Thread: Beginner, feeling lost purchasing a new straightedge razor

For what it's worth, there are razors that are already shave ready and inexpensive in the classifieds on this forum that would do what you are looking for. Good luck.


Mike

Originally Posted by pcm

Also, don't strop the razor when you get it. It is ready to go, as-is.

I have heard the exact opposite from several sources (including the beginner's wiki here on this site). The razors usually come sharpened, so they don't need to be honed, but but still should be stropped before use.

Originally Posted by pcm

You may also want to consider shaving cream over soap, I found that I can get a more consistent lather with a cream like Taylor Of Bond Street, than I can with soaps.

What is the practical difference between shaving with a cream and shaving with a soap? That is, is there a difference beyond how it "feels", will it have an effect on the actual shaving?

The reason for not stropping your razor when it arrives is to give you an idea what shave ready means, just wipe any residual oil off.. If you have no experience with a strop it is not hard to trash the edge of your razor, and I did exactly that with my first. You need to purchase from a reputable vendor like SRP, and they come shave ready. RA are a great razor, and haven't heard one bad thing about them.
Creams and soaps come down to personal preference and something you have to experiment with. Creams are easier to make a lather while you are learning, but either are ten times better than a can of goo and will last longer. Try a mid range soap like Proraso or Cella to get you started, or Arko if you are on a budget. All perform well. Best of luck.

Originally Posted by IQAndreas

I have heard the exact opposite from several sources (including the beginner's wiki here on this site). The razors usually come sharpened, so they don't need to be honed, but but still should be stropped before use.

What is the practical difference between shaving with a cream and shaving with a soap? That is, is there a difference beyond how it "feels", and will it have an effect on the actual shaving?

The razor, if bought from SRD or from a reputable seller (for example in the Classifieds of this site) stating it is "shave ready" will come sharpened & ready for use on your face without stropping - that doesn't mean that stropping couldn't make it better. If you are an experienced user stropping prior to use can refine the edge & make for a smoother shave. They key here is that you are not an experienced user and you stropping the edge is more likely to do harm than good. Using that edge for the first time on your face will give you a baseline for what truly shave-ready sharpness feels like and that is very important. Of course, for the next shave you should strop and that is also a very important skill to master. Some people recommend practicing with a butter knife on your strop. I and others don't because this can lead you to pick up bad habits. 1. it's an approximation, but not the same as stropping your razor, particularly due to the scales. 2. with the butter knife it's too easy for you to be doing things (like rolling the edge) that will be bad for your razor and the strop without knowing it because you don't have the feedback of the razor to let you know you're doing something wrong. 3. it makes you build up confidence and speed, which in this case, is a bad thing - the extra boost of confidence from practicing repeatedly with a butter knife can lead you to become overconfident when you strop your real razor the first few times and go much faster than you would have otherwise because you don't have the healthy "fear"/apprehension, so when you do screw up, it'll be far worse due to the extra speed/pressure.

What I do recommend for new users is to strop on newspaper for the first couple of times and then alternate newspaper and your real strop for the next several times. Newspaper is actually a fairly good and abundantly plentiful/cheap medium to strop with - as a matter of fact, that's all some users use, though that was more common in "the old days." If you mess up, you didn't slice your strop, although each mistake is bad for your razor's edge, it would have been just as bad, if not worse, on leather rather than newspaper. I don't recommend going all out newspaper for an extended period of time until you feel you're "good enough" and then switching to the real strop for one of the same reasons as not using a butterknife - you'll be overconfident and over-fast when you do switch to the leather, so in my opinion it's best to do it on newspaper the first couple of times and then alternate the newspaper and real strop while you still have a bit of that healthy apprehension to keep you safer.

As far as your question regarding creams vs hard soaps... you're looking to start a fight with that one. There's users that love their creams and there's users that love their hard soaps - stating that one or the other is "better" in any way is a good way to end up with people arguing "such&such hard soap is way better (in that regard) than such&such cream" or vice versa. Personally, I like the hard soaps better and you are going to have to find out which type you like better by yourself, so ordering a few samples of well regarded soaps (for example, from this Holy Grail of soapology: http://straightrazorpalace.com/soaps...ps-creams.html) is the best way to learn what you and your face/skin prefer. MaggardRazors sells soap samples that last for about 5-8 shaves and will give you a good idea of how a soap performs and how your face/skin reacts to it.
In general: (and again, I'm not trying to start an argument with anyone and recognize each soap, whether cream or hard, is different)
- creams are "easier" to build a lather with (this is primarily because they already have some moisture in them and generally absorb more moisture and build up more readily/faster) - either way, every soap is different and building up a great lather is a skill in itself that you will have to perfect on your own.
- hard soaps last longer and are a better "bang for your buck" (again, this is primarily because creams already have some moisture in them, so you're "paying for water") a good sized tub of a quality triple-milled hard soap can last some people a year... I don't know from my own experience because I keep buying more of different kinds so my rotation is getting longer and longer and I probably have enough soap for another 15-20 years and have never finished any of them yet as a result. I don't care because I like all the ones I have and like each one in different ways... the ones I don't like, well I keep them awhile until I find someone new that wants to try wet-shaving/straight razors and then I give them one or two to help them on their journey, maybe they'll like it better than me & free is free.

