Thread: Finally buying

Welcome to SRP. Nice set, you've got good taste. I would go for the upgrade to silvertip personally and I prefer carbon steel to stainless although both are good. Here is the SRP Wiki where you will find tutorials on all things straight razor related as well as videos. Here is a post by SRP founder Lynn Abrams with some suggestions for an easy transition into shaving with a straight razor.

its great that you decided to take the plunge. you won't regret it. the only advice i can give is to read through as many of the thread in the newbies area as possible. most of your questions will be answered without you having to ask them. plus you may find tips that you didn't even know you needed yet that you can use in the future. also make sure it is shave ready when you buy it, there is a difference between shave ready and sharpened from the factory.

good luck.

the difference between stainless and non-stainless steels isn't dramatic, i certainly wouldn't call one better than the other.
likewise in brushes, better is relative - some people don't prefer silvertip. i actually like the 'finest' better and it's probably scrubbier than silvertip, even though it's a lot more expensive.
you wouldn't know what your preferences are until you try various things for a while. pick whatever looks good to you and fits in your budget and someday you can try something else. it could turn out to be upgrade or downgrade, only trying it out will tell you.

Welcome to SRP Baited,

I too started shaving in college, but did it in the evening after hitting the books. It helped me clear my mind and focus on something else. Believe me, you want to be focused. Also, for the first several months, it took me an hour to shave, and that's okay! Speed is not the thing at this stage.

Regarding your selection. I opted for a larger blade 6/8, pure badger brush - you will not know a dif now so go low here. I upgraded to a 3" latigo strop (instead of a 2"), regular soap mug and Col Bay Rum. I got mine from Vintage blades; Vintage*Blades*LLC*::... and love the razor.

I bought here because I live in MD anyway. Your set up looks good as well though, although I would consider upgrading to a 3" strop. I also might recommend you strop your razor on linen for 50x then move to leather for 100x prior to shaving.

Come back, learn, ask, grow. Welcome.

Alpsman

If your on a budget try putting a set together your self by looking in the classifieds in this site. Just click on classified on top row of page.

Fellow newb who just took the plunge about a month ago...

My advice: If you are on any sort of budget, recommend you look at the classifieds before purchasing a higher priced (over $100) razor... You will almost certainly dull or nick the edge in the learning process. While that can be honed out, it is disappointing to do that on an expensive blade. Additionally, common consensus seems to hold that vintage blades are at least the equal of new productions, and in many cases surpass them as grinding a blade is becoming something of a lost art. After you've spent time with a less expensive razor, you can go onto collect the more expensive models (it seems almost no one sticks to owning just one razor).

If you also want to save a couple more bucks, there are several budget badger hair brushes out there. I can vouch for the Tweezerman, it's certainly not the equal of a silvertip, but it's a great budget buy.

As far as a strop, I can vouch for the Tony Miller strops, which have the option of coming with a learner's strop for a small surcharge. You can nick up the learning strop all you want... I'm thinking about turning mine into a pasted strop...

Cheers,

- HJ

I've been reading the wiki the last couple days and I just started searching here. Why is stainless steel more expensive than carbon? That's why I chose the stainless steel blade because I thought there was a difference in quality going by the price but I guess not. My budget is ~$300 so that first set fit in, but if I can save money that works too. Since stainless doesn't make it better then that opens up my razor choices a lot and I can get cheaper ones than the Renaissance and get the "upgrades" (bigger silver tip brushes, bigger strop, etc). Like I said I was just trying to buy the best I could right at the start so I don't have not as good razor or brushes accumulating.

Thanks for the information everyone and I'll post up what I decide on soon but I'm moving tomorrow so it might be a couple days.

the price of razors doesn't always correlate with the quality or how nice they shave. in any case it won't make much difference to you at the beginning since your technique will be the dominant factor.
stainless steel is most certainly less hassle to care for. I treat all my razors the same, but if you look at vintage razors the stainless steel ones are very easy to tell appart, they're almost always free of tarnish and pitting.
may be the steel and the production is slightly more expensive than the carbon steel blades, only dovo knows how they determine their prices.

A 3" strop will prevent you from having to learn the X pattern when stropping, definitely a plus for me... however many people nick up their first strop, so be conscious of that fact when picking one out... I've been fortunate in that I haven't nicked mine up (yet?), but I practiced for quite a bit using a $10 razor with a blunted edge before turning to my shaver (many people also practice with a butter knife).

Learning to strop correctly has so far been the longest part of my learning process... after a month and two ruined edges just starting to get acceptable results...

Regarding the razors, the Renaissance is reported to be a nice razor (there are a few reviews out on it, and in fact I bought a used one last week off the classifieds), but for the price you can get several nice vintage razors that will all yield great shaves and still have some coin in your pocket. Speaking as a fellow newb, having several razors is quite nice for two reasons:

1. When you blunt/damage one and send it off for rehoning, you still have spares to continue shaving.

2. There are a wide variety of styles in terms of grind, width, steel, origin, and tip. Experimenting with different ones and figuring out which suits you best is part of the enjoyment...

Cheers,

- HJ