.

Finally got to shave with the Ralf Aust yesterday! I had been checking the edge under the loupe and comparing to my razors that I have been working on honing and found only 1 had a proper bevel set, so I cleaned that one up a bit. When I tilt the RA back and forth, there is no little white line at the very edge at any angle. With my other razors, they all looked good at some angles, but when I tilted the blades, they all had at least some of the edge showing the thin white line, meaning that the bevel isn't fully set. I used the Ralf Aust for the first N to S pass, then the other razor that had a good bevel set (Challenge Cutlery) for the S to N Pass. I tried using my G. Wostenholm Pipe on the neck since it has a smile, but the bevel wasn't fully set and didn't do much, so I went back to the Ralf Aust and that worked pretty well on my neck! What a difference a truly shave ready razor is to shave with than one that the bevel hasn't been set fully!

Well done taz575.

Forgot to add, the Ralf Aust is a full hollow ground; I thought I was going to prefer a heavier razor like a near wedge to have more weight behind it to cut thru my wiry beard, but the full hollow did extremely well! It seemed to skip and stutter less, especially around my chin than the other razors I have tried but weren't truly shave ready. I used the Ralf Aust w/o stropping it before hand and stropped my Challenge Razor and Pipe Razor on the SRD Premier 1 3" wide strop I got; I put the strop down on the counter and used as little pressure as possible, really worked nicely on the Challenge, the Pipe not so much (bevel not fully set). I tried tree topping arm hairs with the RA and Challenge before the strop and it was OK, popped a couple, after stropping the Challenge, it was cutting them much easier. So I stropped the RA and got that to tree top hairs even better than before, so it looks like stropping with the strop on the counter is working for me!

I see a lot of SR. in your collection very soon. The SAD has infected another one. Enjoy the ride.

I think the Ralk Aust makes 20 so far?? LOL. Tanaka Kamisori, Henkotsu Kamisori, both in Blue Steel, Ralf Aust 5/8", 2 Challenge Cutlery, 1 Magnetosteel, 1 Gottleib Hammesfahr, 1 G. Wostenholm Pipe, 1 Fredericks, 1 CW Sheehan, 1 Landers Frary and Clark, 1 R. Findlay, 3 Hartford Cutlery, 1 Magnus, 1 M. Jung, 1 Parker, 1 M. Aiku, 1 Hadoson. Some are near wedge, some are wider than 6/8", etc, some are smiles, some are square point, others have been honed to a more rounded point, etc. I was on a made in CT kick for a bit because I am from CT, but the other ones were because I wanted a variety to try to see what I like.

Did some major re honing on over a dozen razors yesterday, got several more shave ready! Shaved last night with the Ralf Aust and the Gottslieb Hammesfahr and a Hartford cutlery razor and got a pretty dang nice shave! One of my best SR shaves so far, but I did a lot of extra passes trying to get the problem areas, so I had some pretty good razor burn by the time I was done. Shaves at 330pm and when I woke up this morning, there wasn't much to touch up, so I did one WTG pass with the DE (didn't really do much of anything), so I decided to go to work like that to see how bad it looks at 330pm. May be able to shower/shave the night before work and still look presentable! Couple of small cuts, one from when I used my left hand to shave the right side of my face along the jaw line, felt the cut when I laid the razor on my face. Another small cut from the point of the Gottlieb Hammesfahr, didn't have the skin stretched enough. Other than that it was better feeling than other attempts. Been getting better at honing and setting the bevel as well and saw how much of a difference that makes in the shave!