Help Please

[niko]

Hello i am new to this website and from the look its very active and friendly.

I bought a new dovo russian leather strop and the paste yellow and white.
Do i use the leather conditioner right away on it or do i wait and then use it after a few times and the linen side also.

What comes first the leather stroping or using the linen.


Thanks for your time.

[JimmyHAD]

Welcome to SRP. If it was me I would not use any paste to begin with. Here is an excerpt from a 1961 barber manual on honing and stropping. You'll find the stropping tutorial in the last couple of pages and it is very good IME. Particularly the suggestion to practice flipping the razor on the strop before actually doing the stropping motion. Also practicing flipping the razor between the tip of the thumb and the forefinger without bending the wrist.

Here is the SRP Wiki Beginner's Guide. Pay particular attention to SRP founder Lynn Abram's post on beginning shaving with a straight here. Keep asking questions when you have them. Somone will be around who can help out.

[Joed]

Welcome to SRP!
+1 on Jimmy. You can't go wrong with his advise. No pastes on the strops until you know what you are doing with stropping and shaving.

Is your razor shave ready? What is the brand (stamped on the shank of the blade near the pivot?

Good luck!

[TheBaron]

+2

I'd also suggest reading JimmyHAD's signature, good information in there.

[niko]

Welcome to SRP!
+1 on Jimmy. You can't go wrong with his advise. No pastes on the strops until you know what you are doing with stropping and shaving.

Is your razor shave ready? What is the brand (stamped on the shank of the blade near the pivot?

Good luck!

Thanks for your advice everyone and i will be active on here i will learn how to strop then will use paste.Whats the best way to know if your blade is shave ready?Thanks for your time.
My razor is a filarmonica doble temple 13 jose monserrat pou.

[JimmyHAD]

Thanks for your advice everyone and i will be active on here i will learn how to strop then will use paste.Whats the best way to know if your blade is shave ready?Thanks for your time.
My razor is a filarmonica doble temple 13 jose monserrat pou.

Well you are starting out with as good a razor as can be had. If it is shave ready. The way to find out is to give it a try. If you read Lynn's post on beginning your first shaves linked earlier in this thread just follow that and see how it shaves for you. If you find it isn't sharp enough you may need to send it out. Look to your preparation and skin stretching when shaving.

[niko]

Well you are starting out with as good a razor as can be had. If it is shave ready. The way to find out is to give it a try. If you read Lynn's post on beginning your first shaves linked earlier in this thread just follow that and see how it shaves for you. If you find it isn't sharp enough you may need to send it out. Look to your preparation and skin stretching when shaving.

thank you very much,i used the leather strop starting with the linen then the leather then i applied the art of shaving soap and then shaved,everything you sent me came in handy and will all around help me in getting good with the straight edge.The blade was very sharp and cut the hairs of with ease.

[Magus]

Hi Niko,
The yellow one is leather conditioner. If your strop is new, you dont really need it. Instead before each use its safe to apply natural palm/elbow grease to the strop. Doing so is one of the methods of easy conditioning, it will also increase drag a bit when stropping.
As far as I know new Dovo two-sided strops come with white paste already applied on the linen/canvas side. Before shaving, when you strop use linen side first, then follow up with leather side. After shaving, CLEAN the blade and strop a bit only on the leather side to remove excess moisture at the very edge of the blade.
Good luck!