Dreaming of a good shave

Well, I'll throw in an introduction to start things off.

I'm a 22 year old computer tech that has never had a really good shave. I have used electric razors (extreme yuck), disposables (blah), M3 (half way decent), but I have never had what I would consider a wonderful shave. I hope that will change soon as the idea of shaving with a straight razor somewhat has a lot of appeal.

I've been browsing and getting a feel for things on what I need to go ahead and buy. I know a good quality strop will be a must have, norton 4k/8k and a practice razor for learning to hone (I know a lot of people it seems send theirs off but I believe in doing something all the way and learning every aspect that I can), mug, cream, and a good brush of course.

Now we get to the fun part, the razor. I am a large fan of old items (I know strange, I work on tech equipment all day everyday and I love old things and the feel they have). I have been looking at some of the vintage blades floating around on eBay, mostly Hollow Ground blades. Any recommendations on older blades from you guys? Pointers, trips, and things to look for are always recommended.

It's a great idea to learn to hone for yourself, but starting out it's nice to get one pre-honed so you can shave right away and have a good edge to use as a comparison as you teach yourself how to hone on another blade. Anything from England, Germany, France, Spain or the U.S. is typically of good quality. Need to be careful on The Bay for bad pictures and a lack of information regarding the actual condition of the razor. You'd find it better to watch the B/S/T forum here closely....there are lots of very nice, very well-priced pre-honed razors almost everyday that go up for sale. But they usually don't last long......

Definately keeping an eye on that board ;)

Watch for stuff from The Topher, Mike_ratliff and a few others as well....they all buy, clean, hone and resell vintage blades. Those guys have been around for a while and have a habit of looking out for new guys! :tu

or if you want to be less passive, you may even send them a pm letting them know you're ready to buy. maybe they'll let you skip the forum hunting.