Looking to buy my first Straight Razor!

Hello!

So for about the past week and a half I have been researching and looking into buying a straight razor. I've googled about every starter kit and set, have read through threads on reddit, but I wasn't really getting anywhere so I decided to get professional help. Ideally i would like to get a set with all the essentials for around $70 and add from there as i get more and more addicted. I thought about starting off with maybe a Dovo Shavette or something of that sort, but read that they are not as forgiving as traditional straight razors. through research I keep coming across this Gold Dollar straight razor and looked it up and found one review that said it wasn't bad for beginners. I have seen plenty of sets with that same razor and different strops, brushes, bowls, and soaps that come with it. But I guess at the end I'm asking the age old question, what should I buy as a beginner, and yes i have looked through the beginners guide but still need help.

Thank you for your time and any help!

you need to just pick a beginner razor from the classifieds, there are some deals there at times, or go to Straight Razor Designs and get one of their sets. it will be more than your 70$ price range but sets in that range will be with crap razors. and you cant learn to shave with a bad razor. strops can be had reasonably an Illinois 827 is about 35$, soap is cheap get an Arko stick and a cheap boar brush.

maybe put your location in your profile you might get more help that way. Tc

Welcome to SRP!
There are a lot of great folks and info here, do as TC suggests and you'll be way ahead of the game.

Enjoy and have fun!!

Welcome to the forum.

I think you will have to up your budget some in order to get into straight razor shaving with some decent gear.

You will need shave ready razor, even brand new razors can't be counted on to be shave ready. So, as TC has said, the best bet is to by a vintage razor from the classifieds or a reputable retailer that sends them out honed/shave ready.

You need a decent strop but not too expensive as you will likely cut up the strop learning to strop and in the process dull your blade in the process. Be prepared to send out your razor for honing fairly frequently in the beginning because of that and poor shaving technique.

Again as TC said, a good boar brush like an Omega 10066 for about $10 will do nicely but give it a couple of weeks of everyday use to break in and the tips to soften. Alternatively there are some pretty good synthetic brushes out there in the sub $20 range that need no break in.

Arko is about the most inexpensive soap that is still very good performing and plenty in the sub $20 range.

Realistically, I think I would budget $100 to $150 for all that.

Do a forum search, search box top right of page, for Gold Dollar to see what has been said about those razors. After reading those you may want to reconsider the idea of getting one of those or not.

Good luck and if you have more question be sure and ask.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Nicolas0103

Hello!

So for about the past week and a half I have been researching and looking into buying a straight razor. I've googled about every starter kit and set, have read through threads on reddit, but I wasn't really getting anywhere so I decided to get professional help. Ideally i would like to get a set with all the essentials for around $70 and add from there as i get more and more addicted. I thought about starting off with maybe a Dovo Shavette or something of that sort, but read that they are not as forgiving as traditional straight razors. through research I keep coming across this Gold Dollar straight razor and looked it up and found one review that said it wasn't bad for beginners. I have seen plenty of sets with that same razor and different strops, brushes, bowls, and soaps that come with it. But I guess at the end I'm asking the age old question, what should I buy as a beginner, and yes i have looked through the beginners guide but still need help.

Thank you for your time and any help!

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You can buy that gold dollar set for about $70.

You will be buying a razor available on ebay for $4. It will be honed and it will shave. It's not great, but it's not bad.

I have no first hand experience with anything else in that set, but my impression from the opinions of others is that most of it will end up being replaced if you stick with this and discarded if you don't.

If you really want a gold dollar, I'll sell you one for the cost of its honing. It will cost you less, but I still don't recommend it. There are many better options in the Buy/Sell/Trade. If you find that straight shaving is not for you, then you always can sell it there again.

There are some good recommendations listed in previous responses. No matter what razor you purchase, but sure you purchase it from someone who can put a true shave ready edge on the razor. Many people claim that the razors they sell are shave ready, but not all are. Many of them may be sharp enough to shave hair; but if the edge is uncomfortable, you will lose interest in straight razors.

