Thread: newbie needs some advice

hey guys just joined and i need so me advice. Iam going to be recieving a kropp 5/8 from someone who will remain nameless i need some advice i was thinking of buying a naniwana 12k, or a spyderco u/f hone, for touch ups also thinking of going on ebay to buy some to restore some just wondering if i should buy the norton 4/k8k, or a norton 220/1000. As far as strops go can anyone recomend me a good starter strop, ive heard that allot of newbies nick or even cut there first strop. I live in canada but i have no idea where to get one or how much to spend iam also really confused about crominum oxcide, diamon paste, pasted strops, all that stuff can someone please help me on these issues.

thank you very much in advance

Justin

Justin Welcome to SRP.
We have a lot information available in our wiki section.
please take your time read them.
The best starter strop i think will be Kenrup strop it is cheap and as you mention it will not hurt if you cut etc. until you learn how to strop.
your questions about stones a little confusing.

if you want to just touch to the shave ready blade then answer will be barber hone.
if you are willing to learn restore etc razors from bay then you will need
1/4/8k doesn't matter Norton stones or Naniwa's.
About the pastes.
Most people uses pastes on paddle strop. Diamond pastes a little different then chor2 .
chr02 a lot slow cutter compare to diamonds. there is 025.05.01 diamond paste grits available
but only chro2 has 1 grit.
you will need to pay attention when you buy chro2 try to buy people or vendors etc who is dealing with straight razors.
hope this helps.gl

Welcome to SRP. Since you are just getting started, one of the best pieces of advice to give you is, read the Wiki section. You may want to hold off on purchasing honing stones for awhile because the variables involved in just learning to shave with your razor and maintaining the edge through proper stropping technique will take some time. Be patient and don't try to learn everything at one time, it will only end in frustration. As for a starter strop, you could try looking here in the classifieds for one, or click on one of the advertisers of this forum, most of them have a good selection of strops and I am sure you could find something within your budget. There are even some threads here for a DIY strops made out of old blue jeans. Just take your time and enjoy your new hobby. Best of luck and keep us posted.

My advice would be, if you haven't honed before, just get the 12K for touch ups for now and skip the heavy duty honing. When your blade needs more than you can do with that one, send it out. When you do try honing yourself, pick up a cheap eBay razor to practice on. I'd worry more about ruining the blady by improper honing than nicking the strop. As for a starter strop, SRD has replacement leathers for $25 that might serve the purpose. Avoid the cheap eBay stops with the pinkish color. The price might be tempting but they're pretty bad. As for the pastes, the wikis are probably the best place to start. Good luck.

If you have a good clean leather belt with an even surface and no stitches, use that as a strop. You'll probably nick it but the belt was already there so you haven't lost any money.

You can also get a $13 strop from whippeddog.com. It has little draw and I can't say I love it, but I did nick mine a whole lot and I'm glad I only spent $13 on it.

I personally wouldn't bother with pastes right now. Get into them later if you desire, but a razor and strop is all you need for now.

Since you have never shaved with a straight razor, there is no point in buying anything for maintenance of your razor yet. Not everyone ends up liking this, so you might as well keep your initial exploratory investment to a minimum. That is, a razor and a strop. That's all you need. Now, if you plan on continuing with wetshaving, regardless if it's with a straight, DE/safety razor, or even cartridge, then you should also invest in at least a decent brush and shaving soap as well.

If you find that you like using straights and decide you want to stick with it, then at that point you should start looking into pasted strops and the variety of hone options.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Since you have never shaved with a straight razor, there is no point in buying anything for maintenance of your razor yet. Not everyone ends up liking this, so you might as well keep your initial exploratory investment to a minimum. That is, a razor and a strop. That's all you need.

+1. Go with the Keep It Simple approach until you are sure this is for you, as not everyone will continue down the SR path. As well, with the honing factor out of the way you can concentrate on developing your technique - both shaving and stropping.

Some thoughts on honing razors..
Aspiring honers are often not clear about what they are trying to accomplish when it comes to honing razors. In particular, they are often unsure of what they are doing and how often they should be doing it. Some questions you might want to answer for yourself before you start buying hones: this also means that if you are not sure of the answer here, you should shave more, and wait to buy hones until you can answer these questions.... I normally recommend 6 months of shaving before even thinking about honing

■ Are you an "end-user"; someone who only hones a previously shave-ready blade back to shave-ready?
■ Are you a hobbyist who is chasing the absolute finest edge that may be obtained where money is no object?
■ Are you a frugal shaver who is after the cheapest way to complete your morning shave?
■ Are you a collector who needs to take E-bay specials from butt-ugly to shave-ready?
■ Are you a Honemiester; someone who gets paid to do all of these things for others?
■ Are you a razor restorer who needs to take damaged blades and bring them back to life and shave-readiness?

