Starting Off

Hi guys,
Started to make my list of everything I'll need to begin straight shaving,

Dovo xl russian leather strop DOVO XL LEATHER STROP - Knightsshavingshop.com
Dovo Straight razor 5/8 full hollow ground cut throat razor


I have a brush and soaps from shaving with a safety razor and the Knights Shaving Shop is close to my workplace so proximity makes it first choice for me. They have a Honing stone "Dragon's tongue" Dragon's Tongue Honing Stone - Knightsshavingshop.com not sure if its any good.

If I've left out anything obvious or if you have some better equipment suggestions please reply.

Thanks guys

I'm in the same boat, just getting the essentials to get started on this new chapter. Wish you good luck and as a fellow beginner I'm also interested on recommendations.

Separate your wants from your needs. First, it is a good idea to get the basics you will need. Shave ready razor, brush and soap, strop. The better quality you get and the slower you attack the learning curve the easier it will be. This will get you shaving.
After that if you wish to get into it more you will have learned a lot that will make your choices better. Honing for example is not that hard but if you don't start out knowing how to strop and what shave ready means then you have added more obstacles than necessary to your learning curve. Many just jump into everything at once and that is pretty much what I did but it worked for me. I did not skip any of the steps I mentioned but I did accelerate the process by learning what I could and making purchases before I needed too. Luckily I read the right stuff and picked it up without too much hassle. I still use all the primary purchases I made except for the original learning kit that cost me 40 bucks. 40 bucks in and of itself should have been a warning but I hadn't found SRP yet :<0)

When I first got into this sport/hobby 8 years ago I did everything backwards. I was disabled, unemployed and on a very tight budget. First razor I bought had busted scales so I had to learn to make scales first. Really couldn't afford to send the razor out for honing let along buy hones so I used what I had which were not for razors, had some very rough shaves. So, learning to shave and strop came last for me. Been a long hard learning curve, made a lot of mistakes, would not recommend anyone doing it like that but with the help of these fine gentlemen on SRP I made it.......Thank You All!

I'd hold off on getting the dragon's tongue. It's a good stone for sharpening (usually about 6k-8k), but you would do better with a finisher like a 12k or higher.

Looks like they are saying that the razor comes shave ready from factory which is unlikely so honing will need to be added. Unsure I would trust honing by someone who considered factory shave ready usable so would look elsewhere for that. As said a synthetic high grit hone is a better buy from a learning point and will make upkeep easier.

+1 to what has been said about holding off on the dragon's tongue hone. I would use that money to pay for a professional honing after a few months of shaving so that you can understand what your razor is like at it's best. After that, if you still feel like you want to get into honing, i would more recommend one of the norton 4k/8k combo stones or if you really want the best go with the naniwa superstones.

As mentioned the dragons tongue is not a hone to learn on, your much better off getting a finishing hone to refresh a known shave ready edge, that being said i doubt a factory edge from Dovo is shave ready. Check out:

https://www.theinvisibleedge.co.uk/2...acturer=2&n=71

Steve Dempster has the razor and strop that your looking at for roughly the same price but he inspects, hones and strops each razor he sends out. A properly honed razor is key to success in this game, it would be a shame and also frustrating to get your razor and then not be able to use it, then have to send it out again to get it properly honed.

I would also personally recommend a strop with a cotton/linen secondary component, I believe it to be necessary for daily maintenance.

good luck

A dragons tongue is ok stone but that seems very expensive for a dragons tongue imho, also the razor you have is good, but it says in the advert its a factory edge, which they claim is shave ready, but some people may prefer an additional honing, so my guess is it may not be quite sharp enough for you to get a comfortable shave, I maybe wrong.

But that said its a small issue as you could easily send it out to be honed, I am sure there are people in Ireland in fact 'macrob' a member here is based in Ireland, he does some great restorations so I am sure he would hone also.
There are honing services in the classified section but if the person is same country it keeps the cost down, hence me mentioning that member.

My advice would be see how the razor is first then send it out for honing if its not sharp enough, Hold off on buying any stones, just to see if straight razors is for you, before you try and get involved in honing as the acquisition of stones will occur and quickly, and that can be more expensive than collecting razors!!! many members on here use straights and send them out for honing rather than do them selves.

I hope that has helped you.

Thanks guys, great help as always.

+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.