I have an awesome wife, and some concerns

Hello all of you out there again, well my wife decided to be awesome and get me a new straight for Christmas. She ordered it from Knives at Knife Center and it appears to be on the way. I found this out since my wife is horrible at keeping secrets and I figured it out last night:w. Here is my problem, even though she got the razor she did not get any other gear for it. I do not have a stone, strop or pastes. I would really really like to be able to use this sometime soon but I do not have the money to go nuts with gear. I am also assuming that I will need to get Lynn's DVD so I dont ruin the blade. Is there anyone out there who would be willing to help a newbie out with his first razor? I think that I could manage 75$ for gear but not much more. If noone can help could someone help me with advice on what to do? I dont wanna just stare at my new straight for two months before I even get a chance to use it:(.

Welcome. I can't personally help you out but I'll throw some advice at you. You can get by for quite a bit of time with just a strop and a nicely honed razor provided you don't damage the edge stropping. I would suggest skipping the stones for now and have it honed by one of the members here, you can go to the classifieds to see who the honemeisters are. Now for the strop you can check out the vendors area. For around what you want to spend you can get yourself a strop and have the blade honed.

Welcome to SRP. What a lovely wife. She's a keeper.

I wouldn't bother with hones and pastes yet. Learn to use a str8 first. You can pick up a nice beginner strop for $40 or less. I have a Col. Conk Prima Rindleder strop that appears to be the same as the Dovo. The Dovo goes for $40 with linen on back. I read here that Tony Miller has a beginner strop for $20, but he's closed until Jan. 7. I've heard nothing but good things about Tony Miller strops.

If your new str8 is not shave ready, send it out to one of the hone meisters here. Then you know how a proper str8 should shave.

I highly recommend Lynn's DVD. It's packed with info and the video demonstrates honing, stropping, and even the shave itself.

Do you have a brush? Boar bristle brushes are available for under $10, but CS has a Vulfix small pure badger brush for $35. It's worth th extra expense for a badger. You can buy 2.5 inch cakes of shaving soap for $5 and use an old coffee mug for your shaving mug.

Have a great shave,

Dave

yea I have a brush and soaps due to I have been using a shavette until now so I have two mama bear soaps and a cheap brush that I will upgrade later. I will probablly just get a strop and send out the razor for honing. thanks for the imput guys, it is highly appreciated as always.

I agree with what's been suggested. Get a decent beginner strop and send the razor to someone who can hone it for you. Save your money and buy a hone or pasted strop in a couple months or so. :tu

Jordan

All you need is a good strop and a honemeister. If you've been using a shavette with good results, you've more or less skipped the newbie stage:tu Welcome to SRP:rock:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...low-price.html

Check out that thread that RayG posted that is a great strop for the money...

And as posted above check the classified and find a Honemister and get one of us the blade to tune for you...

As for a brush and soap Walmart has the Van der Hagen stuff for less than $10 for both this does not have to cost a fortune... They also have some great glassware to use for lathering for about $2 I still use my Lg Sundae bowl almost every day, best lather bowl I have found to date....

If you are on a budget and want to maintain your own razor, the best option imo is a tony miller 4 sided paddle. It has 1 side leather for normal stropping, and the other sides have 3, 1, 0.5 diamond or chromium oxide paste.

A colleague of mine has one after I sold him his first and only straight, and he has been successfully been maintaining his razor for more than a year now.