Thread: New straight shaver looking for the best start

Just wanted to jump on and say hello as I've been lurking for a bit and have found this community to be very supportive and full of great opinions and information. I live in Los Angeles and haven't found much for straight razors other than The Art of Shaving. I purchased a Dovo Shavette just to try it out and see if I felt comfortable with the idea of raking a truly sharp blade against my beard. I've been shaving with it for just over a week now and am feeling pretty confident and appreciate the whole process of it all. Few nicks here and there, especially considering and slightly raised mole on my cheek that the razor does not seem to tolerate. Guess I'll still keep my Mach 3 around for this purpose only.

I've been digging through the classifieds here as well as looking at classicshaving.com. I've found the Thiers-Issard to be the most asthetically pleasing while also having a great reputaiton for quality. I would really like to get some thoughts on what experienced shavers think I should look out for in chosing a new razor and what the best tools would be to keep up my chosen blade. I guess in short I'm looking for a dream starter set that you wish you had when you first started straight razor shaving. Nothing too extravagant but the right tools for the job.

I've been over the wiki for beginning users and found some very good information, now just looking around for individual opinions.

Get your strop from here: The Well Shaved Gentleman, Heirloom Razor Strop Company, Straight Razor Shaving Supplier
Get your soaps and creams from here: The Gentlemen's Quarter - Shaving, Bath and Body, Skincare, Home Fragrance, Brushes, Creams, Soaps
Get a blade from the classifieds and you'll be shavin' just like me!

Oh, and I got a Norton 4k/8k combination waterstone from here: Norton Water Stones - Lee Valley Tools

X

Great links! Hadn't found these in my previous internet travels. Thanks much.

In the classifieds you should be looking for a razor that looks good to you (apparently aesthetics is important to you) from a seller that seems trustworthy.
AFIK classicshaving is the largest vendor carrying TI. The quality of manufacturing seems to be quite spotty, but these things change, TI is supposedly upgrading their manufacturing.

I got the Norton 4k/8k for $75.99 from here:

Razor Strops, Hones, and Accessories

Aesthetics help but hearing of spotty manufacturing surely outweighs that. Thiers was on the list of good manufactures in the wiki so very glad to have posted this before taking the plunge.

well, the steel is good and when the razor is well made they're great, but the reports on warped blades, poorly made and pinned scales are too many not to take into account.
of course if you can inspect the razor in person before purchasing that could avoid all these problems and you did say there's AOS where you can buy it from. You'll have to send it for honing afterwards, if you go this route.