Thread: Overwhelmed

You won't need hones or any pasted strops in the early days mate. Just the razor (Shave Ready), a strop, a brush and some soap of one sort or another. Any thing else is secondary for now. Later on you might have to send the razor out for a hone, or maybe by then you will have bought a set of hones and had someone show you how to do it. Check out youtube, there are some excellent vids on honing out there.


Mick

All I have been doing is watching videos as of late. Watching Lynn on youtube he has some good stuff.

Thanks I will go with what I ordered. The razor should be shave ready comes from SRD and I will send it back to get honed once it needs it. If I was to get a hone to do it myself what should I buy. Are the diamond hones that do not need to be lapped good.

On another subject what is the difference between soaps and creams are one better then the other.

Don't stress about hones or honing for a while yet (if at all).

Stropping, lathering and shaving!
Just focus on stropping, lathering and shaving, stropping, lathering and shaving.

These 3 things are probably the most important things to master. (Don't stress too much about these either - just take your time and enjoy the process)

Barber hone
If you like the idea of maintaining the razor yourself (if after a while the stropping isn't keeping it sharp enough)
- consider a barber hone (also called a razor hone).

These are relatively cheap and are small enough to keep in your bathroom - handy for a quick touch up when needed.

Classifieds - honing services
If it needs serious honing - send it out to someone (see the classifieds). Again, much cheaper than buying a bunch of hones (unless you're really keen).

Meanwhile - all you really need is to work on your stropping, lathering and shaving!

...and re-visit the Wiki for more tips and direction (stropping, lathering, shaving...)

All the best,
Michael.