Thread: equipment advice

Hi,
I know similar questions have been answered in other threads, but it seems to me that the gear you need depends largely on how deep you wanna get into the straight razor universe.

I own a nice Thiers Issard 6/8 Red stamina from classic shaving. I pretty much blunted it through bad stropping (I was putting too much pressure I think, then I used green strop paste on my nice Dovo leather strop and that screwed that up).

Anyway, from reading what I've read, it seems that I could hone the blade back into shape, and I would rather do it myself because I live in Finland, and sending my razor to and from the US is a pain.

So, what I gather is I need a hone, the one that seems appropriate is the Norton 4/8k, and a new strop, perhaps one of the 4 sided ones from Tony.

Is that all I need to get the blade up to scratch again?

I know classic shaving sell diamond paste for the hones, do I need that?

Basically I want the minimum amount of equipment, for example only one hone one strop etc, to cover all my basic needs, as I dont intend taking this up professionally.

If you could suggest a sort of pack of what I need (excluding brush and razor) i would really appreciate it.

Thanks a lot for your remarkable patience in answering all these naive questions, I never dreamed that straight razor shaving would be soooo complex.

Gavin.

I did the exact same thing with a brand new shave ready Revisor. Check out the Honing and Stropping threads. You will find most of your answers there and also the help files. While you are waiting for answers to your thread
And these guys will help you out!!

Gavin,

I started out with an 8000 Japanese waterstone, plus a hanging strop and 4-sided pasted strop with 3 micron, 1 micron .5 micron and .25 micron, both strops from Tony. This was all I needed. If you get a Norton, you'll need to check with Tony about which pastes to use after the Norton.

For example, I've since gotten a Belgian Coticule from www.theperfectedge.com and now I only use the .5 and .25 after the coticule.

After an evening with these, all my razors 'pop' arm hairs.

Tom

so in that case, I could start with the belgian whetstone, a 4 sided pasted strop, and a hanging strop? Would that be sufficient?

just for the sake of a dissenting, if less experienced, opinion, i'd like to say that, as i understand it and hope to do myself, the only absolutely necessary items for maintenance are a hanging strop with no sharpening pastes and a good hone (mine is a norton 4k/8k).

Check this out and see what you think?

I only started using a stright recently, so for me, the pasted strop puts the needed sharpness on the razor. I'm sure the more experienced honers on the list can get a great edge with just the hone, but for those of us starting out, the pasted strop does what we can't do with just a hone.

I have a 100x microscope (from Radio Shack) that I use to check to edge. It seems to me that using the pasted strop puts a polish on the edge that I'm not getting with the coticule.

Tom

Also, if you are trying to restore a dull razor, you'll probably need a coarser hone to reset the edge. A coticule, by itself, won't do it, ro at least, won't do it before your arm falls off.

you can most likely save that strop. I believe you can remove any trace of the pastes with certain cleansers. I can't recall what they are, but I'm sure Tony would know. I think he's on vacation, but if you can wait a week or so, you can buy some seconds strops from him for pastes (if desired) and keep your other strop for regular use. Just a thought.

While I've been using a straight for years, the use of pastes has helped to take my edge from good to very smooth. I'm sure technique and time will allow me to get the same edge from a norton4/8, but the pastes help in the mean time.

Matt

For the minimum equipment you can just get a hone and a 4-sided paddle strop. (you don't need a separate hanging strop - you can use one side of the paddle strop, instead)

The hone can be either either a norton or a belgian coticule.

On the 4-sided paddle strop, put paste on three sides and leave one side in red latigo for final stropping. Tony can recommend the best combination of the three pastes.

Tom