Thread: Newbie Newms Looking for Straight edge in SF

Hello All,

I came across a little shaving boutique while traveling in Buenos Aires and was simply blown away at all of the razors, brushes, creams, strops, etc. I immediately looked up the history of it when I arrived home in the states. I have moved to San Francisco and am eager to buy a razor and kit and start a fresh new life of shaving. It seems that Dovo's are the best brand and I think I am looking for a rounded tip (for newbs) and a 5/8' blade. Correct me if I am wrong but I think that is the right starter blade.

I am weary of buying anything online however, and have been unsuccessful locating any boutique shaving shops in SF (but i'm sure they are there). Does anyone know where I can go? I am NOT eager to spend a lot of $ as I will be a beginner, though I am quite dexterous.

Thanks ahead of time for the responses and welcomes to SRP.

Dave

Welcome to SRP.
A good place to start is the sticky posts in this section and the links thereafter. You'll probably change your mind about locating a store in SF for your purchase.
I wouldn't say that Dovo is the best brand, but when you get two, maximum three brands of new razors you don't really get too much choice.

You'll soon get ton of helpful suggestions

Hi Dave,
Finding stuff locally is pretty rare these days - most of us either buy off the classified section here on SRP, go to classicshaving.com (very reputable) or we antique hunt and restore them ourselves. As for strops, your best bet is probably Tony Miller or Handmade American (both vendors here).

Good luck and welcome to SRP!

Mark

Hi,

I started jsut few months ago, if I had know then what I know now I would buy a razor from the classified section on here, most of them will have been in the sellers personal collection and used regularly for some time previous to being sold and will most likely come ready to shave with.

That way you will get a restored vintage razor of superb quality for less than half the cost of a new Dovo. And you maz save the £20 pre honing chjarge that you will need for a new razor.

I bought mine from Jim at Vintage Blades, he is a good guy to deal with if you do decide to buy new.

Spend some time on this site looking through the posts, learn the favourite brands of razor, different systems of getting a great edge that people use and then you wuill be educated about what you need to buy, rather than buying loads of stuff you don't need to get your kit right.

But I think for most of us that's part of the fun, it soon becomes a collector's hobby as well as a way to shave.

At the least I'd say you need a ready razor or two, one to be using on alternate days, also you'll have a back-up in case you strop one wrong and ruin the edge.

Then you will need a good leather strop for every day use, essentail. Most of us use some kind of pasted strop every few days or less depending on the beard thickness.

If you want to touch up your razor every few months or so you will need a fine hone, best would be a chinese 12k or a coticule, or you can send it out to be professionally honed.

You could also buy a coulpe of cheap old razors from ebay to practice with. It's harder to ensure the blades will be good and not warped but you don't want to kill your new edge by inexperienced stropping and honing so the cheap razor will allow you to make mistakes.

Again you will need to refer to the forums on here to learn how to strop, how to hone, which hones and pastes to use, etc.

Start by getting Lynn Abram's video, or watching excerpts on you trube, also look for a video by one of our memebrs called Heavyduty on honing.

There is much more than this to learn, i'm just getting to grips with it all myself so my opinion is far from professional.

Have fun and be prepared to get obsessed.