New to forum !! :websites can be a painl!! Need Help

Hi everyone
About me: Im from the UK I've had some shaving experience with a double edged safety razor a murker, badger brush and alum block the whole pre and post shave routine but I'm hoping to go one step further.

Im in a wheelchair and have carers, now I'm getting a new carer that used to be a barber and was predominately straight shaving traditionally for all of his clients. However he did not know what tools he was working with it was just provided to him by the company. He recomended I go on here and ask around.

So basically I have some questions where I hope you can provide info or websites:

1. What is the best straight razor to get? budget from 70-150£ perhaps you know a good website which you could link to me? ..... I've heard from a friend Dovo is a good brand???....Questions like 6/8 7/8.... Satin/Polished ..... Round or Sqaure nosed?????

1.a. Do I need to buy razor oil?

2. What strop do I need? Some advertised were the big American brand

2.a. Do I need a strop paste? and do I need to buy a crappy strop for the paste as I know once you paste you can't undo...

3. What Hone do I need?

Hope to be hearing from you all soon,

Cheers Jay Sulivan

Hi there, welcome to the site. There's going to be a lot of differing replies to your questions, but here's my recommendation.

1. Consider buying a razor from the classifieds here. I have bought several from here and have loved all of them. Generally, if they are advertised as shave ready here, then they are indeed shave ready. You'd find some nice vintage razors here. I was lucky and my first razor was from Ebay and was a nice shave ready razor, but at times razors are sold on Ebay by people who know nothing about them, don't use them, and therefore can't really say if they are rubbish or not. Dovo are very popular, I have never used one of those.

1a. I use Eucalyptus oil on my razor. It's very light and works for me.

2. Some will say you will wreck your first strop learning how to strop. That has not been my experience, though I have nicked it. Funny thing is, I nicked it well after I could be considered a beginner; just got lazy I guess. I bought a 'cheapish' small Dovo strop, but now I also have a nice, huge, Neil Miller linen and English Bridle that I reserve for after honing stropping and Sunday 'bedroom shaving stand' shaves. The Dovo is very small but it does the job. I don't use paste, I don't have the need. Maybe one day I will, just to see if it's worth it. I have a plan to turn my Dovo strop in to a paste strop when I 'retire' it (maybe).

3. I'd recommend a Norton 4/8. I'd recommenced that you don't go lower in grit and stay away from bevel setting for now (if you're new to honing). However, I'd also recommend a Shapton 16k. In fact, if you ONLY got a Shapton 16k you could touch up the edge of your razor for a long time before you needed to go lower. Those are the only two hones I have and the only ones I've used. i see no need myself to purchase additional hones.

Hope this helps.

Carl

1. New or used? There are several UK-based retailers—I bought a shavette from Executive Shaving and they seem to mostly stock Dovos and Theirs Izzards. I bought A Dovo Flowing from Geo F Trumper—they have four or five Dovo razors that they sell with their own branding on the back of the blade. Since then, I've bought vintage on eBay; a lot of people here will tell you to avoid eBay but Tony Holmes (Taylors1000) always has a number of good vintage razors listed for auction and you can't go wrong buying from him.

1a. Not necessarily but you do need to care for your razor!

2. I bought a Dovo horsehide strop but I probably could have gone cheaper. I'd keep the cost low on the strop, with hindsight, and then splash out on something nice when you know you're not going to destroy it.

2a. No, not unless you want it. Pasted strops are used to refresh the edge or used at the end of a honing progression. But don't need to be used for either, either! You definitely don't want it for everyday stropping, though. Dare I say it...when my prize winnings arrive, I'm going to paste my old strop but I've not used paste before.

3. What do you want to do with it? What Carlmaloschneider said. If you want to refresh you razor to keep it shave ready, you'll want a high grit stone (possibly combined with a pasted strop, or not). If you want to re-hone your razor because you've let it get dull, you should be fine with something like a Norton 4000/8000 grit combo, as well. You can't actually get those over here but I got mine from Amazon while it had some money off! I hear that a King 3/6 does a similar job but I'm sure someone else will tell you more. If you want to hone right from the ground up, you'll need a 1000 grit stone to set your bevels. You can do this on a 4k but...yeah. I do it on a 4k but I'm starting to want to get myself a 1k now.

Alternatively, you don't buy any of those; maybe paste a strop to keep it going but sent it out to a pro when it starts to dull, instead. I hear Neil Miller is good.