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I see many cheap razors and strops for sale that are listed in the bad razor section of the wiki, like Zeepk. Would these be OK for using to practice stropping and honing? I'd rather not ruin a good blade or strop because I don't really know what I am doing.
I don't think I would pick up one of those to practice with simply because if the steel is bad quality, then it might not hone up right even for someone with lots of experience. You might look into picking up a Gold Dollar from Mr.Parko on ebay. They can be had cheap, and seem to be good quality steel.
There should also be some up for sale on ebay from a member on here soon, if you'd rather not wait for it to come from China.
I don't think they are any good for practicing honing since they won't hold an edge even if honed by one of the masters.
However, it might not be a horrible idea to get the set for practice stropping, particularly if you want to get a nice real strop right away. I haven't done much damage to my practice strop (the only one I have), but there are still a few good nicks in it.
In order to really know if your honing and stropping technique is any good, you need to be able to determine the results of your honing and stropping by seeing how they affect the edge of a razor. This cannot be done if you select a razor-shaped object that will not take an edge in the first place.
A zeepk or the like can show you certain things, like how to hold the razor, how to flip in on a hone or strop, or... that's all I can think of, actually. But these same things can be done with a dull razor with minimal risk of damaging the razor, hone, or strop. As such, I see no need to use a razor-shaped object like a zeepk.
+1 on holli's post.
Someone commented on this not too long ago. For stropping, just about any razor will work, but to practice honing don't use a cheap razor that won't hold an edge. You'll spend a lot of time honing and not getting anywhere, and you won't know if it's the razor or you.
The poster said the experience can be extremely frustrating for a newbie. You hone and hone and can't figure out what you are doing wrong.
I suggest you do a little antique store shopping. I routinely find old British and German razors very reasonable priced, reasonable meaning 6 to 15 dollars. Maybe with some cosmetic issues but overall good serviceable razors. Snoop around a few shops, there seems to be about at least 1 in every town. And don't forget to always ask the dealer if he can do a little better on the price, I have never seen one that would not take at least 10% off.
Then you can practice and shave on a real McCoy.
Don't worry about ruining it. It's steel. With practice you'll
correct any mistakes and get it right.
Regards,
Marc
Welcome to SRP. A + 1 on avoiding junk razors. Whether antique stores, flea markets, or ebay look for full hollow ground blades that are even and full with little or no hone wear and intact scales. If you're going to get into honing your own this 1961 barber manual excerpt here is excellent and the stropping section in the last couple of pages has some great suggestions for starting off correctly. :gl: