Thread: Starting Off

+1 wait with the stone
give yourself some time to really understand and implement proper stroping and shaving technique.
make sure you get an actual shave ready razor for your first razor, it is important to have a reference point to what shave ready really is and that does not mean "factory" shave ready so i would send it to a professional
good luck and happy shaving

Being new to this myself I would suggest - pick a good (not necessarily expensive) razor that comes shave ready honed by someone that knows what they are doing and a good strop.

If you have been wet shaving then you are set. If not you will need a good shave soap and a good brush. A boar brush doesn't cost a lot and will work fine.

I looked at hones but opted to get the technique down and maybe in a year or two I will look at them again. In the meantime I will rely on those skilled in honing to freshen the blade.

To play devil's advocate, I'm fine with shaving off an Inigo Jones dragon's tongue. A nice, working-man's shave for starters. Use a fine DMT card to generate a misty slurry leading to water. Beyond this, maybe one of AJ's Welsh purple slates, following the same program(me).

Here's my current recipe with a Dovo full-hollow: Suehiro 1k/3k JIS synth combo, Inigo Jones dragon's tongue, AJ's Welsh purple, Scrupleworks horsehide strop, ignoring the linen, 12x achromatic triplet loupe for heightened viewing. Coarse DMT to lap the stones, fine DMT to create a misty slurry on the slates. Very nice end-result.

Dovo from the factory should be pretty close. An Inigo Jones dragon's tongue followed by a judicious use of the strop will bring things to shave-readiness in the right hands. The DT is very easy to use, and a great natural starter stone in my opionion. And far cheaper and more immediately effective than its analogue coticule.