Piet's first straight razor

I've been using electrical razors (Braun) for about 15 years and never enjoyed it. Takes me too long, my face usually ends up with red areas and a few cuts and I can't get it as smooth as I would like. I tried a Gilette cartridge razor for 1-2 months a few years ago but that was no success either.

Recently my current Braun razor died and I felt like trying something new. I decided to buy a brand new NTS Solingen 5/8 stainless straight razor with walnut scales. A set with that razor, a hanging strop and leather paste cost €85.39 (after asking for a discount). At an ebay like website I bought a paddle strop for €12.50 which appears to be unused. I thought that may be useful for practising and honing.

I did get shaving soap but I haven't bought a shaving brush yet. I plan on getting the Tweezerman badger brush. For now I will use some shaving mousse I still have.

Should I start stropping with the hanging strop or paddle strop?

I have already watched a few videos on stropping and shaving to prepare myself. To practise stropping I cut and filed a paint mixer stick to look a little bit like a razor and used it on a belt :)

Yesterday I bought 3 vintage straight razors from Solingen at the same ebay like website. One was €7.50 (+ shipping costs) and the two others were €6.50 (+ shipping costs). They will need polishing, honing and one will probably need new scales. I thought that would be fun for a future project and have some razors to pick from or lend out to friends if they wanted to try it out. I will post pics of the old razors when they arrive.

welcome to srp

i don't know what is the condition on the edge or how aggressive that paddle strop is, so it's rather hard to give you an advice.

if he razor doesn't shave arm hair easily it's dull and you should send it to somebody who knows how to sharpen these. if it shaves arm hair strop it on the linen part of the hanging strop, then on the leather and see if it shaves beard. if it doesn't do the paddle strop - the person who sold it to you should be able to tell you how coarse each side is, then again the hanging strop and shave. if that fails send it for honing.

if i were you i'll skip the experimentation step and send it for honing right away. the assurance that my edge is where it needs to be is more than worth the small fee and frustration trying to navigate all the possible pitfalls.

Thanks Gugi.

The paddle strop has not been pasted on either side.

I tried the razor on the back of my hand. Nice, my first straight razor cuts hehe very tiny though I think I started with a bad angle over a bump in my hand which caused the tiny cuts. I was able to shave off the hair. However it isn't that sharp it can cut hairs in mid-air though.

I tried pushing a chest hair on the blade and it didn't get cut, my hair is pretty thick though.

I think the razor is supposed to be honed.

Starting with the 'linen' part sounds like a good idea. It's actually synthetic.

You mean the ads for braun aren't true? You won't get the best shave of your life?
Just kidding.

Your razor probably needs honing. Since you are starting out I would send it out. We have a number of members near you who can do that. Why don't you contact Bruno he's in Belgium.

The razor probably does need a little honing although I can't really tell without the experience. The thing is if I send it out to be honed, it gets back shave ready and I mess up the edge by stropping incorrectly it has to be honed again.

I started with some 'dry' stropping on the canvas side with the paint mixer. Then I stropped for real. I think I have the canvas side figured out but the leather side not so much.

I did try to shave to get a feel for the sharpness. It started out sligtly dull and after stropping some more it got much better, like a used cartridge razor. Not sharp enough to get all the hairs in one stroke.

Shaving was pretty cool though. I got tiny nicks all over and even managed to nick both ears but no bleeders. Actually better than the first time I used a cartridge razor because that left my face and sink all bloody :w

I will have to work on the leather stropping and get some paste for the paddlestrop.

2 of the vintage razors came in the mail. The first one is a Richard Schmitz Solingen 6/8 half hollow? (VII on the grind scale). The other one is a c.friedr.ern Solingen 5/8 near wedge (II).

I think I better wait for my next straight razor shave till I have some hones. Would be nice if there was a local Dutch shaver who could give me a hand and show me how it's done :)

Hoi Piet,

Welkom op SRP! Ziet er allemaal goed uit!

As for a local barber who could explain, I don't know one in the Rotterdam area, but there's an old school one in Breukelen, Paul Kox. You'll sometimes have to take what he says with a grain of salt (eg, he broadly evaluates the sharpness of razors by slashing them into the edges of random pieces of paper :eek:) but he's generally very knowledgeble and quite friendly too.