Hope this helps and hope you get that great, comfortable shave without any more irritation you're looking for.

Originally Posted by 71L

The razor, if bought from SRD or from a reputable seller (for example in the Classifieds of this site) stating it is "shave ready" will come sharpened & ready for use on your face without stropping - that doesn't mean that stropping couldn't make it better. If you are an experienced user stropping prior to use can refine the edge & make for a smoother shave. They key here is that you are not an experienced user and you stropping the edge is more likely to do harm than good. Using that edge for the first time on your face will give you a baseline for what truly shave-ready sharpness feels like and that is very important. Of course, for the next shave you should strop and that is also a very important skill to master. Some people recommend practicing with a butter knife on your strop. I and others don't because this can lead you to pick up bad habits. 1. it's an approximation, but not the same as stropping your razor, particularly due to the scales. 2. with the butter knife it's too easy for you to be doing things (like rolling the edge) that will be bad for your razor and the strop without knowing it because you don't have the feedback of the razor to let you know you're doing something wrong. 3. it makes you build up confidence and speed, which in this case, is a bad thing - the extra boost of confidence from practicing repeatedly with a butter knife can lead you to become overconfident when you strop your real razor the first few times and go much faster than you would have otherwise because you don't have the healthy "fear"/apprehension, so when you do screw up, it'll be far worse due to the extra speed/pressure.

What I do recommend for new users is to strop on newspaper for the first couple of times and then alternate newspaper and your real strop for the next several times. Newspaper is actually a fairly good and abundantly plentiful/cheap medium to strop with - as a matter of fact, that's all some users use, though that was more common in "the old days." If you mess up, you didn't slice your strop, although each mistake is bad for your razor's edge, it would have been just as bad, if not worse, on leather rather than newspaper. I don't recommend going all out newspaper for an extended period of time until you feel you're "good enough" and then switching to the real strop for one of the same reasons as not using a butterknife - you'll be overconfident and over-fast when you do switch to the leather, so in my opinion it's best to do it on newspaper the first couple of times and then alternate the newspaper and real strop while you still have a bit of that healthy apprehension to keep you safer.

As far as your question regarding creams vs hard soaps... you're looking to start a fight with that one. There's users that love their creams and there's users that love their hard soaps - stating that one or the other is "better" in any way is a good way to end up with people arguing "such&such hard soap is way better (in that regard) than such&such cream" or vice versa. Personally, I like the hard soaps better and you are going to have to find out which type you like better by yourself, so ordering a few samples of well regarded soaps (for example, from this Holy Grail of soapology: http://straightrazorpalace.com/soaps...ps-creams.html) is the best way to learn what you and your face/skin prefer. MaggardRazors sells soap samples that last for about 5-8 shaves and will give you a good idea of how a soap performs and how your face/skin reacts to it.
In general: (and again, I'm not trying to start an argument with anyone and recognize each soap, whether cream or hard, is different)
- creams are "easier" to build a lather with (this is primarily because they already have some moisture in them and generally absorb more moisture and build up more readily/faster) - either way, every soap is different and building up a great lather is a skill in itself that you will have to perfect on your own.
- hard soaps last longer and are a better "bang for your buck" (again, this is primarily because creams already have some moisture in them, so you're "paying for water") a good sized tub of a quality triple-milled hard soap can last some people a year... I don't know from my own experience because I keep buying more of different kinds so my rotation is getting longer and longer and I probably have enough soap for another 15-20 years and have never finished any of them yet as a result. I don't care because I like all the ones I have and like each one in different ways... the ones I don't like, well I keep them awhile until I find someone new that wants to try wet-shaving/straight razors and then I give them one or two to help them on their journey, maybe they'll like it better than me & free is free.

Hope this helps and hope you get that great, comfortable shave without any more irritation you're looking for.

Yeah, you beat me to it 71L. A razor from SRD is ready to go (and they will tell you not to strop it). You can shave with it and see what a "shave ready" razor is like. There have been many stories of people stropping a shave ready razor and making it worse. You want to be able to experience a shave with the razor in the best possible form.

Regarding cream/soap, as 71L said, it is a religious war, and that's what is great about wet shaving - lots of opinions, lots of methods, lots of selections.

My experience has been that I can get a more consistent lather, easier, from cream than soap. So while one person may be able to get a "better" lather with a soap or with a cream, for a beginner, my suggestion is to try to do all the things that make this as simple as possible and help reduce the variables that may contribute to a less than optimal shaving experience. If your lather has too much or too little moisture, it won't be as effective in lubricating your face for the shave.

There are MANY things that will affect the quality of the shave, so if you can try to reduce those variations somewhat, it's a good idea, IMHO.