Thread: Am I bitting off more than I can chew

Just the other side of christmas I decided to look into SR shaving after reading a shed load of info alot from this fine site I decided to give it a go and convinced the wife that this is what she should get me for christmas. So ive got a vintage razor from ebay which needs honing and a set of hones a leather and canvase strop a brush and bowl. I then read that a newbe should jyst start with a shave ready razor and master dhaving first so am I bitting off mire than I can chew by trying to do it all myself from the start any advice wuld be great also what are your thourghts in polishing stones vs strop paste?

My first razor was supposed to be shave ready.
It wasn't.
My face hated me for a week and I only shaved twice with it.

Here's the way I started after that.

I bought two razors and had them honed by someone that new what they were doing.
I used only one until I thought it needed honed then switched to #2. If #2 shaved better, the first one went in for rehone.

This is how I learned when a razor became dull and the length of time I could shave before that needed to be done.

After this I bought a crappy blade and practice honing before I would touch a daily shaver.

You may want to check with MikeW or Celticcrusader I think I got their SRP names correct? for honing. Michael hones as he makes his own razors and I suspect that Jamie hones also.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

You may want to check with MikeW or Celticcrusader I think I got their SRP names correct? for honing. Michael hones as he makes his own razors and I suspect that Jamie hones also.

Celticcrusader (jamie) does offer honing and restoration services.

It can be done but not advised, the reasons are many but the main ones in my view are:

* Unable to define a shave ready razor yet
* Have not mastered Lathering, Stropping and Shaving yet
* May spend $ on stones and then get frustrated with lack of success
* Unable to determine appropriate approach to different blade profiles (hone ware, warp etc)

Find a mentor in your area if possible, everyone I have met so far is happy to share because we were all there. My mentor had a chat, gave me a problem razor (which I ended up buying off him) and then reviewed my edge and gave me advice. I watched a ton of videos and found what worked for me in the end does not work for everyone.

Honing yourself with no reference point with regards to "shave ready" is not a great idea. There is a recent youtube video by Antony Esposito who is an expert shaver yet even he has just done his first honing which took 4 hours and he is going to have it sent off to a honemiester for feedback on his hone technique. Look him up if you have time.
Honestly you are setting yourself up for horrible shaves IMO. Beginner should ALWAYS start their journey with a honemiester shave ready razor, and concentrate on shaving and stropping only. As a beginner myself, I will not touch pastes/ hones and will just send them off to a honemiester till I have at least a years expericne, that's my plan anyway.
In the mean time, watch and read all about pastes and honing so you will have some idea when the time eventually comes to use them.

You should definitely learn to hone your own razors if that's what you want to do.

Just not yet.

Right now you're trying to hit a target you can't see, never having shaved with a truly shave-ready razor. Pro honers (look in the classified section here) really don't charge that much, and it will be worth every penny to *know* that a shave-ready blade is one variable that has been taken care of. Please don't make the mistake that I did of starting off with a crappy edge. Those first months were miserable, and when I finally got my razor properly honed, the difference was like night and day. Not only did the thing work far better than it ever had, I then had a reference point to know when my own honing technique was up to par.

Also, in the meantime, read up as much as you can on stropping. You don't want to kill your nice new shave-ready razor with improper stropping when it comes back!

Good luck

Originally Posted by StuartPhillips

what are your thourghts in polishing stones vs strop paste?

I've been told, beginners rave about strop pastes and diamond sprays but mostly everyone will end up using finishing stones 12k or higher and never touch the pastes again YMMV.

I'm not sure how it works but you may want to try to find someone in your area for some mentoring esp with honing.
Also UK hone miester is rather expensive compared to US.