Thread: New setup, vintage blades; decent, for starting?

Hey, I just started up with all the straight razor shaving business. I have thick, extremely fast growing facial hair, and frequently clog razors to the point of uselessness. I've tried everything except this!
So:
Top razor is from the case; bottom razor is a Friedrich Emde razor. It had a pretty bad crack, I used a grinder in my garage to make a sort of notch for it from where the crack started. It's a little shorter now, but it should have worked for stopping it from cracking in half.

I picked up this strop:
Barber Supplies - Barbershop Equipment - Illinois Razor Strop
And this soap:
Barber Supplies - Barbershop Equipment - Surrey Tonsorial Cake Soap
And this brush:
Barber Supplies - Barbershop Equipment - Marvy Omega #5 Shaving Brush with Stand
And a neat little ceramic cup with a picture on it.

They also have Fromm razors and C-mon razors, but I figured I'd be just as well off getting some vintage razors sharpened. A German one and a US one seemed like a pretty good bet.

So what I want to know is... is my setup missing anything?
What is the canvas side of the strop for? Do I need to put anything on the strop? It seemed to do OK on the Torrey blade.
Where should I get them honed? I don't have anything locally.
The Torrey one is OK, and shaved better than my old razors, but still prickled a little. The German one is unusable in it's current state.
The shave soap was cheap, and the brush wasn't badger... but I really, really like it.

I read over the newbie shaving guide, and a lot of stuff in the wiki for getting started. Eventually I want to learn to hone, but that's down the road. Even with the only kind of sharp blade, it's a better shave than anything I've ever had. And it hurt less and did no damage to my face, even with the prickles. I shaved a cheek ATG without any pain, or razorburn. It's great!

So... sharpening is the first order of business.


EDIT:
Oh yeah; is there an easy way to tell if a blade is sharp? I know that's vague, but I have no basis for comparison, I don't know if the decent blade was prickly because I'm doing it wrong, or because it's a hair dull. I have VERY course hair. I used to shave with these double bladed razors with a strip that slid between the two blades to clean them... it took 4 or so to shave my face. they clogged and dulled that quickly.
So... Easy test to figure out if it needs honing?

looks like a decent little set up. I have the same brush with a plastic handle and it's not bad. I've since come in to better brushes but I still come back to that one. It will get a lot better after a month or two of use. The Boar hair will soften up with use and the brush will just get better with time. The VDH soap isn't a favorite of mine but it works. My current puck is for the kids to play with. I whip up some lather for them and give them both a VDH porcupine bristle brush and let them go to town.
if you add a drop of Kiss My Face brand shave cream to it things get nice. Or check your local Rite Aid/ CVS for cream by the Real Shave Co. It's stellar stuff and can be had for $6 a tube and that tube will last a while, especially if you mix a small amount with the soap.
And the Illinois is a fine strop.
I can't speak of the German razor but I have a Torrey and it's a fine shaver.
Seems like a nice set up to get started with.

For the honing, where do you live? Your best bet is to send them out unless a member who hones lives nearby. There are a number of folks advertising in the classifieds who hone for reasonable prices as well as few fellows who are looking to improve their skills and will hone your razors for no more than the cost of shipping.
There are tests that can be done to determine sharpness but they're pretty subjective and a razor can pass them without being "Shave Ready". The best way to determine whether or not they are sharp is to get them honed by someone who knows how to hone razors. A well honed razor will go 3-6 months without needing time on the stones if you don't roll the edge while stropping. Once you get a shave from a razor that has been sharpened by someone who knows what they're doing that can be your bench mark for future tests.

Appleton, Wisconsin. Apparently no one sharpens razors around here professionally, but that barber supply place I linked from, literally down the street. Just a warehouse, too, no real retail front, but the guy was happy to help me in person. It was pretty cool.

How thick a lather should I be getting? The lather I had was closer to what a lather from soap generally looks like, what you describe makes it sound like you got lather akin to foam from a foaming can or something.
I kind of like the stiff bristles; feels pretty good on my face. Heh.
I'll have to poke over to the classifieds for some honing, unless someone pops up in here from appleton who would like to help me out. Which seems... unlikely.

EDIT:
Hey, I went and read about how to make lather on the wiki, I see my errors. I also noticed while I was doing it that the boar brush smelled a lot like rotting ocean death. Is that uh... normal? Because it's pretty repulsive.

Nice setup, I also have that brush and it works great! The Torrey razor should be very nice.

Use the member map feature under community to maybe find some honing help. There's a bunch of us in MN and W WI

Welcome to SRP

Originally Posted by Punkonjunk

So... Easy test to figure out if it needs honing?

Yes, that is extremely easy to figure out - it needs honing, starting from restoration of the edge, I can see the chips and rust on the edge from your picture. I'm talking about the Torrey, the other one I wouldn't touch.

You probably want to head to the Classifieds button on the menu and look under the member services section - there are plenty of good guys who can hone your razor.

You do not need to put anything on the strop. You use it for stropping between shaves, first on the canvas side, then on the leather. You can start with say 30 round trip laps on each, and later once you're pretty good at this you can do more, or less and see if you find any difference and different numbers work for you.

As far as the brush smell, I don't know about dead animal, mine usually smell to wet animal when new. It goes away as you use it more, but it can take a while, even months. You can shampoo it, that may help a bit, remember it's just animal hair, so doing what you do to yours to keep it nice usually works reasonably well for theirs.

Wouldn't touch as in, it's clearly in too bad of shape, or doesn't look like it's in need of work?
The torrey has some nasty spots on it, to be sure, but the edge seemed pretty nice. Shaved well, just prickled or dragged a bit... no nicks, or anything, though. First time! I still feel like maybe it dragged more than it should have.

I'm thinking gugi means he wouldn't touch it to his face without a good honing job on it.
As to your question:How thick a lather should I be getting? The lather I had was closer to what a lather from soap generally looks like, what you describe makes it sound like you got lather akin to foam from a foaming can or something.

Think "Meringue" The soap you have won't get too thick unless you really load up the brush but it will get to the point where it looks similar to meringue but will move a little easier. You should be able to take a pinch of lather between your thumb and forefinger and slowly pull them apart. The lather shouldn't break in the middle until they're between 3/4" and 1" apart for great lather. With the VDH I can usually get 1/2" to 3/4" before a break.

The Torrey needs sharpening and work but looks good. I'm thinking gugi means wouldn't touch the second one, point. You've done some pretty drastic work there and personally, I'd be worried about it breaking during use. Those little known Solingens can be picked up in much better condition for not much money and are generally good shavers, find another would be my advice.

The second one, I mean I'd simply throw it in the trash, at most save the scales. It's missing 1/3 of the blade and in a bad way, i.e. at the heel/stabilizer end. Which means it acts in a very very different way than a normal straight razor. The new weird ergonomics makes it plain dangerous for me. I mean I'm not saying one can not shave with it, I'm saying one should not want to and the couple of dollars it may be worth is certainly not enough reason to try.

As far as the first one, I already wrote, the edge is trashed, that much is clear from the photo. Again, different people have different tolerance to pain, but shaving with that edge is not representative at all of shaving with a properly honed straight razor. In fact a cartridge razor would feel better after months of daily use.

Finally got my razor back! Thanks to mainaman, I had a pretty solid shave. Information you guys shared and I gleaned from the wiki got me great success, and like... 2 nicks.
Putting on aftershave is a whole new world of wince-inducing pain, but I got like, easily the closest shave of my life. It was also faster than shaving with disposables... and that's not to imply I was rushed, either. It's really nice to not spend half the time cleaning hair out from between blades.