What you have heard about shavettes is correct. The replaceable razor blades used in these razors are generally sharper than a straight razor. That means that any deficiencies in your technique are likely to lead to cuts, nicks, or weepers. Thus, they are not recommended for beginners.

The first razor I purchased was a Gold Dollar 800 that was honed to shave ready condition by Wet Shaving Place. The GD 800 is stainless and is one of the better GD razors. Honing a Gold Dollar is not easy as you have to correct some deficiencies in the design of the razor, so you have to get it from someone who knows how to fix one. While I got a razor that was properly fixed and shave ready, there are those who have purchased GD razors advertised as shave ready that were not even close. The cost of properly honing a GD razor is as much or more than the cost of the basic razor.

Once they are properly honed, Gold Dollar razors can shave well. They may not hold their edge as well as a higher quality razor. The scales on the razors are not very good, but what can you expect for an inexpensive Chinese razor. Even though I have multiple razors now, my GD shaves well enough that it remains my razor rotation.

When you are ready to learn how to hone razors, purchase a few hones and a few dull Gold Dollars and get at it. If you ruin destroy a blade while learning, you aren't out much. That will give you confidence when you later try your hand at honing an expensive razor.

For leather strops, there are many options. Although many recommend a "starter" hanging strop, another option is a paddle or bench strop. That can be as simple as purchasing a piece of leather from your local hobby store and gluing it to a piece of wood. Although I have a couple of nice hanging strops, I have several DIY strops using various types of leather. Some are glued smooth side up and some are glued suede side up. They each have their place.

In my opinion, a gold dollar will put you further behind. Yes, you can get a gold dollar that is shave ready, but the steel is of lesser quality than a good vintage, or a well made new production, and therefore will not hold an edge nearly as long. Now you have to think about cost of honing. I'm not exactly sure what the going rate is for honing these days, but I think it's around $15-20, plus shipping there and back. How proficient are you at stropping/maintaining an edge? Honing cost is going to kill you during the learning process.

There's 2 key things that are going to make or break
your experience. Stropping properly, and shaving properly.

Buy a good quality vintage thats shave ready (cause they're cheaper and better IMO) Get a brand name strop, and really concentrate on learning to strop properly. Nice and slow is key at the beginning.

Welcome. Everything mentioned above is spot on. I recommend two things (as a Newbie myself...started last June)

1. Listen to the advice above. These guys know what they're talking about!
2. Find someone in your area that can mentor you. I'd bet if you put your location in your avatar you'll get a PM in about 24 hrs. This is a GREAT bunch here always willing to pass their experience on.

The only other thing I'll add is: once you get set up and start shaving angle, angle, angle, and shave the lather!

Welcome! For my first straight style razor, I bought a Parker shavette for $20. It's ok, but not really enjoyable and just collects dust. I followed that with a Feather AC which is also a disposable blade and super sharp. I really like the Feather, and it cost me right around $70 plus blades (I already had the rest of my gear thanks to DE shaving)--I use the Feather regularly and can get excellent results with it. Finally, a friend of mine who owns a knife shop took a Thiers Issard on trade one day--it's a beautiful razor with rams horn scales; it retails new for $300 and he sold it to me for $100. I bought a cheap strop and cut it a few times while learning, but not so much that it isn't usable. I've sent it out for honing twice and paid $20 each time.

Learning the skill of straight shaving takes some time and patience, and I'm still not at a point where I get consistent results. However, it's really enjoyable and brings a smile to my face--even those days when I use a DE razor for a cleanup pass.

After all of that, I'd recommend you save up a little longer to get gear good enough that you'll have a good learning experience. A vintage from Whipped Dog plus a poor man's strop kit can be had for about $70. You can get an inexpensive boar brush or synthetic for $20 or less, and a good cream or soap for $15 or so. Oh, and another $5 for a styptic pencil is recommended. That all adds up closer to $100, but, IMO, you will have a better learning experience. Good luck!



