Thread: An Introduction

Hello. I am not new to using a straight razor as this was the instrument that my father taught me to shave with when I first started shaving some 20+ years ago. He shaved with both a straight and a safety razor.

I am however new to SRP and have been lurking about for about 3 months, reading and learning. This is my first post, and I wanted to say thank you to all the members for their volumes of info and willingness to help out.

About a year ago I picked up the straight razor again. I purchased the Col Cronk starter kit (razor, strop, brush, soap) that was at my local cigar and pipe store (I do those things too). I quickly went home lathered up and put it to my face. Ouch, that was a very bad experience. Shaving with a straight is not like getting back on a bike, and like many have said, the razors aren't shave ready out of the box.

I aquired a couple of my fathers old razors and have been shaving with them since the Cronkster was not sharp.

I also was walking down town Palm Springs (I live close by) one day and saw a bunch of straight razors in the window. I went back only to find out that it is the ClassicShaving.com store they recently opened. I purchased an $89.00 Dovo 6/8 I believe straight from them that was shave ready. I would recommend to anyone just starting out to go that route vice what I did a year ago. Also, David, the guy that works the shop floor during the day is one heck of a nice guy. What else I did was quickly ditch the strop that came in my starter set and bought a 3" one from Tony Miller at thewellshavedgentleman.com. I can not recommend his strop enough. Once I got that strop, I have had nothing but BBS shaves.

Now my challenge is to learn to hone on my Cronkster and the e-bay specials I have been aquiring (I suffer from RAD alredy). I have a Norton 1K, 4K, and 8K. After that progression, I strop the heck out of it on the linen strop followed by the leather. I get a pretty good shave, but all the reading I have been doing, I think I can get it a little better. I am going to get a 12K stone tomorrow at the shave shop, and have some ChroOx coming from a member here. Hopefully I can get the Cronkster to be really sharp.

Well I really felt that I should share this all, since this site has been really helpful to me. Thanks again for all the good advice.

-- Scott

Welcome to SRP!

oh, that's cool.
i believe the col. conk are rebranded dovos but i may be wrong. good luck.
BTW who hones these Dovo razors that you bought at the shop? Or are they coming that way from the factory?

I was told that when the new razors come in they send them off to a guy up North somewhere. I am going there tomorrow, I will ask for his name.

And the stamping on the razor says that it is made in Soligen Germany, and looks very much like the Dovo I got.

well now that's a cool shop that knows what they should be doing.
i guess this being in Florida if they had said that they're sending it to a 'guy down south' would also be rather funny

i asked because if it's somebody local may be you could arrange a teaching session with him.

David told me the guys name and where he was specifically. He also told me where he was located, I just didn't pay attention as I was drawn to all the shiny objects in the store.

The shop is really cool, everything that is on their website is at the store. I like to see what it is before I buy it so I was picking up this, and looking at that while we were chatting.

My two year old son was in the shop with me too, and helping me pick out our next pinaud. He is the one soaping up with me in my avatar, he has a toy straight razor. We shave every day together before he goes off to day care and I go off to work. After we are done he runs in and gets his mama and says "smell me".

A hearty welcome to SRP. Most everyone at work thinks I'm nuts..