Thread: new razor is in danger

Razors from SRD will all come shave ready. Lynn Abrams (SRP founder) also started SRD, and his honing is second to none! I got a Boker Edelweisse from him and the honing was absolutely first rate..!

In terms of the stropping, the key is to roll on the spine, never the edge, and to take it slow at the start. Dont try and speed up until you are comfortable with the stroke or you may roll the edge or nick your strop. Keep the razor flat on the strop at all times.

If you want to practice stropping, get a butter knife and practice stropping that. No chance of rolled edges or nicked strops with that..! Take it slow, and you'll get there.

Also, read the Wiki if you havent already and check out the youtube videos of stropping to see how its done.

Another invaluable bit of kit is Lynn's World of Straight Razor Shaving DVD. It covers everything from honing, to restoration and shaving and I still refer to mine all the time. Its a really great resource and shows how to get these techniques down!

In the case of a rolled edge, it really depends on how much you rolled it. If it was just a little lift the one time, you can correct it with stropping and you probably wont even notice it. But if you did a real number on it and it wont shave at all, then it'll need a honing.

Dont worry too much about the stropping, its not as hard as it looks! And a bit of practice with a butter knife will really help as well..!

Good luck!

As I understand it, all SRD razors come truly shave-ready, honed by real human beings, and talented real human beings to boot, such as Lynn (he may hone all of them actually - not sure to be honest).

For your first shave, you shouldn't need to do anything. No honing, no stropping, just straight to shaving. That should give you your benchmark of what it feels like when it's in tip-top shape.

My recommendation is practice your stropping with a butter knife before hand. Read everything you can, watch lots of videos, and build the muscle memory before you try it on the razor.

If you can avoid the *huge* mistakes (dinging it on a faucet, dropping it while open, pressing down so hard you roll it badly, etc), you should be ok. Lots and lots and lots of stropping can often times mend minor damage. This was the first thing I was recommended to do when I banged up my blade. It didn't work, as the damage was too much (and, turns out, may have had as much to do with what I was using to strop as it did with how I was stropping). But I've read plenty of success stories with people bringing back a minorly dulled blade with 100+ strokes, or stropping on newspaper, etc.

As an aside from my experience having to send away my only razor because I destroyed it, I would recommend that, if you can, you invest a little in a proper strop. A Filly goes for 20 bucks and SRD has some pretty cheap packages.

Christian, the razor will come shave ready from SRD. Learning to strop a razor is a bit intimidating but this 1961 barber manual excerpt from the SRP Wiki here can get you started correctly. The stropping instruction is in the last couple of pages. The honing part is very good too but you shouldn't need to worry about that for awhile if all goes well.

Pay attention to their instruction to hold the razor between the tips of the thumb and forefinger. Begin by learning to flip the razor before you move your arm in the stropping motion. If you feel more comfortable using a butter knife or some such to begin with until you get the motion down there is nothing wrong with that.

Go with the Stropping Wiki.

I found this part particularly useful: Razor stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Click on and listen to those sound clips, then watch the videos. The one of Seraphim is really a good visual; as he shows, the whole "no pressure whatsoever, lighter than air" doesn't work for everyone.. I personally use a small amount of pressure, just enough to see the blade SLIGHTLY deflecting the strop (it should ONLY deflect at the razors spine, you NEVER want deflection around the edge!)

Good luck!

Cheers,
Jeremy