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Try to keep in mind that you're considering putting one of the sharpest things known to mankind to your face to scrape off hair. It would be in your best interest to obtain quality shave gear. You can skimp on most shave supplies and be fine. But the last place you want to be cheap is the razor. I would say at least expect to pay $50 for a honed vintage from whipped dog or the classifieds here, or $100 on a Dovo from SRD that's honed to be truly shave ready.

If you start with a good sharp razor and an Illinois strop you'll probably stick with the hobby. If you start with cheap junk, you'll probably be ready to throw it all in the dust bin in a month or 2 and forever be confused how anyone can stand to shave like this.

What Marshal says above IS your best bet!:beer1:

I think we've all been there with Gold Dollars. Regrind this, reshape that, reset the bevel because whoever did it at the factory was WAY off, then maybe you can get it to shave right. And of course we watch new guys get suckered in by the 'Pro honed and shave ready!' adverts on them all the time.

Buying a Gold Dollar - $20

Finding out 'shave ready' is a lie - free, but the process sucks because the shave is awful and the razor tugs like an old rusty Gillette.

Having it pro-honed: $8 shipping one way. $25 for honing services (if the honemeister is feeling generous and doesn't charge for the work necessary to bring it to %100 shave ready). Return shipping - another $8.

And then when they get it, it'll last 2 weeks before their stropping technique dulls the edge and they have to send it out again.

So at the end of that process they're out $102 approx. Meanwhile if they bought a Dovo from Straight Razor Design it's $103 for a 5/8 half hollow, free shipping on anything over $75, comes hand honed to shaving sharp and with a free certificate for their first re-honing.

If it's gonna cost the same at the end of the day, give me the Dovo. Like everything else it's the hidden fees that get you.

All im going to say is you have heard it many times now. Dont buy the junk razor, i mean gold dollar. Buy from one of use on the forum. Take your time. It takes a couple months of shaving every day before it starts to come together. Dont worry about learning to hone for a while after that. Learn the shave, learn how the lather works best with water and learn to strop. Then buy something really nice that wipes out your wallet, all the hones in the world and start honing away the CHEEPER/first razor.
Good luck.

Thank you everyone for the advice, I think I will go with buying a vintage blade form the classifieds, up my budget, and buy everything separate. I really appreciate the advice from everyone. I had heard that these communities are super helpful and they were right. I will share where my straight razor adventures take me.

Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by Nicolas0103

Thank you everyone for the advice, I think I will go with buying a vintage blade form the classifieds, up my budget, and buy everything separate. I really appreciate the advice from everyone. I had heard that these communities are super helpful and they were right. I will share where my straight razor adventures take me.

Thanks again.

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Looking forward to seeing what you get. Have fun!

Greetings Nicolas & Welcome to SRP.
I just joined here recently and all the fellas have been very helpful with advice. I did a lot of research too before buying a razor and the first thing I learned was stay away from the gold dollar razors! I did see a bunch of people talking about Larry at Whipped Dog Razors and checked his site out. I bought a "site un-seen razor" from him for $43 and he sent me an old shave ready Union Razor Cutlery Co razor which I absolutely enjoy shaving with. I also bought a cheap Van Der Hagen brush, soap, mug and stand for $20 on amazon. Throw the soap in the garbage!!! and keep everything else. Spend $23.99 on amazon for "Baume be" shaving soap it is amazing and lasts a long time. By then you will have the "itch" and will be looking to buy something nice from one of the guys on this site, which I just did last week. Good Luck and have fun!!!

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Originally Posted by Utopian

You can buy that gold dollar set for about $70.

You will be buying a razor available on ebay for $4. It will be honed and it will shave. It's not great, but it's not bad.

I have no first hand experience with anything else in that set, but my impression from the opinions of others is that most of it will end up being replaced if you stick with this and discarded if you don't.

If you really want a gold dollar, I'll sell you one for the cost of its honing. It will cost you less, but I still don't recommend it. There are many better options in the Buy/Sell/Trade. If you find that straight shaving is not for you, then you always can sell it there again.

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Thank you for the offer and the advice, I'm going to buy a razor from the classifieds.

