Hi everyone!
I've only been shaving with DE blades for a short while, but I'm already beginning to feel the urge to get a straight blade. There's somehow something very, very cool about sliding a naked blade across your face. So I thought I'd sign up over here, because this seems to be the place to be when it comes to straight razor shaving. I've browsed the forums a bit so far and wow, it's really full of information.
I think I will buckle under my wants, and get a straight in a foreseeable future, but perhaps I could ask some questions first.
Quite a lot of people are suggesting getting a starter pack from The Well Shaved Gentleman, I already have most of the gear needed, so I was looking at the two "basics" sets, and couldn't really figure it out. As I understand it, a straight would need stropping before each shave, and what I've read so far indicates that it's usual to use both canvas and leather for stropping. But there's also a basics set with a four sided paddle strop (with three sides meant to be pasted), does that mean it can be enough to strop using just leather?
Next, I read that a straight will probably not be as sharp as a DE blade. I wonder how that works. People seem to get really different results with different DE blades, and some write about how they really need the sharper DE blades (like Feathers), how does that work with straight shaving? I can't imagine that everyone who is DE shaving is getting better shaves than straight shavers, otherwise places like this wouldn't exist. Is it ever an issue that the straight isn't as sharp as a DE? Or have I misunderstood the whole thing?
And on a related note, I live in the Netherlands (Utrecht to be more precise), and was wondering if anyone knew any places in the Netherlands that sell "proper" shaving gear. I know of one in Breukelen (www.barbershopclassics.nl) where I ordered my DE stuff from. Are there any other decent places?
Phew, that was longer than I thought when I started writing this post. :)