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Hey guys and gals, this is my firsts post so I just wanted to say hello to everyone and thankyou for letting me get in on this wonderful website of shaving. Real quick I am a married Philadelphia fireman, I have a 1 year old Daughter. I have been shaving with a Merkur 180 now for awhile and I am ready to make the leap to the big show. I have been in contact with a gent on ebay who has some nice vintage straights and I was wondering what you all thought. Any info would be great. Thank-you.
Hello and welcome to SRP!
Wade & Butchers are considered very good razors, and that one looks like it's in decent shape. The thing that bothers me the most about it is that the blade appears narrower at the heel (toward the scales) than at the toe, and in fact it looks like the honing has gotten awfully close to the stabilizer. This could make future honing more difficult.
The commonest new-razor advice we give to new users here is to be sure you're buying a shave-ready razor. Ebay sellers and even brick-and-mortar merchants often don't understand what this means. Factory-sharp on a brand new blade does not guarantee shave readiness. Passing various sharpness tests, if you don't have decent experience using them yourself, doesn't guarantee shave readiness. The best guarantee of shave readiness is to buy from a vendor who knows what it is and knows how to hone for it.
All that said, I'd recommend looking at the razors available on this site's own Classifieds. I've bought five or six that way, each time from someone I didn't know but because they were here, I trusted that I would receive a shave-ready blade--and each time, I did.
We often steer people to whippeddog.com, whose owner specializes in inexpensive shave-ready blades for new straight users. They're not pretty but they are properly sharp. He also sells an inexpensive strop, which is also better to start on than a full-blown nice strop--because there's a pretty good chance you'll nick or slice the leather as you learn this new movement. The strop is an essential piece of equipment; it makes no sense to have a straight without a strop.
Check out the info in the Helpful Links box on the SRP landing page--there's a lot of good background there as you pursue this fantastic choice. Also check in the Community drop-down menu, which appears after you've clicked any link from the landing page. At the bottom is a link to Find Local Help--with any luck, there will be an experienced user fairly close to you who can help you get started. Here's the local help link to save you the navigation.
Best wishes to you!
I concur with only buying from a reliable source and not eBay. The problem with eBay is that the sellers are not experienced with sharpening to a "shave ready" condition. Secondly, watch out for warped blades which only an experienced sharpener can identify. I've wasted money on 2 warped blades already... no more!
Congrats on deciding to move toward what I consider the best facet of wet-shaving - the straight lol! I have nothing to add to roughkype's post other than that : ). It's great advice.
Whatever you decide - jump in and welcome.
Welcome! I agree, you never know what you are going to get. If you look in the classified section of this website you may find something just as fancy. They have people here that have thousands upon thousands of razors and will likely make you a good deal. I have only seen people here going out of there way to help. I am actually in a battle with someone that loaned me a strop and it got lost...they still refuse to let me give them money for it. My point, i would trust people here way over anyone you don't know on ebay ;)
Welcome to the forum McBride and thank you for serving as a Firefighter. You have gotten some good advice. I would suggest you keep an eye on the classifieds here as there are quite a few members who put very nice shave ready razors
up at very fair prices. To give yourself a real chance at making a fair decision about straight shaving you must have a shave
ready razor.
Let us know how it goes and be careful out there on the job.