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Originally Posted by DupreesDiamond

Greetings Nicolas & Welcome to SRP.
I just joined here recently and all the fellas have been very helpful with advice. I did a lot of research too before buying a razor and the first thing I learned was stay away from the gold dollar razors! I did see a bunch of people talking about Larry at Whipped Dog Razors and checked his site out. I bought a "site un-seen razor" from him for $43 and he sent me an old shave ready Union Razor Cutlery Co razor which I absolutely enjoy shaving with. I also bought a cheap Van Der Hagen brush, soap, mug and stand for $20 on amazon. Throw the soap in the garbage!!! and keep everything else. Spend $23.99 on amazon for "Baume be" shaving soap it is amazing and lasts a long time. By then you will have the "itch" and will be looking to buy something nice from one of the guys on this site, which I just did last week. Good Luck and have fun!!!

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How is the Van Der Hagen set? is it a good place to start out? This is the one I found on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Van-Hagen-Men...agen+shave+set

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Originally Posted by tcrideshd

you need to just pick a beginner razor from the classifieds, there are some deals there at times, or go to Straight Razor Designs and get one of their sets. it will be more than your 70$ price range but sets in that range will be with crap razors. and you cant learn to shave with a bad razor. strops can be had reasonably an Illinois 827 is about 35$, soap is cheap get an Arko stick and a cheap boar brush.

maybe put your location in your profile you might get more help that way. Tc

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How is whipped Dogs' poor man strop in comparison to the Illinois? I was thinking of getting the poor mans to start off since I will probably cut it up

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Originally Posted by Nicolas0103

How is the Van Der Hagen set? is it a good place to start out? This is the one I found on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Van-Hagen-Men...agen+shave+set

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That is not a bad starter set for the price. I have a VDH Badger brush which I like quite a bit (after I glued the knot back in). The soap is OK, not great but just fine for starting out and you need a mug anyway. I'd say, go for it.

Thank you Braz

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Originally Posted by Nicolas0103

How is whipped Dogs' poor man strop in comparison to the Illinois? I was thinking of getting the poor mans to start off since I will probably cut it up

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I have the Whipped Dog poor man's strop kit. It's a nice durable piece of leather that makes a loop on one end that I put around a door knob. It's taken the cuts pretty well and remained usable. The nice thing is in the kit you also get leather conditioner and a pasted balsa strop--great for cleaning up the edge a little as you're learning technique. The Illinois strop also looks like a decent price for something to learn on.

A few alternatives:

Baum.Be is cheaper at Straight Razor Designs than at Amazon.

Illinois strops or the SRD starter strop are nicer options. They cost a little more but also are less likely to make you want to upgrade.

Balsa strops create fairly harsh edges and you easily can make your own pasted strop with the inside of a cereal box and an SRD CroOx crayon.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

A few alternatives:

Baum.Be is cheaper at Straight Razor Designs than at Amazon.

Illinois strops or the SRD starter strop are nicer options. They cost a little more but also are less likely to make you want to upgrade.

Balsa strops create fairly harsh edges and you easily can make your own pasted strop with the inside of a cereal box and an SRD CroOx crayon.

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1 teeny correction - I think the SRD Crayons are no more. Those were Mastro Livi CrOx crayons if you want to get the same thing but the shipping is out of this world. $30 shipping to get a $12 crayon.

On the bright side, the SRD CrOx spray is quite good. And will probably work in the same fashion, you just have to wait overnight for it to set up before stropping on it.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Nicolas0103

How is the Van Der Hagen set? is it a good place to start out? This is the one I found on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Van-Hagen-Men...agen+shave+set

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They sell that at our Wal Mart by the way. Might be worth a look to see if you can find something similar local. Might at least save you a little time waiting on shipping.

Hello,
the advice is the same on both sides of the ocean: better a SR from classified ads on this kind of forum, wich is "user" shave ready, than a new one with a factory "shave ready" edge.
BTW, beginning with a shavette is like beginning to learn riding a bicycle with a tricycle : it's not the same!