Thread: Hello from Denmark, and advice about brushes and strops.

Hi

I just ordered my first straight razor yesteday, and i thought i better drop a post in here after lurking around for a couple of weeks. I'm 26 years old and i've always been shaving with the usual gillette stuff, but i've never enjoyed shaving at all which resulted in me only shaving once a week and the missus complaining about the stubble. So i took a chance and ordered a straight razor from the invisible edge, a NOS from a swedish producer called Klas Tornblom.

Klas Tornblom razors (This one with)

And now i'm just waiting for it to arrive, very excited But i need to find a strop and a brush aswell, but have some problems with finding a strop especially. I don't want to overspend on my first strop, because i'll probably end up hurting it But alot of the cheap strops i see recommended in here seems to be from american shops, which might end up being to expensive with danish taxes and customs. So any recommendations for strops from european shops?

Hello there, and welcome to Straight Razor Place!

Good to see another scandinavina here! Velkommen!

Grats on your Törnblom razor, it is a well known producer and will serve you well I am sure. I'm sorry, I don't have any recommendations for cheap strops in Europe, I did get mine from the US. The illinois strops are good value for money I hear, although I do not own one of those myself. For brushes, there is always connaughtshaving, they are UK based and ship quickly. I prefer boar brushes myself, and omega is a great brand for entry level brushes.

Hi, best regards, and welcome to Straight Razor Place.
Expect you will get some other suggestions before long, but figured I would throw in my two cents. Have met a lot of shavers that messed up that first strop. Can be a little awkward at first. A plain, unfinished belt will work to get started. It should be given a couple of coats of linseed or neatsfoot oil. If you have any shops that supply bridle equipment for horses, they can probably help. In the US and in UK there are Tandy shops available that sell leather strapping, rings and rivets to make your own. If all else fails, there are several suppliers on ebay UK. I prefer 2-1/2" width, but there are lots of different preferences. Starting with something inexpensive will help give you an idea of what will work best for you.
Hope I at least gave a couple of ideas to help.
Again, welcome to SRP

Hi, and welcome to SRP.
There are a few options available to us up here as well

The one I would recommend is the practice strop from Scrupleworks.com up here in Norway.
He makes a lot of different quality strops that are perhaps a tad pricey for a beginner, but the practice strop he makes will serve you just fine and is not expensive at all.

Hello and welcome to the forum. I guess a cheap strop for learning might be a good idea. I did not go that route but bought a 3 inch, about 230mm, English bridle leather strop to start with. I have used it constantly for a year now and repaired the minor damage I have done to it myself, but you never know if you can get away with that. I went with a 3 inch as that eliminated having to learn how to do an X stroke while stropping. Another route to go might be to make one up yourself if you can get the leather from a horse tack shop. There are a few threads on here about doing that. That new razor looks good. Have fun and enjoy yourself.

Bob

Thanks for all the good suggestions, i will take a look at them. Is there any risk of damaging the razor when stropping on cheaper strops, compared to higher quality strops? Or is the only risk bad stropping technique?

It depends on how you define cheaper strops. As long as the strop is supple and smooth and defect free it will do the job just fine.

I ended up buying a cheap strop from theinvisibleedge.co.uk and a simpson berkeley, all of which arrived today. So i got in my first shave today.

Washed my face, and build a lather from Mitchell's Wool Fat soap (still need to work alot on my lather), and then shaved from sideburn to jawline on both sides. For the left hand side i switched to my left hand, which seemed better than when i did the right hand side with the right hand. Then i did some of the upper lip aswell which went well to. I finished with my usual gillette. No nicks or cuts and no irritation yet

Hello and welcome. From an european shop you could get the following that is not too expensive:
Hängeriemen | DICTUM GmbH - Mehr als Werkzeug
Otherwise you could contact an italian member of this forum who makes good and reasonably priced strops, I got a simple one for 30 euro:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/paciccio.html