A few Newbie questions...

My new Razor and strop just arrived today and I am really stoked about it. I do have a few questions that I am hoping to get answered before I dive into my first SR shave.

1. The 3 inch strop I have has a canvas strop and a Leather strop on it. What is the canvas for and what situation calls for canvas stropping over leather?

2. The leather strop has 2 sides of leather, one smoother side that has the SRD logo, and one rougher side, what side am I suppose to use?

3. when stropping do you always have the blade trailing the direction you are traveling? Is the blade to be held perfectly flat or at a slight angle?

4. Other than canned shaving cream, I don't have any good lather, is there a quick recipe for a homeade lather that works untill I can order some?

Sofar everyone on this site has been extremely helpful and kind and I appreciate ya'll taking time out of your day to answer these questions for myself and the other rookies who are interested in this.

Eric

My serious advice is that you need to add one more day to your shave schedule and stop and read the entire "Beginners section" in the Wiki which has a "First Shave Section" In this forum sub-section "Beginners" there are 12 months of "Beginners Tips" that can be found very easy by hitting the "Search" tab above and the hitting the "Tag Search" and typing in "Beginners Tips" I know this works because I tagged them each month to be easy to find after I wrote them...

In the stropping forum if you search out Canvas/Linen/Webbing you will find literally 100's of threads about way more than you ever wanted to know about the other part of the strop you bought...

The outside of the leather in the one you use... and IIRC it was last months "Beginners tips" that I dedicated to stropping and only stropping...

Now your question about the soap, basically you are going to have problems without a true shave soap and brush... BUT most every Walmart, CVS, Walgreen's, and many super markets now carry VDH soap sets with soap and a brush for under $10.. That is a great starter and a perfect travel set for later.. Williams can also be found rather easily

Now don't take this the wrong way but YOU need to do your part here too, your chances of making a straight razor shave a passion and a fun thing every morning means you have to take the time to read and figure out how to use this fantastic resource called SRP


Enjoy

Basically just a HUGE +1 to what Glen said. Do your research before you even touch that razor to a strop let alone your face! There is a huge wealth of info here on SRP and many people more than willing to help you get a good start. Do your research and ask questions and it'll make for a more pleasurable first shave :)

Gotta second what Glen has suggested.

Excellent work Glen,:tu

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Originally Posted by Rightwinger

My new Razor and strop just arrived today and I am really stoked about it. I do have a few questions that I am hoping to get answered before I dive into my first SR shave.

1. The 3 inch strop I have has a canvas strop and a Leather strop on it. What is the canvas for and what situation calls for canvas stropping over leather?

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Most people use the canvas before the leather. 20 on the canvas, 50 on the leather, or something near that.

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2. The leather strop has 2 sides of leather, one smoother side that has the SRD logo, and one rougher side, what side am I suppose to use?

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Smooth side.

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3. when stropping do you always have the blade trailing the direction you are traveling? Is the blade to be held perfectly flat or at a slight angle?

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Blade always trails the spine when stropping. You should also lift the edge off before the end of the stroke. Instead of think of a stroke > stop > flip > stroke > stop > flip, try to think of the stroke as beginning and ending with only the spine on the strop and the edge pointing up, and you lay the edge down as you start the stroke and pick it up before the stroke is over.

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4. Other than canned shaving cream, I don't have any good lather, is there a quick recipe for a homeade lather that works untill I can order some?

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I think any glycerin based soap will work better than the canned stuff. KissMyFace has a nice shaving soap that is available in most natural food stores.