Thread: Looking for first SR

Hi to all. Looking to buy my first straight razor and and have a question.
First, looking at pictures of some vintage razors I notice that the edge on some were not straight across the whole blade, but had a slight curve to it(like a knife). Was it just the angle of the photo, or were they made this way?

Some are made that way, and I hear they are desirable and good shaving blades - although I do not speak from experience.

A thing you don't want is the opposite of that, a frowning blade; not a razor has been manufactured like that, and it's the product of bad honing and I understand the shaves are simply miserable.

There's a ton of info on the wiki about this and all aspects of shaving and using razors, you should give it a look.

If you are looking for your very first and won't consider a new one from a reputable dealer, consider the classifieds here or the razors at whippeddog.com.


And welcome to SRP.

Originally Posted by Snake

Some are made that way, and I hear they are desirable and good shaving blades - although I do not speak from experience.

A thing you don't want is the opposite of that, a frowning blade; not a razor has been manufactured like that, and it's the product of bad honing and I understand the shaves are simply miserable.

There's a ton of info on the wiki about this and all aspects of shaving and using razors, you should give it a look.

If you are looking for your very first and won't consider a new one from a reputable dealer, consider the classifieds here or the razors at whippeddog.com.


And welcome to SRP.

+1 to that. And welcome to SRP!

Thanks for the replies guys, That is the one I was asking about, On Whippeddog site. It was a diamondine or something like that.

The only one I see on whippeddog that fits your description is a victory. And in that one's case it looks to me like he (Ryan?) had to do a lot of repair work on that one. May have been in pretty rough shape when he got it. Pretty confident he wouldn't put it up there if he wasn't confident it'd be a good shaver.

You could always e-mail him and ask about it. I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

I don't think stropping smiling blades is much harder than stropping perfectly straight blades. No matter the type edge, in my opinion, we should vary our stropping pattern. Strop up and down, diagonally in Xs, strop with the tip touching going up and down and slowly move in stropping until the heel is touching during the strokes.

Vary and change and adjust your stropping pattern during every strop session. Otherwise, you will end up with a razor that is sharp here and dull there.

The same variance is needed for straight edges and smiling edges. And, that is why I don't think it is much more difficult keeping smiling edges well stropped.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I don't think stropping smiling blades is much harder than stropping perfectly straight blades. No matter the type edge, in my opinion, we should vary our stropping pattern. Strop up and down, diagonally in Xs, strop with the tip touching going up and down and slowly move in stropping until the heel is touching during the strokes.

Vary and change and adjust your stropping pattern during every strop session. Otherwise, you will end up with a razor that is sharp here and dull there.

The same variance is needed for straight edges and smiling edges. And, that is why I don't think it is much more difficult keeping smiling edges well stropped.

Very well put, Larry. Big +1 from me here!

i agree with looking in the classifieds if you are thinking of a used razor, i have bought quite a few blades form the guys here and have never had anything to complain about, plus you can be pretty sure that it going to be a good deal and honest ad, or from any of the sponsors with ads here. just my .02

-dan-