Each of these types of honer profiles have different requirements for the stones they will own. Theoretically, you can survive using the "one stone" approach, but each razor does have an optimum stone set - and more importantly, a technique for using the required hones. So generally, when somebody asks what stone or how to use what stone, the question to ask them is: "What are you trying to accomplish with the stone(S)?"

Refreshing vs. Starting from Scratch:

The types of hones required depends first and foremost on the type of honing you want to do.

Hones needed for refreshing a dull blade:

If the only task you want to perform is refreshing edges that have previously been established by a Honemiester (the process is often referred to as "touching up"), you need only get a fine grit finishing stone or a barber's hone for this. Either of these hones can be used to keep your razor(s) shave-ready for years.

Hones needed for restoring razors:

If you want to set a bevel, or have many different types of razors, you will need a full set of hones.


A bevel setting stone approximately 1k

DMT's 325 600 1200, Shapton 500, 1K and 2K, Coticules with slurry, Norton 1k, Naniwa 1k, King 1k

A sharpening stone approximately 4k

Norton 4K, Shapton 4K Naniwa 3k or 5k, Belgian Blue with slurry, Coticule with slurry, King 4k or 6kTam o Shanter, Dragon's Tongue

A polishing stone approximately 8k

Norton 8k, Shapton 8k, Naniwa 8k, Yellow Coticule, Water of Ayre

A finishing stone 10k and above (this is often subject to debate, however)

Shapton GS 16k-30k Shapton 15k Naniwa SS 10k-12k or Chosera 10k, Thuringens, Escher's, Many different natural Japanese finishers, Charlney Forest, Extra Fine Coticule, even some of the Arkansas stones...

You have several choices of how to accomplish this setup whether you use natural, man-made stone, or a Diamond-style stone, even honing films, but you are going to have to be able to cover those 4 grit ranges. There really is no true shortcut here if you expect to take razors acquired in need of restoration from butter knife dull (or damaged) to shaving sharp: You are going to end up needing these types of stones.


Pastes can be used after the hones and before the final stropping also these can be used for re-freshing the edge before going back to the hones for a touch-up... Some shavers even use pastes to "sharpen" the razor after the bevel set has been done...

A few different types

Dovo Pastes:

Green 5-8 micron
Red 3-5 micron
Black 1-3 micron
Dovo pastes are a much more mild cutter then say a diamond paste of the same micron size...

Diamond Paste:

From 3 micron down to actually .10 micron if you really wanted to...
These pastes are fast and many people use them incorrectly and manage too get a harsh edge, when used correctly and on the right razor steel these will most likely be the sharpest edge you will ever feel...

Diamond sprays:

Mostly found in 1.0 .50 and .25 micron watch the Carat content here, the higher the better (SRD has the best I have found and yes Lynn and Don are friends of mine, but heck it is still the best spray I have found)

Chromium Oxide Paste/Powder .50 micron (CrOx)
Probably the most universal of the pastes, get the most pure you can find, and no the bars at Woodcrafters are not pure...

Cerium Oxide Paste/Powder (approx).25 micron (CeOx)

Super fine, super soft, and super smooth, polishing media...The bar at Woodcrafter's is of unknown quality at this time

Other Pastes and Powders:

Iron Oxide
Aluminum Oxide

Both of these can also be used again be very careful when buying this stuff as the purity and the micron sizes are very important...

Carbon blacking/lamp black:

This might be the oldest of all the sharpening "pastes" when used on a leather strop it increases draw

Wood Ash:

Another old fashioned one very slightly abrasive when used on Linen strops and Leather strops..

White chalk:

Can be rubbed on a linen strop to increase the abrasive qualities

Newspaper:

The ink itself is a very fine abrasive and so is the paper..

Keep in mind that different razor steels like/dislike different pastes, and the different media that is used to apply it including Balsa, Linen, Leather (paddle) Leather (hanger) and Felt paddle and hanger all give different results on different razor steels....


The above are only my personal opinions and observations... There are no set rules in Razordom

hey guys, ive decided to take all of youre kind inputs and just stick to getting a strop for now to see if i really like it. I would like to let you all know i have been shaving with a diana shavette for two months with great results, but i will just get a strop for now thank you all for the great advice greatly appreciated.


god bless




Justin