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Hello everyone!
I'm very new to straight razor shaving, I just received a prehoned and stropped Bengall vintage razor as a gift from a Badger and Blade member. I am very eager to learn, but as of now I know next to nothing. I am currently looking for a strop and hone (or place to have the razor honed).
Any recommendations on how to get started?
Thanks so much. I've heard great things about this forum from B&B and I look forward to contributing one day. Thanks again.
Tim
Hi Tim, welcome to SRP. :)
You'll find a few fellow B&B'ers over here, and everyone else is a really friendly and helpful bunch.
Here's a few things to get you started.
Lynn (adjustme69) is the founder of the forum and possibly the best known honemeister on here. For info about honing you can either PM him here, or go through Classicshaving at this link: http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/578215.htm . I'm not sure if Classicshaving take a % or not.
There are several other folks on here who do honing, though Joe Chandler is the only one whom I can remember off the top of my head!
Strops. Tony Miller is very well regarded on here, and lots of us have his strops and swear by them. You can find his shop here: http://shop.thewellshavedgentleman.com/
For info, a good buy is Lynn's DVD, details here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=7412
Also, here's the 'Critical Info for Newbies' thread which you may have seen already: http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=6759
Any questions just ask away. :)
Great info Iwan. I will add that Tim should also look into Tony's pasted paddle strops that will add to the level of sharpness achieved by honing. That can wait as Norton is good enough to get you a shaving edge, but more sharpness=more comfort.
I cannot speak highly enough of Tony's strops, they are just great. I have his 4 side paddle with the 1, .5 and .25 micron diamond grit pastses and the edge it puts on my razors is just amazing.
Great quality and I know this will last me my entire life.
Can't go wrong with Tony.
Oh no, now I'm thinking I might need to get a paddle strop after all... :(
I just bought the stabilized maple 1x4 4-footer for the bench hones that I'll be making with Tony's leather.
I can sort of understand using stabilized wood for applications where the wood will be in regular contact with water (and the finish may not remain intact) but why bother with the expense of stabilized wood for a bench strop?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Ed
He hones by the sink. :-)
Welcome Tim!
I started out with one of Tony's wide paddle (2 sided) strops before buying a hanging strop. It gave me the ease of a flat hard surface to learn stropping on as well as a 0.5 micron pasted side for finishing and touch ups.
I'll move on to a hanging strop for the convenience of more length and fewer strokes at some point but haven't regretted starting with a paddle.
Of course even with this one I managed to mess up the edge on my first homemeistered razor with poor stropping technique but I guess that's pretty typical for beginners.
Ed, that's just me being anal about even the air moisture.