I'm new. Last time I shaved with a straight razor was about 50 years ago at my grandfathers home. Now that I have nothing better to do, I was planing to see if I could still do it without having to go to the hospital. I have not found a razor yet. I have bid on a few on eBay, but I always get over bid in the last few seconds.

I hate to admit it, but about ¾ of why I want to do this is the joy I get from sharpening. I have a series of Japanese water stores from 1000 to 12,000 (with Nagura stone). I pride my self on how sharp my tools, plane irons, and knifes are. I have some Artisan and Dojo Blue steel knifes that I feel are some of the sharpest knifes you will ever find. But I want to make the “sharpest sharp” I can possibly make. I figure I'll make a balsa strop, and buy a good felt and leather strop. I've watched most of the how to vids and read most of the posts on honeing and stropping

To start, I THINK I'll get one of the “Big Boy” strops off eBay and order a STRAIGHT RAZOR DESIGNS custom strop. I see these are available in a number of different leathers, and I can find no information on the different leathers and why I should select one over the other. Suggestions are welcome.

This is all leading up to a question. I'm getting the cheaper strop to practice on so I don't mess up the good one. I know these cheapy razors that are sold on eBay are junk, BUT I was wondering if they would be worth getting to practice my honing and stropping so I don't ruin a good razor. So does anyone have experience if one of these cheapys can take an edge if correctly sharpened?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Craig