Thread: newbie

Welcome to SRP, Greg.

Personally, I would go for one from the Classifieds, or a bottom line Dovo. You will need a strop, too. You will find some more information in our Beginner's Guide (full text here or as a PDF here).

Beginner's guide to straight razor shaving - Straight Razor Place Wiki
Choosing a razor is a matter of personal preference. If you must have a brand new razor the quality choices are limited to the three main major current manufacturers: Dovo, Thiers-Issard, and Böker; to the NOS Double Arrow and Wapienica; and to the custom razor makers. A brand new razor will still have to be honed.

Fortunately there are many vintage razors which would often be of equal or even better quality than the current production and they will generally cost significantly less. The best place to find one is the Classifieds section of SRP. Most often the razors there are honed and shave-tested by the seller, and this is noted in the ad, but when in doubt you can always ask them.

Newbies are discouraged from purchasing vintage razors on eBay because they do not have the experience to evaluate the condition of the razor - in most cases the pictures on eBay do not provide enough details, and even when they do, a newbie generally doesn't know what is important and what isn't.

Nevertheless there are some razors that should be avoided, and even though every purchase is a risk there are few popular vintage brands that are generally good.

You can find detailed descriptions of hundreds of new and vintage razors in our Straight Razor Database (SRDB).

Good luck, and keep us updated on your progress.

Best regards,
Robin